Miami and South Beach

South Beach has two things going at once. One is the beach itself, a very wide strip of pale sand running for kilometres with lifeguard huts painted in sherbet colours that have become the city's emblem. The other is the Art Deco Historic District behind it, around eight hundred buildings from the 1930s in pastel with porthole windows, eyebrow ledges and neon that comes on at dusk, the largest such concentration in the world and saved from demolition by a preservation campaign in the 1970s. Beyond the beach, Miami is a genuinely Latin American city where Spanish is the working language, with Cuban food and coffee in Little Havana, the murals of Wynwood, and Vizcaya's Italianate villa on the bay.

What you actually see

• The Art Deco district - eight hundred pastel 1930s buildings, best at dusk with the neon on.
• The beach and lifeguard huts - the wide sand and its painted stands.
• Little Havana - Cuban coffee, cigars and dominoes on Calle Ocho.
• Wynwood Walls - the warehouse district turned outdoor mural gallery.

When to go

November to April is the dry season and the reason the city has a high season at all; summer is hot, humid, stormy and the hurricane season runs from June into November. Art Deco Weekend in January and the December art fairs fill the city and hotel prices multiply.

Honest expectations

South Beach is expensive, loud and often tacky, with aggressive restaurant touts on Ocean Drive and menus carrying automatic service charges people do not notice until the bill. Hotel resort fees and parking add up fast. Summer heat and afternoon storms are serious. The Art Deco is genuinely worth it, ideally on a guided walk in the early evening.

Nearby

The Everglades are an hour west; the Florida Keys begin an hour south.