Miami

A bayside modern and contemporary art museum by Herzog & de Meuron, hung with columns of tropical plants, focusing on Latin American, Caribbean and African diaspora art, with swing seats facing the water.

💡 The museum is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and stays open until 9pm on Thursdays. Come on the free Metromover, Museum Park station, and have a drink at the terrace café at sunset. Price: $18, about €15, per adult; $14, about €12, for ages 7 to 18; free up to age 6.

Phillip Pessar / CC BY 2.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

A former textile warehouse district repainted from 2009 by street artists from around the world, centred on an enclosure of giant murals and surrounded by some twenty blocks of free murals, galleries and breweries.

💡 Come at opening time on a weekday to photograph the walls without crowds, then walk the neighbouring streets, where the free murals are as good as those in the enclosure. Avoid the hot hours in summer, as there is little shade. Price: $12, about €10, per adult; free up to age 12; open every day.

osseous / CC BY 2.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

James Deering's Italian Renaissance-style winter villa on Biscayne Bay, built between 1914 and 1922, with some thirty antique-filled rooms and about 4 hectares of formal gardens running down to the water.

💡 The estate is closed on Tuesdays and open from 9.30am to 4.30pm: arrive at opening time for the gardens, before the heat. Vizcaya Metrorail station is about ten minutes' walk away, on the other side of the motorway. Price: $20-25, about €17-22, per adult aged 13 and over depending on the period; $10, about €9, for ages 6 to 12; buying online is recommended.

Leslie Platt / CC BY 2.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

George Merrick's Mediterranean-style 1920s city of banyan-shaded streets, with a historic public pool carved from a coral rock quarry, fed by spring water, and the 1926 Biltmore hotel.

💡 The pool is closed on Mondays and open Tuesday to Friday from 11am to 5.30pm, and at weekends from 10am to 4.30pm; book your ticket online, as sales stop when capacity is reached. Children must be at least 3 years old and 97 cm tall. Price: $23, about €20, per non-resident adult; $18, about €15, for ages 3 to 12.

Jesper Rautell Balle / CC BY 3.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

An island linked by causeway whose southern tip forms Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, with a long palm-lined beach and the 1825 lighthouse, the oldest building in the Miami area.

💡 Tours of the lighthouse and the keeper's cottage are included in the entry fee, Thursday to Monday at 10am and 1pm, without a booking: arrive a little early. The park is open from 8am to sunset and closes to new arrivals when it is full at weekends: come on a weekday. Price: $8, about €7, per vehicle.

Tamanoeconomico / CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

The northern entrance to Everglades National Park, where a car-free 24 km loop, by bike or guided tram, crosses the river of grass among alligators, herons and anhingas to a 14-metre tower.

💡 Come from December to April, in the dry season, when the animals gather around the waterholes and mosquitoes are scarce; book the tram tour in high season. The park does not accept cash. Price: $35, about €30, per vehicle for 7 days, plus $100, about €86, per non-resident visitor aged 16 and over; 2-hour guided tram tour about $34, about €29; bike $27, about €23, per day.

Daderot / CC0 (Wikimedia Commons)