WHAT WE DID IN MIAMI

We were pretty tired for the day and a half while in Miami but still had a really nice time. It wasn’t anything like we expected (our pre-conceptions were based entirely on Miami Vice!) – we found it to be really laid back and ‘cool’ city.

Both mornings, because of the jet-lag we were up very early – this was more than compensated by the fact we were on the beach facing due east and so were able to head straight to the sea and watch the sun rise – it was absolutely spectacular and a great start to the day. The kids running about in the sea with the sun rising behind them is something we’ll remember for a long time!

On the first afternoon we went into Miami Beach (which is really a town in its own right) at the South Beach end. It is a lovely place with a great beach and lots of people just ‘hanging out’ in bars and ice cream parlours. What made it for us was the architecture – we expected some art-deco building but in fact pretty much every building is in the 30s style – the shapes and colours of the buildings make for a fantastic scene. The Marlin Hotel is a classic and should not be missed. We really liked it there and would like to have had more time to look around – although the kids were not that interested so we would probably have had to bribe them a little more with ice-creams if we did much more touristy stuff!

One thing to beware of in South Beach is the parking – we drove around for half an hour looking for a spot. If we did it again we would just head to the nearest car park (they seemed to be a few blocks back from the beach) and then walk down – there’s plenty to see on the way.