7 Fun Tours for a First Visit to Miami
Landing in Miami and eager to get a feel for the hottest city in the USA? Instead of figuring out where to start exploring the city, let professional guides show you all the hot spots in and around Miami in a fun way.
Here are 7 Miami tours that we think will give you the most efficient taste of everything you must experience in the city and South Florida ????
- Boat Tour – Guided tour of Celebrity Homes and Millionaire Mansions
- Guided Sightseeing Tour in Miami by Speedboat
- Guided Culinary Tour in Little Havana
- Guided Airboat Tour in the Everglades Swamps
- Evening Cruise in Biscayne Bay
- Guided Bike Tour of South Beach and Miami Beach
- Guided Day Trip from Miami to the Florida Keys to Key West
Click here for all the boat tours in Miami…
Tour 1: Cruise – Guided Tour of Celebrity Homes and Millionaire Mansions
Miami isn't an ancient city with centuries-old historical landmarks; it's all about the now and pop culture. The most popular guided tour in Miami—by a long shot—is the celebrity home tour. Echoing tours in Hollywood (in Los Angeles, not Miami's neighbor) and Beverly Hills, which follow movie stars, the guided tours in Miami track pop stars, famous athletes, and others living in mansions on the Biscayne Bay islands.
Click here for Miami's full celebrity homes tour (by boat, of course)…
Tours are conducted by boat, offering a glimpse of the celebrities’ huge mansions and enormous villas built on the water, which belong to countless wealthy residents in the city (often these are winter homes for the rich from the Northeast). The tours naturally focus on the celebrity homes and what is known as the Millionaire's Row, the luxurious villas in Mid-Beach.
Click here for the Biscayne Bay and Millionaire's Row Cruise…
Tour 2: Guided Sightseeing Tour in Miami by Speedboat
While the celebrity tour focuses on private homes with a slim chance of actually spotting someone famous, Miami's standard sightseeing centers around the city's famous and intriguing buildings. Similarly, this tour is conducted by boat. There are many options with varying prices, from high-speed racing boats where the thrill is the ride itself, to large tourist boats with an older guide who explains Miami's famous buildings, skyscrapers, and sites in an almost academic manner.
Click here for the full Miami Sightseeing Tour by Speedboat…
Miami isn't packed with attractions and famous buildings, but the main fun of these tours is the chance to sail on a boat and say you've seen the city without missing a thing.
Tour 3: Guided Culinary Tour in Little Havana
Little Havana is one of the more unique attractions in Miami. It's the neighborhood of Cuban immigrants, and it's truly a slice of the Caribbean right within Miami itself. The Cuban immigrants live throughout the city, but Little Havana has a concentration of great Cuban restaurants and street food.
The neighborhood itself isn't very photogenic, so it's much nicer to stroll around with someone who knows it as part of a larger group. The culinary tours in Little Havana focus on a few unique restaurants that serve authentic island food, dishes that can mainly be found in Miami (or, of course, in Cuba itself).
Click here for a guided culinary tour, featuring the best Cuban food in Little Havana…
Tour 4: Guided Airboat Tour in the Everglades
Everglades National Park is an integral part of the Miami travel experience. This enormous national park is located west of the city at the southern tip of the Florida peninsula. It's a vast swampy area with one main road but many pathways where you can glide through on airboats.
The guided tours at Everglades National Park are conducted (like much of the Miami experiences) on the water and include cruising the swamps and observing the park's wildlife, with Florida's national symbol – the alligator – at the forefront. These tours are very popular and especially fun, blending nature and fresh air (with terrible humidity) with an airboat ride.
Click here for a guided airboat tour in Everglades National Park…
Tour 5: Night cruise in Biscayne Bay
Another popular tour in Miami that takes place on the water is what's known as the Sunset Cruise. There's a wide variety of boating attractions in Miami, including boat parties, steering and riding different vessels in the bay, and more. The night cruise is essentially reminiscent of Miami's sightseeing tour, only in the dark. This tour lets you see the shining skyline of Downtown Miami, the beautiful sunset beyond the buildings, and of course, sail around the bay to Miami Beach and more. These guided tours also include dinner and are a great way to enjoy the evening hours.
Click here for a Biscayne Bay Sunset Cruise + Cocktail Tour…
Tour 6: Guided Bike Tour in South Beach and Miami Beach
If you're up for some physical activity (sweat guaranteed!????), you can join guided bike tours on South Beach. The southern district of Miami Beach is full of fascinating Art Deco buildings and attractions along Ocean Drive. Riding along the coastline and the beautiful beach, together with an intimate entry into the island city's attractions, offers a particularly fun solution for a Miami Beach tour. For those who aren't too keen on sweating, there are also Segway and electric bike tours available.
Click here for the South Beach Art Deco tour and some local gossip…
Tour 7: A guided day trip from Miami to the Florida Keys ending at Key West
Another popular water tour in Miami is the guided day trip to the Keys and Key West. This tour doesn't involve sailing but rather traveling on the Overseas Highway bridges, the legendary Highway 1 that stretches south from Miami to Key West. The road runs in a linear fashion across the Keys Islands and includes the Seven Mile Bridge, one of the longest and most famous bridges in America.
Key West itself is a popular tourist destination, known as the residence of Ernest Hemingway and for the lively Duval Street. The trip often ends at Mallory Square, where the traditional sunset celebration takes place daily. There's a variety of day trips from Miami to Key West, some including attractions like snorkeling, and some for the elderly among us that simply involve the drive to Key West with explanations about the sites along the way and in the city.
Click here for a guided day trip from Miami to the Florida Keys and Key West…
7 Tips from Guy for Amazing Tours in Miami!
Miami is the large and important urban center in Florida. The city is the heart of the massive metropolis stretching along the Gold Coast to Palm Beach. Miami is a vibrant city with a mixed Latin and Jewish flair, most purely expressed on Ocean Drive in South Beach. This part of Miami Beach is full of clubs and active all day (on the stunning beach) and night. Around Miami, there is much more to see such as Little Havana, Coconut Grove Village, and the cool Miracle Mile of Coral Gables.
- How to choose the right tour for you? – Pick a tour topic that interests you. If you're not up for wandering in the heat and humidity of Little Havana, there's really no point in paying someone to explain about the rice and black bean dishes of the ethnic district's restaurants. Take a tour that genuinely interests you, and you'll enjoy it the most.
- Miami on the Water – A significant portion of the guided tours in Miami are by various and quirky types of boats, often fast and energetic ones. If you happen to be sensitive to boating, it's really not recommended to get on these boats, unless they are large ships cruising around Biscayne Bay. If you're an adrenaline junkie, choose the most extreme tours like those on speedboats.
- Language Barrier – Miami isn't a city overflowing with sites and attractions that would justify a full-scale tourism industry of Hebrew guides. But there's a ton in English. There are numerous guided tours in English in Miami for the benefit of tourists from all over the world. It's an opportunity to mingle with other tourists and enjoy the Floridian guides with their Latin flair who market the liveliest party city in the USA.
- Comfortable Shoes – We know Miami is hot (even in winter), but do your feet a favor and come with comfortable closed shoes for the tour (or at least well-fitted sandals, not flip-flops). The walking you'll do in Miami (even on cruises) is considerable, and you don't want to miss the next day's activities because your muscles are sore.
- Dress Accordingly – Tours in Miami are held year-round. Summer days in Miami are scorching, with temperatures always around 30 degrees Celsius and humidity close to 100. In the afternoon, there's a humidity break with heavy rain for about an hour. It's best to come to the tours dressed lightly. In winter, it's also wise to dress in summer attire, though you might need a long-sleeved shirt (only for those who really suffer from the cold).
- Backpack with drinks and snacks – Guided tours are essentially a group setting designed for your convenience, yet they run on fixed schedules. These tours involve walking, and even more tiring – the need to listen and focus. To avoid delaying the group or feeling hungry, it's wise to bring a backpack with water, drinks, and a snack just in case hunger strikes.
- Read up a bit on your destination beforehand – Nothing whets the appetite more than snacking on a little information about your tour spot the night before. If you love exploring and diving deep into places, a basic preparation gives you some orientation. A little tip! – The Everglades are endless swamps, and the real fun is the airboat ride and the wildlife viewing, so don't expect a safari.
