A Trip to Miami

Earlier this summer, Bart and I took a trip to Miami.

My parents had offered to watch the girls for us, and neither of us had ever been to Miami, so everything fell in to place pretty quickly.

The weather was perfect while we were there and we loved exploring Miami (one of my readers – hi Emily! – sent me a massive list of recommendations and it was super helpful).

Here were some of our favorite things we did in Miami:

Our favorite things to do in Miami

• Biking in Shark Valley. There is a 15 mile bike loop in Everglades National Forest that runs right along the water and there is so much wildlife just feet away from you, including alligators (we saw some big ones, plus a nest of babies!), birds, frogs, and lots of other animals. You can rent bikes for $20 and the path is fully paved and flat. Halfway through the loop, there is a big observation tower that looks out over the Everglades and it was stunning.

• Snorkeling in Biscayne Bay. I’d never been snorkeling before so I was a little nervous but it was delightful. It was too windy to go out to the coral reef, but we snorkeled along the mangrove trees and it was incredible.

• A Cuban food tour in Little Havana. This was my number one favorite thing we did on our trip. It was a 2.5 hour tour with a terrific guide and three other couples. We tried SO many great things and learned a ton and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Frankly, I was bummed we didn’t have time to do some of their other Miami food tours.
• Vizcaya House & Gardens. This is an incredible old house right on the water with unreal gardens and grounds. I didn’t expect to enjoy this as much as I did.

We were also very close to the beach (we stayed at the Hyatt Centric South Beach) and when we weren’t at the beach, we spent a lot of time walking around South Beach.

We rented a car for our entire trip, which I was glad for since we used it every single day.

There is also SO much good food in Miami and we had some terrific food. These were our favorites:

Our favorite places to eat in Miami

• Fireman Derek’s. This place was so good we actually went twice. Everything we had was amazing, but for sure the highlight was the red velvet cake with Nutella frosting (and neither Bart nor I even really LIKE Nutella). Do not miss.
• Zak the Baker. We went on Friday afternoon (they’re closed on Saturdays) and because they were out of a few of the things we planned to order, the cashier added a few freebies to our box, so we might have been a little extra inclined to love this place. The blueberry muffin was out of this world.
• Lokal. The guava jelly burger was delicious and the whole area was so charming.

• Coyo Taco. This local taco chain was SO much better than I expected.
• Yardbird. This was probably my favorite meal of the trip. Everything we had was INCREDIBLE.

Most of all, it was so great to just have time to spend together with no responsibilities and lots of free time. And plenty of sunshine didn’t hurt either.

Have you been to Miami? I’d love to hear your favorites there!

If you liked this post about our Miami trip, you might like these posts too:

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• One Child/One Parent Trips