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Miami

lyrisariana
Sep 18, 2016
4 min read

4th of July weekend landed on a Monday this year so it allowed us to escape for a few days to Miami. We flew out on Thursday night, and arrived at around 6AM on Friday. We stayed with AirBnB, which was fantastic! This was my first time using AirBnb, and it wont be my last. It was by far the best bang for our buck on such a busy holiday weekend. We shared the apartment with the owner, she was hardly ever there so it was almost like we had the entire place to ourselves.

The apartment was 2 blocks away from the beach, walking distance to all of the shopping and restaurant hopping we needed to do.

Like I said we went in July, the was weather hot, humid and rained unpredictably. We had crazy rain out of nowhere maybe twice while we were out, and almost everyday in the early morning while we were still in bed, so it wasn't a huge deal.

Our first night we had dinner at Gianni's which is in the Versace Mansion. The mansion once owned by Mr. Versace himself is now a hotel and restaurant. The food was amazing. We sat on the patio over looking the gorgeous Versace pool, this dinner was a bit of a splurge but well worth it for the experience. I don't believe you can just walk in and look around and the hotel rates are quite high, so if you want to look around I recommend having dinner here.

We booked a couple tours to see the most in our short time there. First, we had a food walking tour (we love food tours) with Miami Culinary Food Tours. We sampled at about 5 places, starting with churros at Manolos, then we had Bolivian ceviche and corn meal empanada that was yummers, at Taverna Bolivar. Probably my favorite empanada i've ever had, we went back another day to try different fillings. After Bolivar, we walked along Ocean Dr. and the tour guide talked to us about the history of the buildings, as well as the infamous Versace Mansion.

Clips from the food and the walk:

After our short walk we ended up at Larios, Gloria Estefan's Cuban restaurant on Ocean Dr. The restaurant is gorgeous, with floor to ceiling tile mosaics, one of which is a mural of Gloria's. At Larios we had a ground beef 'pica dillo' with plantain chips.

Clips from Larios:

Next up, was Naked Taco, a Mexican restaurant where we tried a spicy chipotle empanada. This one was very different from the first on at Bolivar, but still delicious. Tour ended with a stop for gelato near the beach, I highly recommend going on this tour.

We then had a bus tour of Miami which included a tour of Wynwood Walls, an everglades trip, and lunch. That tour was about 5 hours, it started in the morning, they drove us around South Beach, we walked down Ocean Drive learning about the Art Deco buildings. After South Beach we headed to Wynwood Walls, an eclectic open area full of modern and contemporary art shows with graffiti style art. The artists give us a different view of graffiti, and how it can be art. After Wynwood we headed for lunch which was included! We ate in little Havana, at La Carreta. We had a classic Cuban sandwich and guava with cheese pastries, a Cuban specialty. Everything was delicious! Following lunch we headed to the Everglades! We booked this tour online from a flyer we picked up walking around.