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Welcome to Miami
Far and away the most exciting city in Florida, MIAMI is a stunning and often intoxicatingly beautiful place. Awash with sunlight-intensified natural colors, there are moments - when the neon-flashed South Beach skyline glows in the warm night and the palm trees sway in the breeze - when a better-looking city is hard to imagine. Even so, people, not climate or landscape, are what make Miami unique. Half of the two million population is Hispanic, the vast majority Cubans. Spanish is the predominant language almost everywhere - in many places it's the only language you'll hear, and you'll be expected to speak at least a few words - and news from Havana, Caracas or Managua frequently gets more attention than the latest word from Washington, DC.
THE CITY Many of Miami's districts are officially cities in their own right, and each has a background and character very much its own. Most people head straight to Miami Beach , specifically the South Beach strip, where many of the city's famed Art Deco buildings have been restored to their former stunning splendor, all pastels, neon and wavy lines. Though touted as the chic gathering place for the city's fashionable faces, it's not as exclusive as you might expect, especially on weekend afternoons when families and out-of-towners join the washboard stomachs and bulging pecs. Make time, too, for Key Biscayne , a smart, secluded island community with some beautiful beaches, five miles off the mainland but easily reached by a causeway. On the mainland, downtown has a few good museums but little else of interest to visitors. Little Havana , to the west, is the best spot to head for a Cuban lunch, while immediately south the spacious boulevards of Coral Gables are as impressive now as they were in the 1920s, when the district set new standards in town planning. Independently minded but equally wealthy Coconut Grove is also worth a look, thanks to its walkable center and a couple of Miami's most popular attractions.
Miami's nightlife is still unsurpassed. Drinking tends to take second place to eating and partying, but a number of friendly local bars double as very good live music venues. Reggae is particularly strong; Miami has a sizable Jamaican population, and local as well as flown-in acts appear regularly. Miami's clubs - especially those specializing in salsa or merengue and hosted by Spanish-speaking DJs - are among the hippest in the world, with most of the action at South Beach. Door policies are notoriously obnoxious at current in-spots; the places listed below include laid-back local haunts and some of the hotter bars. Friday's Miami Herald carries full weekend entertainment listings ; the free weekly New Times has reliable information on cafés and clubs, while the free TWN ( The Weekly News ) is the key source of gay and lesbian info . If you want to try out the local sports scene, the Marlins pro baseball team, who won the World Series in 1997 in only their fourth season, and the Dolphins , Miami's pro football team, play at the Pro Player Stadium, sixteen miles northwest of downtown at 2269 Dan Marino Boulevard (box office Mon-Fri 10am-6pm; tel 305/620-2578).
Visting surrounding Miami Landmarks:
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