We spent a week in Miami in June 2024 because we had to get some documents in the United States. Miami is the cheapest and closest city in the United States to fly from Latin America, so it was natural to fly to Miami to complete business. It was our first time in Miami – our first time in Florida! – and it was a lot different than I expected. Here are some of my thoughts on Miami, in no particular order of importance.
Neighborhoods
We only stayed a week in Miami and had to work during the weekdays, so we didn’t have much time to explore the city. The constant rain also made walking very hard – we chose the wrong week to tour Miami – so we’d need to visit again to get a full view of the city. I especially want to check out Miami Beach island and Little Havana the next time.
Yet, we did see a few neighborhoods, and here are our thoughts:
Midtown/Wynwood
We stayed in Midtown, specifically the Wynwood neighborhood. I’d stay here again. The neighborhood is very close to Miami International Airport, which is a big plus. The shopping district just south of the I-195, between Biscayne Blvd and Miami Ave, is lovely, and the main reason I chose this neighborhood (it is also a lot cheaper than Brickell). It had plenty of chain stores (Target, Ross, Marshalls), boutique stores, and a good variety of restaurants. The area is super walkable and felt like a little town in itself. We also appreciated the newness and modernity of the district.

For groceries, we shopped primarily at Trader Joe’s, but Target also has groceries. There are many upscale restaurants, but you can also find budget-conscious options. Giraffas is a Brazilian fast-food place that was quite tasty and had many options, including vegetarian options. Chipotle, Five Guys, Taco Bell, and Mcdonald’s are your standard fast-food choices in the district, too.

Miami Design District
Right north of Wynwood and the I-195 freeway is the Miami Design District. It is a collection of a few streets with very high-end boutique stores sprinkled with high-end dining options. While it is a pleasant area to walk, I found it quite boring. Unless you have any plans to buy at Louis Vitton-type stores, there is really nothing to do except window shop. And the windows are small and sporadic, so there isn’t much window shopping either.

There are fine dining options in this area, but they are very expensive, which is to be expected. We ate at one of the cheaper options, a taco shop that was a mix of 1950s American diner architecture and Mexico City street taco culture. I’d say you can skip it. Kevin and I spent $70 to eat here, and the tacos were okay at best. You can say I am a taco snob for comparing taco stands in Miami to the real deal in Mexico City, but honestly, I thought our meals at the Taco Bell down the street were better for a third of the cost.
Brickell
I must have sounded like such an idiot – or tourist! – calling this neighborhood Brick-kelle at first. It is just called Brickle, like fickle. Either way, this neighborhood should have been our favorite neighborhood. Lots of glassy high-rise towers, wide streets, fancy stores and restaurants, and a high-class hustle and bustle that a proper world city needs.
Yet, I didn’t feel Brickell had the right proportions for a pedestrian-friendly business district. The blocks felt long for me, perhaps because most buildings are set back from the street. While visually impressive, it wasn’t visually interesting. A lot of newish, modern residential and office buildings, but not much happening at street level other than vehicle traffic and palm tree-lined streets.

Even restaurants and shops tended to be above ground level, which further moved the excitement away from the sidewalk and into the buildings themselves. I remember in my urban planning classes at UCLA, we discussed the “privatization” of American cities. Instead of having shops and restaurants line the public sidewalks and allow public interaction, many American cities – especially suburbs – move the shops and restaurants into “private” spaces like malls and office building lobbies.
I say “private” in quotes because while these areas are nominally open to the public, they are essentially controlled and designed by private companies – the building owner. Building owners design these spaces to limit your interaction with other spaces: the competition. Thus, malls and office buildings are often self-contained so you need not go elsewhere, which puts up architectural barriers to lively urban design.
Brickell felt much like this. In Los Angeles, I would compare Brickell to Century City: impressive from afar but lacking on the ground. Furthermore, because of how business-oriented the district is, I have a feeling that weekends and evenings are even less exciting.
Coconut Grove
We briefly visited Coconut Grove’s shopping district along Grand Avenue. It seemed like a friendlier version of the Miami Design District, with a better mixture of store and restaurant types. If the neighborhood was larger, and perhaps more dense, I could see us staying here next time. However, I would prefer Wynwood/Midtown because it is denser and has more to do and more to eat. Yet, I wouldn’t mind revising Coconut Grove and exploring the area more in-depth, as we didn’t have enough time to walk around before it started raining.
Language and Latin Culture
I grew up in Los Angeles, which has a strong Mexican presence. However, Spanish and Mexican culture dominates only in specific parts of the City. Elsewhere, it is non-existent or only plays a secondary role. Yet I felt the Latin culture throughout Miami, and Spanish was the dominant language in many places we went.
I knew that Miami had a strong Cuban and Latin American presence because of its proximity to South America. What I didn’t expect was how strong this presence was. It is possible that having spent the previous 16 months in Latin America, I was more attuned to hearing Spanish than when I lived in Los Angeles. Yet I truly felt that Miami was a Latin American city at its core, while Los Angeles is an American city with a Mexican heritage. In fact, the 2020 Census says that Miami is 70% Hispanic compared to just under 50% in Los Angeles.
Either way, I thought it was pretty cool. We tried asking some workers that we interacted with where they were from, which is one of our favorite activities. Cuba and the Dominican Republic were two common answers, but so was Venezuela. If there is one thing I can point out from traveling throughout Latin America in the past 16 months, it is that Venezuelan emigration is strong and widespread throughout North and South America.
Going to Miami and experiencing the culture also put into perspective for me the Copa America 2024 final game that was played in Miami a month after our trip. Although the game was quite dull, the crowd’s intensity – including the overcapacity problems at the beginning – made sense. Only a few cities in the U.S. could even come close to this electrifying intensity for a fútbol game, and none could top Miami.
Food
It is so expensive! The past couple of years have been rough for food prices in the U.S. due to high inflation after Covid. For us, we haven’t felt it because food is must cheaper in Latin America. Yet, even eating in Los Angeles and Arizona wasn’t as expensive as eating in Miami. We felt food prices in Miami were around 1.5 times as expensive in Los Angeles, and the food in Miami wasn’t even as great as we had hoped.
By far, tacos are the most overpriced food item. We paid $6-8 per corn taco at two different restaurants, which is so outrageous I can’t even describe it. Tacos in Mexico City are so much better and cheaper, as we describe in our Roma Norte restaurants blog post. Even in Quito, Ecuador—far from being a bastion of Mexican tacos—we got 15 tacos al pastor for US$17, the same price as around 2.5 tacos in Miami. I would stay clear of the tacos in Miami, except if you go to Taco Bell.

We don’t drink alcohol, so we didn’t frequent any of the many bars in the touristy areas. They all looked overpriced and touristy. And while we ate out quite a bit, we didn’t enjoy any of the meals that much. Perhaps the two best meals for when we ate out were beef and rice from a Brazilian fast food place and then gluten-free pizza from a New York-style pizzeria.
Really, our best meals of the week were cooking at home from Trader Joe’s. When Kevin and I first lived together, we rented an apartment right next door to a Trader Joe’s and shopped there a lot. At the time, I didn’t appreciate Trader Joe’s as much as I should have.
Yet, on this trip, we shopped at Trader Joe’s for dinner daily. The gluten-free chocolate muffins are a must-have, even though they are fatty. But for dinner, I really appreciated the salad mix packages and the pre-marinated chicken and beef products. It made dinner much easier to make and tastier than if I had tried seasoning the meat. I miss Trader Joe’s.
Transportation
We’ve been to both of Miami’s airports – Miami International and Fort Lauderdale – and I strongly prefer Miami International. Fort Lauderdale (FLL) is way too small for the air traffic it gets. The entire terminal area was cramped and crowded. It was hard to eat because everywhere was so busy. I hope they are planning an expansion because I don’t see how FLL can grow past where it is right now. Plus, FLL is quite far north. Unless you are going to Fort Lauderdale or points north – such as West Palm Beach – Miami International is simply closer and easier to get to.
Miami International Airport (MIA)
Miami International feels like a true global airport. Extremely busy, exotic airlines and destinations, and hefty infrastructure to support the operation. Lots of foreign visitors and languages. And if you are flying American Airlines – especially to or from Latin America and the Caribbean – chances are you will be stopping at Miami International.

However, the airport itself also reminds me of LAX in a way. It is a global airport with lots of shiny features, but it was built on top of aging infrastructure. I remember walking out from baggage claim to get our Uber, and the heat hit me like it had never struck me before. The ground level of Concourse E is somewhat underground, and there is zero ventilation. You need to take a shower after just standing there for two minutes – take some water with you!
Concourses D and E – mostly where American operates from – are pretty nice. If you are a Priority Pass holder, you’ll have access to the Turkish Airlines lounge at the end – and I mean the end – of Concourse E. Note that because this is the only Priority Pass lounge accessible to Concourses D and E, don’t think you’ll be the king of the lounge. It turns out that many people have Priority Pass, and many fly American Airlines but don’t qualify for American’s actual lounges. Thus, the Turkish Airlines lounge becomes a de facto American Airlines lounge for status wannabes like us.
As far as Priority Pass lounges go, the Turkish Airlines Lounge in Miami isn’t that bad. If the lounge were larger, I’d rate it at least average, if not above average. But the lounge is tiny, and they insist on cramming as many tables as possible. Food options are decent, and I appreciate that the Lounge tries to serve real food to eat – so many Priority Pass lounges serve snacks disguised as a meal. We have visited the Lounge several times for breakfast, and you can get eggs, potatoes, oatmeal, yogurt, fruit, tea, and coffee. Not bad at all.

The Lounge also has a good view of one of Miami’s runways and a partial view of the planes at Concourse E. If you are an airplane spotter, if you go early in the morning, you can try to catch Boliviana de Aviación’s flight from Bolivia. It generally parks near the Lounge and is the only unique plane in a sea of American Airlines tails. But the runway action is awesome, too, and it is relaxing while in the lounge.
We have also been to Miami’s Concourse J, which also seems quite nice. However, it could use more chairs, especially since there seems to be a lot of unused space. Concourse J also has terrible views of the runway and planes, whereas Concourse D and E have better views. Finally, Concourse J doesn’t have many eating options, so plan ahead if you intend to eat a full meal before your flight. Unlike other airports, Miami’s concourses are not all connected to each other once past security.
Ground Transportation
Note that Miami International has a connection to Miami’s train system, which is nice, but the trains don’t go to the station on weekends. Also, the train stations were not near our Midtown Airbnb, so we just used Uber instead. Finally, to get to the train station, you must either walk (not recommended) or use the MIA Mover tram from the terminal to the actual train station. If you have been to San Francisco, it is similar to the Airtrain between SFO and the actual BART Station.
Outside of Miami’s airport, we didn’t use the local and regional train system because it didn’t take us to where we needed to go. It was just a lot easier to use an Uber, especially because the weather was so hot and rainy. Walking a few blocks to the train station – if you are lucky – with a heat index in the 90s is not that much fun. Worse if the train station is further away.
Walking through Downtown and seeing the trains go by on the elevated rail platforms was cool. It appeared futuristic, like something you’d see in a science fiction novel. However, we also didn’t see many people use the rail stations, even on a weekday. It felt like the Los Angeles Metro, where it is not heavily used, even in Downtown. That said, it could be busier during rush hour; we visited midday.
Ultimately, it is probably easier to either rent a car or use Uber and Lyft. We used both Uber and Lyft during our time in Miami and both had a plentiful selection of cars. We also checked both apps before selecting a ride, as prices were a bit different between the two apps. Sometimes Uber was cheaper, other times Lyft was cheaper. But we never used a taxi and we didn’t see many taxis around, except at the airport.
Weather
We know Miami is hot and humid. We arrived in June, and it was, without a doubt, incredibly hot and extremely humid. But the rain intensity was unbelievable. We got drenched just walking a couple of blocks during a heavy downpour. And it rained every day for the week we were there.
Of course, with the weather being so hot, you almost want it to rain to cool down. One day, we walked from Midtown to Downtown and got soaked midway through our trip. I mean, we got as wet as if we had jumped into the pool. Yet, not only was it somewhat refreshing, but we really couldn’t even tell we were wet because it was just so humid, even when it was not raining.
Let me know in the comments if you have been to Miami and your thoughts on the city!
I love this blog! So much information, so detailed, so exciting to read about everything going on. No, I’ve never been to Miami. Not even Florida. I can “feel” the description of the humidity and the heat, because I remember that when I visited Connecticut in the summer. It actually made me sick. Physically sick. I’m imagining the heat & humidity also brings out a vast array of “funky critters”, especially at night. I actually feel like I’ve traveled to Miami and back, just by reading your blog. Thank you for posting this. Also, very interesting about the food comparisons between So. America, L.A., Mexico, and FL. I can just guarantee that there are no tacos anywhere like in Mexico! Thank you for this blog!