Miami South Beach

I’ll be honest: Miami is not a city that Kay and I would plan to visit if it weren’t for his brother living there. It was never anywhere near the top of our to-do list.

Most people I talk to over here have only been to one or two American cities: New York, LA or Miami. Miami itself is hyped up as this amazing party city that everyone needs to visit, when in reality… everyone would be better off going somewhere else.

My main beef with South Beach is that it’s extremely touristy and there is little culture beyond spring break style parties and buying expensive crap on Lincoln Road. Maybe that’s all Europeans are interested in experiencing when they visit America, but I feel like we have so, sooo much more to offer and that people shouldn’t waste their time on a place like Miami.

I found some pretty awesome vacation rentals on our three-week trip, but we kept being plagued by things like yippy dogs in Puerto Rico. In Miami it was street construction.On the first morning there, we were woken up at 7am when construction workers started ripping up our street corner right outside our place. Really, Miami? Really?

But despite the infuriating 7am wake-up calls every day (where it would later be quiet from 8am onward when you were thoroughly woken up), it was a very nice little apartment for a good price with almost all the amenities we needed. I admired the compact IKEA kitchen. The only things missing were dish soap and some kitchen towels.

If you are looking for a nice, affordable place right next to the beach, here’s the VRBO link.

Kay was really excited to drive a Z4 around Miami. It might have been his first time driving in a convertible like that. I was less impressed because I have long hair and Miami is really a city where you need an automatic for the stop-and-go, a roof to block the sun and good climate control, which the Z4 definitely did not have. I was a sweaty mess. πŸ˜‰

It was still nice to hit up the beach one more time after the wedding in Columbus and brown up a bit more before going back to work. I know tanning is horrible for you… but I still love coming back with a summer glow from trips.

The view from Kay’s brother’s apartment.

Miami’s gluten free options seemed a bit easier to navigate than Puerto Rico’s and we did get to do a bit of last minute USA shopping before heading home.

My meal from Yard Bird.

Whelp. Three weeks went by quickly.

I was happy to go home because after eating out almost all of my meals and feeling sick from cross-contamination, I was looking forward to eating clean gluten-free meals at home.

I’ll try and pull together a little mini-review of our gluten-free experiences from Puerto Rico and Miami. They won’t be comprehensive, but they might help some celiacs planning travels. I know I like seeing blogs about where to eat these days!

Tell me, what do you think of Miami? Yay or nay?

7 thoughts on “Miami South Beach”

  1. I’ve never been to Miami, but have been to Orlando and Fort Lauderdale! But I’m sure a lot of Florida’s beachy areas have their tourist traps though, since it’s such a popular vacation destination.

  2. I’ve only been there once but found it a bit overwhelming–as we didn’t even got to the South Beach area, we were just down by Basyside and Biscayne Bay.

  3. For a few years there, I spent about a month in South Beach each year for work.
    The awesome: staying in really swanky hotels and eating on someone else’s dime + running on the beach. The not so awesome: just about everything else. I like to joke that South Beach is like a mash up of everything I don’t really enjoy about Hollywood and Las Vegas. BUT I know some peeps love it…it’s just not for me! πŸ™‚

    1. Hehe, yeah… I’m sure scores of Europeans will keep traveling there. Maybe better for us so we can go somewhere off the touristy map and not be bothered! Lord knows there are tons of States I’d still like to visit! (Alaska, Maine, Washington, Oregon… the list goes on!)

  4. I so agree- unless you’re into the Spring Break scene, or have some serious dollars to spend of a swankier experience, Miami is never in my top list of places to visit! Your descriptions are really cracking me up, though πŸ™‚

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