My second trip to Miami in May 2018


JDe75

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Going to Miami in less than two months, so excited ! This time we'll be taking our son, 7 years old, with us. He's even more excited than I !!

We'll be staying in a hotel room that has a kitchen, so the idea was to prepare our own foods there, breakfast and lunch. Our ~2 week trip will spin out of budget if we'd be eating out more than once a day!  So, my question is - where should we buy our foods from? I've only seen the insides of two seven elevens and the variety of foodstuffs didn't impress me. So where should we go buy our foods from, Walmart? I'd appreciate specifics like neighborhoods or even addresses. We'll be staying in South Beach,  but we can go to other parts as well.
 

My son wants to go to the Zoo more than anything, but it's quite far away. I've been trying to see if we can get there by bus (like a charter bus, door-to-door) but found none. Google maps gave it 45 minutes by car, so a taxi would cost quite much I think. So I have been thinking about renting a car for a day or two, and fit the Zoo trip there.

Our other destinations will be Parrot Island and Miami Seaquarium, but they are conveniently by the Hop-on-hop.-off bus route.

My friend will be flying down from DC for a few days, so these will be my nights off ;)  Get to clubbing and stuff.... So any recommendations of good nightclubs or was there a thread for that? Or maybe it was just for food-restaurants...

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The main grocery supermarket in Miami  is Publix.  There are three of them in South Beach, all near Alton Rd:

  • 1100 6th St
  • 1920 West Ave
  • 1045 Dade Blvd

There are also some small markets in South Beach, especially on Washington Ave,  but I don't know anything about them. 

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I’ve been to two of those Publix above. Good experience with both. Also Walgreens and/or CVS in the area too I believe. 

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Does anybody know if there is bus that goes to the Zoo? I vaguely recall seeing a bus at Bayside which was taped with Zoo-graphics (could've been just a regular bus taped with ads though). 

I've tried to search the tour-sites for transportation but I've only found one with admission, transportation excluded. I've tried to find other options than renting a car since parking at the hotel costs $40 per day.

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Unfortunately to get around to widely scattered Vice locations like the lighthouse, the Freedom Tower, the Metro Zoo, S. Beach etc etc at your convenience you really need a car.  You should be able to do better than 40$ a day in public parking garages.  If you just want to focus on Miami Beach, there is a tour bus.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hey !

Thanks for the info on those groceries.. Will definitely try them.

Also I'd need some up-to-date info on some malls and toy-stores in Miami (though I bet those go hand-in-hand:)). So, any good stores or malls to visit with kids? Like, is there still the A to Z Toys in Miami Beach? I couldn't find their site - there was an AZ toys in  Virginia though.....  Thing is, my 7 years-old wants to visit toystores and I recall not seeing any in Miami Beach (all of them clothing-stores or souvenir-stuff - well maybe some beach toys but that was it.)

There's probably some info available on the net but I don't know what to look for, all I know are Walmart and Target (I guess they sell like everything?).

I'd also need some info on the buses and public transit. Specifically how to get to those malls and Walmarts by bus. Say that the starting place is Bayside (I know how to get there from Miami Beach).

But most off all, I'd need info on places to avoid. Last time we ended up walking in the wrong direction when visiting Little Havana and ended up in a place where everything looked run down and somewhat dilapidated so we guessed that was the wrong place to be. Now as we're traveling with a child ending up into those shady areas is a bigger concern.

 

Edited by JDe75
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On 4/12/2018 at 8:02 AM, JDe75 said:

Does anybody know if there is bus that goes to the Zoo? I vaguely recall seeing a bus at Bayside which was taped with Zoo-graphics (could've been just a regular bus taped with ads though). 

I've tried to search the tour-sites for transportation but I've only found one with admission, transportation excluded. I've tried to find other options than renting a car since parking at the hotel costs $40 per day.

The Zoo is way south in South Miami - may be difficult by public transportation, I recommend a rental car also like Jim mentioned.

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  • 1 month later...
On 4/4/2018 at 9:18 PM, JDe75 said:

Going to Miami in less than two months, so excited ! This time we'll be taking our son, 7 years old, with us. He's even more excited than I !!

We'll be staying in a hotel room that has a kitchen, so the idea was to prepare our own foods there, breakfast and lunch. Our ~2 week trip will spin out of budget if we'd be eating out more than once a day!  So, my question is - where should we buy our foods from? I've only seen the insides of two seven elevens and the variety of foodstuffs didn't impress me. So where should we go buy our foods from, Walmart? I'd appreciate specifics like neighborhoods or even addresses. We'll be staying in South Beach,  but we can go to other parts as well.
 

My son wants to go to the Zoo more than anything, but it's quite far away. I've been trying to see if we can get there by bus (like a charter bus, door-to-door) but found none. Google maps gave it 45 minutes by car, so a taxi would cost quite much I think. So I have been thinking about renting a car for a day or two, and fit the Zoo trip there.

Our other destinations will be Parrot Island and Miami Seaquarium, but they are conveniently by the Hop-on-hop.-off bus route.

My friend will be flying down from DC for a few days, so these will be my nights off ;)  Get to clubbing and stuff.... So any recommendations of good nightclubs or was there a thread for that? Or maybe it was just for food-restaurants...

I also recommend some of the smaller markets on Washington Avenue in Miami Beach a few blocks back from the beach.

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  • 9 months later...
On 6/12/2018 at 9:30 PM, ZAQ 178 said:

No Miami photos yet??

Oh sorry, totally forgot to post the after-action -report ! :)

We had a great trip! We had our 8-year old with as and actually did way more stuff (not just party :D ). We went to Zoo Miami, Seacquarium and did the city sightseeing tour with the double decker -bus (my son really liked when there were the low hanging tree branches (Coral Gables I think) and we had to duck to avoid getting hit since we were sitting on the topside. He was like "let's go again!" :) ). Visited Coconut Grove, Brickell and rode the Metromover back. Chilled out in parks like Bayfront Park and the (whatsitcalled in South Beach, the really long name Marjory Douglas -something) as my son wanted to visit every playground he saw. Also, it was Memorial Day weekend so fighter jets flew often over Miami Beach (though at times it was so cloudy you only heard them). And also rode the free Trolley alot (it was sometimes alittle hassle since many of the roads in Miami Beach were blocked due to Memorial Day, and even the drivers had to search for routes :D ).

Also, my friend flew down from DC so I got a few nights of partying, and we went to the movies as my wife stayed at the hotel with the kid (she was ok with it).

It was cloudy and abit rainy due to Alberto (if memory serves), but it was warm and nice anyway. Oneday though it rained a lot so I googled what to do and found Frost Science ( Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science ) and it was really cool! Would never have even found it if it weren't for the rain ! It was right there near Downtown !

The same friend who lives in Washington D.C. is coming here to Finland again this summer and we're just planning what to do. We do this thing where we visit eachother's countries every two years, and it's my turn again next year. Though next year we might do New York, but although I've been to Miami twice now I'm still pondering between the two :D  (That, and my son keeps asking "when are we gonna go back to Miami" :D )

Oh and thanks for the tips! We did do our grocery shoppings at Publix on Alton and 5th, and often at Wahlgreens on 5th.

I don't have the pics with me now, but I do have this one funny I saw in Zoo Miami !

 

MiamiIce.jpg

Edited by JDe75
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My wife & I were just talking about our trip back to Miami next month. Staying at the Breakwater this time. Last year was The Carlyle. Glad you had a good time!

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