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April 8th 2023
Published: May 26th 2023
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Dear All

Greetings from back in London! On a Sunday morning I arrived back at Heathrow Airport after what turned out to be an incredible two-week journey around the US state of Florida. I enjoyed it immensely, and arrived back with the darkest tan I think I’ve ever had – they don’t call it the sunshine state for nothing! I spent my last two nights on this journey in the amazing city of Miami, and will relate my time there in this final blog entry of my trip.

I believe last time I wrote, I had just dropped off my rental car at Fort Lauderdale Airport, and was actually sad to see it go. Out of three car hires I’ve done in my travels, it certainly was the swishest and the coolest! As I took my backpack out of the car, I realised it was just me, my backpack, and my two feet again, to take me on to my next destination.

Fortunately I’d done a bit of planning, as there is a rail link that goes down the east coast of this part of Florida, from Mangonia Park near West Palm Beach in the north, to Miami Airport in the south, via stops along the way including Fort Lauderdale Airport. From the airport terminal building, there was a shuttle bus that I caught to take me to the actual train station itself a few miles away. The bus didn’t quite coincide with the next train, and thus I ended up with a 45-minute wait for the next hourly train to Miami, but this was fine, and I enjoyed the chill time.

When the double-decker train did arrive, it was rather busy, but I got a seat close to a family whose northern English accent I instantly noticed – it was a Mum and her son from York, visiting her other son, his American wife and her brother who live in Florida. They seemed like a fascinating family, with one of the sons being a lumberjack, and the Mum being a part-time nanny, part-time dinner lady. They were very down to earth, and we had a good conversation about the quality of northern English people, and the observations being in Florida from an English perspective – it was good to share these observations. The Mum and one of the sons were off to Miami Airport to take
Art Deco ArchitectureArt Deco ArchitectureArt Deco Architecture

South Beach, Miami
the same British Airways flight I’d be taking two days later on the Saturday, and a little later whilst in downtown Miami, I amazingly saw this exact same flight taking off and flying out over the ocean back home!

I got off at a station called Metrorail Transfer, where funnily enough I transferred to a train on Miami’s light rail transit system called Metrorail. This was the green line, which joins the orange line for the rest of the single track journey through downtown Miami and to the southern suburbs. It was a good and very useful rail link for me, particularly as I was coming to rely on public transport again. My motel was located in really quite a nice southern suburb of Miami, not far from Miami University, and in between the very posh suburbs of Coral Gables and Coconut Grove. I didn’t realise when I booked it, but these are the swankiest neighbourhoods of the Miami suburbs, and I was glad to be staying there, as there are also some quite dodgy parts of the city as one can imagine. I checked into my motel on the main road, a 15-minute walk from the nearest Metrorail
MeMeMe

Miami Beach
station of University, which although short, became a bit of a drag in the Miami heat (ah, I’ve just realised where the Miami basketball team got its name from!!). My motel room was quiet, functional and comfortable, with a very strong and welcoming air-conditioning unit.

After a short rest in my new room, I took the Metrorail back into Miami Downtown again and enjoyed an amazing walk through the central streets of Miami, amongst its gleaming skyscrapers and trying hard not to let my jaw drop too far at the exuberance and opulence of the place. It felt a bit like Monaco on speed! Lush palm trees interspersed with the most staggeringly rich and powerful skyscrapers – some were office buildings, others were some seriously high-power blocks of flats. Will Smith was surely right, “hundred thousand dollar cars, everybody got ‘em”! What a city to see and to be seen in! Everyone was dressed swishly, and every other person was walking a large show dog. Smaller dogs were often pushed in small doggy push chairs, which actually seemed to be a trend I’d noticed all over Florida. Something else which really struck my eye there were a few small
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Fort Lauderdale Airport
pavement-riding robotic vehicles trundling along here and there – after asking a few people, apparently they are making postal deliveries – so modern! I also later had a meal in a diner which had a robot-waiter – the human waiters took the orders, while the robot-waiter delivered them! I’d never seen either of these robots anywhere else on my travels, Miami seems to be setting a trend here. In addition to its Miami's Metrorail, the Downtown area also has three loops on its "Metromover" light rail system - this was a very cute, single-car transport system that connected key points in Downtown Miami along an elevated light rail system. Although I didn't get to ride it, its little shape often rushed pass in the distance, straight out of a scene from a tropical version of Blade Runner, as I explored Miami's fascinating downtown area. This city was not only seriously happening, it was also notably futuristic.

My walk started at the Government Centre metro station, past the city’s famous 1925 Freedom Tower which came to equate with New York’s Statue of Liberty in its welcoming of refugees from the 1959 Cuban Revolution. From here it was a short walk
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Fort Lauderdale Airport
to nearby and happening Bayfront Park, filled with tourists from all over America enjoying the café, drinking, shopping and dining scene there. I took a spin on the 60-metre Skyviews Miami Observation Wheel for awesome views over the skyscraper-filled downtown, out to the islands of South Beach and around, and out into the Atlantic Ocean. After this, I took a jaw-dropping walk along the Miami Riverwalk for even more powerful architecture, and into the Brickell area of town and its seriously massive and palatial Brickell City Centre shopping mall. Finally, I hopped on the Metrorail back to my motel again, after a seriously good taste of a big, bold, dazzling and powerful city that seems designed not only to see, but also to be seen in. It had great vibes, and I very much enjoyed my start there.

My second day exploring Miami, which was in fact my final full day on this trip, was a much more genteel kind of day. I enjoyed a bit of a lie in after a few early starts, leaving at a luscious 9.30am to begin the day’s sightseeing. I had found on Google Maps a bus that goes to Miami Beach every
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Fort Lauderdale Airport
hour, leaving from a Metrorail station to the north of downtown called Civic Centre. I later found a bus running every 15 minutes from Downtown for my return journey, which was much more convenient.

I started my explorations of Miami’s hugely famous South Beach, or “SoBe” to those in the know, at its lovely South Pointe Park, and then headed north along perhaps what is one of the world’s most famous beaches, past many people sunning themselves and dipping in the sea, and beautifully-coloured lifeguard huts. The place is as cool as they say, with lots of happy and beautiful people, and amazing art deco architecture. After my walk along the beach, I did my Lonely Planet’s art deco walking tour, taking in such famous buildings as the Breakwater, Colony Hotel and the Tides apartment building. All the while I had Will Smith’s “Miami” song running through my head. It was rather hot, so after a really enjoyable exploration, I was glad to be getting the air-conditioned bus back to Downtown again.

There, I changed to another bus heading westwards towards Little Havana, for my final explorations of the day, and my time in Florida. Little Havana is a fascinating neighbourhood, that grew mainly after refugees from the 1959 Cuban Revolution began pouring into Miami and Florida to escape Castro and communism. They and their descendants have ever since had a highly influential role in the politics of not only Florida, but also US-Cuban relations as a whole, which many people believe to be instrumental in even today not allowing a normalised relationship between the two. It was only as recently as 2021 that visitors to the USA who have since then been to Cuba are now no longer eligible for visa-free ESTAs, and instead have to apply for the US tourist visa route, as I had to since visiting Syria in early 2011. This is quite surprising, and certainly something anyone who is planning on visiting Cuba would need to think about.

As a result of such Cuban influence, Little Havana is unsurprisingly Hispanic in nature, with Spanish being spoken more than English. I felt right at home to be honest, as I have travelled extensively and lived in Latin America, and very much enjoyed the vibe upon arriving in the neighbourhood. There were plenty of bars, cafes and restaurants playing salsa music, and there was even an impromptu salsa dance which spilled out from one of them into the street – highly photogenic!

I was a bit disappointed to learn that the Bay of Pigs Museum was closed during my visit, due to it being Good Friday, as I was looking forward very much to learning about this failed, CIA-funded invasion of 1961, which aimed to take back control of Cuba from Castro and the communists. I still learned about this event from the local Cuban refugee perspective from a few memorials and commemorations around town, including an eternal flame dedicated to the 114 who lost their lives during this invasion at the Bay of Pigs Monument at the Cuban Memorial Boulevard Park in the centre of the neighbourhood. I had always called it a fiasco myself due to its popular nomenclature, but learned instead there that from the Cuban refugees’ perspective it was a heroic mission for them to regain their country, and also for the USA to prevent Latin America going red, that was poorly managed. Had it succeeded, Cuba would have a vastly different story to tell, and US-Cuba relations as mentioned would be normalised I am sure. As mentioned also, this does not seem to be something that is going to happen any time soon.

During my wander, I took in the famous Maximo Gomez Park, known locally as Domino Park, for the numerous domino games that take place there – this being Good Friday, it seemed to be particularly busy, and the sound of dominoes clicking and Spanish being spoken filled the air. I also got an absolutely delicious takeaway burrito from a local café to take back to my motel, which was only a bus ride, Metrorail journey and hot 15-minute walk away. By the time I got back to my room, I think due to the Miami heat, the burrito was still miraculously warm and hugely enjoyable!

My plan now was to just chill and relax, before my long-haul overnight “red-eye” back to London the next day. I arrived back in my room at 4pm, and having already arranged a late check-out, was planning to head out the next day at 12pm to take the Metrorail to the airport. This left me with a delicious 20 hours of chill time and end-of-trip wind down, which I always like to have at the end of a journey.

Unfortunately, my late check out was disrupted at the usual check out time of 11am by a cleaning lady wondering when I was going to check out. I had to go to reception again to explain that I had been granted a late check out at 1pm to the new guy who wasn’t there when I had arranged this. I managed to compromise with a 12pm checkout in the end, which is what I was aiming for anyway to have time for lunch before heading to the airport. The cleaning lady spoke no English, and I actually was quite surprised at the amount of people in Miami and this part of Florida who don’t speak English. Miami, as well as the most important city in Florida, and one of the US’s most important, is also unofficially dubbed “the capital of Latin America”, and I was growing to see why. Fortunately I speak Spanish so this wasn’t a problem for me, but I do wonder how other tourists manage there. Even two ladies at a Miami International Airport Duty Free shop didn’t speak English either.

My lunch was at a nearby “Denny’s”, which is a fantastic US diner
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Miami Downtown
chain I discovered on this trip, which I’ll certainly be looking for more often on future trips, along with the similar Waffle House. My last meal in Florida was a delicious American breakfast – sausages, bacon, hash browns, and eggs, overeasy (my new way of having eggs there after I learned there’s more to a fried egg than just “sunny side up”!).

I took the Metrorail for the last time to Miami International Airport, where I had my documents checked after a five-minute queue, as opposed to the rubbish two-and-a-half one coming over, and the flight home was a doddle! The flight to Tampa was around nine hours, while going back and due to the jet-stream was a mere seven-and-a-half. I think this was a particularly quick one as we seemed to fly through a North Atlantic storm which actually hit the UK the next day, and about an hour of it was properly turbulent – not my favourite! It was a British Airways double decker airbus, and I was in a window seat on a two-chaired row on the upper deck (my favourite!). I even had a little cubby hole next to my armrest to store things in,
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Downtown Miami
which was super-helpful, and sat next to a very nice single travelling lady who’d just been on an adults-only Virgin Holidays cruise in the Caribbean – she was friendly, and kept herself to herself (no overreaching the shared armrest and such), which is always a bonus! I watched another American classic 80s film on the way book, “The Goonies”, which became another one of those childhood favourites which really does take on a new meaning when watching as an adult. I didn’t realise it when I was younger, but Chunk is just the funniest, far beyond simply the Truffle Shuffle! I also had a good nap, and a good two-and-a-half hour aeroplane door to house door journey on the way home.

Heathrow to my house in Croydon is not an easy journey, certainly not as straightforward as Gatwick or even Luton. I have tried a four-train journey before, as well as a bus and two-train journey. This time I opted for the first time the single express bus to Croydon, and may actually go for this more often. The bus only took one hour twenty minutes, although admittedly this was probably in part due to it being early on a Sunday (Easter morning), and it may well be longer at other times. Still, I was glad to have this as an alternative option home from Heathrow.

It is really nice to be home now, contemplating just what an amazing two weeks I had had around Florida. Whilst it is very much a touristy-destination, as the second most-visited state in America after California, with 140 million tourists annually, including seven million from abroad, it still gave me plenty to do and enjoy, along with unique memories and experiences. I also got to meet fellow Travel Bloggers and TCC members Merry Jo and Dave, which was a real pleasure and bonus to this trip. Thank you both so much for having me, I really enjoyed your company and conversations. We are most certainly of the same tribe! 😊

So until next year America, I shall see you soon! And I also look forward to writing up again soon about my next upcoming trip, the big summer one. This one will be to South Africa, along with Lesotho and Swaziland.

So until then, thanks very much for reading, and all the best for now! 😊

Alex


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27th May 2023
Miami Riverwalk

Downtown Miami
Beautiful modern architecture, water glistening and lots of palm trees. Miami is a very diverse city.
27th May 2023
Miami Riverwalk

Downtime Miami
Indeed, Miami had a very special and unique feel amongst other US cities.
27th May 2023
Art Deco Architecture

South Beach Beauty
South Beach has preserved amazing architecture. It is walking back in time. So lovely.
27th May 2023
Art Deco Architecture

South Beach
Walking back in time - indeed, it did feel like this. I loved walking around and seeing the amazing art deco buildings down there.
27th May 2023
Downtown

Fantastic Photography
Love the clouds.
27th May 2023
Downtown

Clouds
Indeed, I can see why you love the clouds there in Florida. Always different, ever-changing.
27th May 2023
Art Deco Architecture

Art Deco buildings
I love Art Deco architecture so I am sure I would like Miami. The building in the picture is simply awesome. I love all three of the "Arts" by the way: Art Deco, Art Nouveau and Art Garfunkel. /Ake
27th May 2023
Art Deco Architecture

Art Deco
Lol, that's funny - the three "Arts"! I'm sure you'd love Miami South Beach then. I very much enjoyed my wander there, taking in such amazing buildings and architecture 😊
28th May 2023

Bienvenida a Miami
For most people Miami is a city they really like or really dislike - there is not much in between. There is a large number of Spanish speaking people in the area so it is a great place to practice language skills. The irritates some Americans especially when they are in the airport and can't find someone who speaks English. We didn't ask where you were staying in the Miami area- yes you picked a nice location. We have not seen robot waiters .... I guess we need to go to Miami! I love your descriptions of this vibrant city. If you thought it was hot in April I'm glad you didn't visit in August. Personally, I think we need to move past the Cuba issues of the past and build relationships. I loved reading this blog and getting caught up on the rest of your trip. We enjoyed meeting you and look forward to you coming back to Florida. You will enjoy California next year. Happy travels.
28th May 2023

Miami
I think I'm the kind of tourist who really likes Miami. It was definitely different to other US cities I've been to, and as they say seems to have one foot in North America and one in Latin America. I'm very glad I wasn't there in August! I completely agree on the need to move past the Cuba issue now, and enjoyed learning about Little Havana whilst there after having spoken about the issues with you earlier on my trip. I very much enjoyed meeting you both too, and look forward to returning 😊 Thanks for reading, and following on for the rest of my trip 😊
13th July 2023

Art Deco
I love the art deco architecture in Miami! I had to laugh at your comment about Denny's (they are very common here and honestly, not considered that great, but glad you liked it!). What a wonderful trip you had to Florida!
14th July 2023

Art Deco and Dennys
Ah, very interesting about Dennys! I'd never heard of it before this trip to Florida, but I just loved it as I love the classic American diner! 😁 Miami's Art Deco very much lived up to my expectations - very cool! Florida was amazing, and meeting up with MJ and Dave was my highlight. Thanks for reading and commenting 😊
21st February 2024

Welcome to Miami
Thanks Alex, I have that Will Smith song stuck in my head 😂 Miami looks a cool place. I did visit briefly as my stepdad drove us through. I did know they spoke Spanish in those parts of America but didn't realize that some people there could be no English what so ever
21st February 2024

Welcome to Miami
Gosh, now that song is back in my head again too 🤣 Nice to hear you also briefly visited Miami. Yes, lots of non-English speakers there, it was a benefit being able to speak Spanish.

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