Miami: Bring on your finest bedazzled shirts.
Most people know you need a little thing called a VALID passport to leave the country. I forgot to renew mine ahead of time so it expired. This meant when planning a quick four day weekend getaway
Bandway style (check out 4 Day Weekend but throw on your headphones or wait until you get home because it’s definitely NSFW) I had to keep it close. Since I had to stay on
U.S. soil and this was going to be short one I wanted to make it easy. A two and half hour non stop flight from DCA (Reagan National) to MIA (Miami International) sounded perfect.
If you’re flying on American Air from DCA it’s much easier to check in curbside if you need to check luggage. I find the folks at the curbside check-in are entertaining and knowledgeable plus the lines to check-in at DCA on the weekend can be really long. Tip the baggage handlers a couple of bucks and rest easily knowing your bags will show up at your destination.
After my wife and I landed at MIA we hopped in a cab ($37 flat rate) and headed to a great new hotel on Ocean Drive in South Beach now called The Betsy. This was originally called the Betsy Ross but hotels on Ocean Drive have to keep the original name. This hotel is absolutely first rate and 5 stars easily. Everyone on staff was extremely helpful and the room albeit smallish was beautiful in décor. It’s also a very green hotel and they’ve made lots of changes to be more eco friendly. They had a nice little book collection on the bookshelf in every room. They also had bookmarks you were encouraged to take home with you that contained wildflower seeds that could be planted, bookmark and all. In the category of way too much information I got to watch the Red Sox close out the Yankees completely naked and in the shower since low and behold they have embedded a TV into the bathroom mirror. To be honest I only turned the bathroom tube on once but I enjoyed knowing it was available. Next to the shower beer this might be my new favorite shower activity.
Most days we would have a brunch in the late morning then hit a snack in the afternoon and a nice dinner at night. I went to the News Café for brunch one morning and the atmosphere was fantastic. It’s right on Ocean Dr and has a ton of outdoor seating. Pretty average bar type food but it did the trick and it's open 24 hours a day. We also tried the 11th street diner to grab a bacon blue burger. Ask them to make a frozen lemonade/iced tea combo. It’s not on the menu but I asked and they obliged. We also stopped at a little Cuban restaurant called Puerto Sagua. It’s great for a quick lunch and they had some great authentic Cuban meals on the menu.
There was one thing in particular that drove me nuts about walking down Ocean Drive and that is the amount of restaurants that have people outside soliciting everyone walking by to dine at their establishment. Chances are if they are trying that hard it’s because it’s not very good. Seriously, I got hassled less walking down 5th Ave in Playa Del Carmen. All restaurant owners on South Beach should take notice that this tactic does not work and generally does exactly the opposite of what you are trying to do. Always ask the locals where to eat or do some research on the web don’t get bullied by the help outside of a dining establishment.
Our best meal of the trip happened when we stumbled upon a quaint little Italian restaurant called Spiga. We generally wander around looking at about a dozen different menus before we make a decision. Nine times out of ten we botch this decision using this method. Amazingly we nailed this one. Great outdoor space on Collins Ave. We started with some delicious house bread with olive oil. Then we had some beautiful melon and prosciutto. We ordered the gnocchi and an order of the pasta carbonara. The gnocchi was some of the best either one of us has ever had light and fluffy and melted in your mouth. The carbonara was also amazing. This place is definitely worth a visit!
My worst meal of trip was inside of The Betsy at the BLT restaurant. Chef Laurent Tourondel of BLT Steak ousted out Peter Luger’s in this year as the best steak house in NYC. Having been to Peter Luger’s before I was hell bent on trying BLT. Luger’s is awesome and any place that has a bacon appetizer is all right in my book. Now in all fairness the BLT inside of The Betsy has only been open for about 5 weeks but with that kind of praise my expectations were high. The wait staff tried hard but the food came up short. The sides were average and my rib eye was chewy and fatty to the point where no human molars could grind it into edible bites. The dessert of blueberry lemon meringue pie was the only highlight. Overall based on our dining experience BLT was pretty average and I would take Luger’s any day of the week. We now have a BLT in DC and I’m not rushing out to try it again.
The beach in Miami was actually a big surprise to me. I’ve been to South Beach before but it was more of an overnight in a trendy little boutique hotel. We never even got to the beach. South Beach is HUGE. I had no idea. It’s also very topless friendly so if you find that offensive you should maybe head somewhere else and leave it for the rest of us heathens. The water was a brilliant turquoise blue and I’ve been to a dozen islands in the Caribbean and haven’t seen much better. There were some decent rollers and in the afternoon when the tide was heading out a river/sand bar gets created. It can make for some pretty brutal rip tides but since we frequent the Outer Banks of NC we were pretty familiar with them. If you ever get caught in a rip tide you should always swim parallel to the shore or optionally float with the current. Swimming parallel to the shore you won’t have to swim as far to get back to the shore. They’re not usually larger than a hundred feet. You can learn more about them from this wiki. The water was a little chilly at first but after a couple of minutes got really comfortable. You could easily porpoise in it for hours.
MIA Tip: When we were flying back to DC the MIA American curbside check-in guy gave me some good advice for the MIA terminal. If you are flying out of C or D terminals go all the way to the right until you can’t go any further and then follow the path to the security line. Once I weaved through a quick hallway I came upon a welcome site. No long security line. In fact there was no line at all.
There are some unbelievable travel deals right now. I came across this video containing the Conde Nast Hot List which had a bunch of hotels for under $200 per night. I highly recommend the South Beach area for a quick and easy weekend getaway. The Betsy was amazing and the beach is breathtaking. Pack your sunscreen.
