[Eug]

I'm going there for a conference at the end of April, and I figure I'll have about a day and an evening to do a few things.

I'll be staying near Biscayne Bay. This is what the hotel sez is nearby:

Port of Miami (0.25 miles)
Vizcaya Museum and Gardens (3 miles)
Parrot Jungle (3 miles)
Coconut Grove (5 miles)
Miami Seaquarium (5 miles)
Village of Merick Park (5 miles)
South Beach (5 miles)
Coral Gables (7 miles)
Fairchild Tropical Gardens (10 miles)
Shops at Bal Harbour (12 miles)

[design219]

Get drunk at the hotel bar?

[Eug]

Well, I thought about that, but I figured if I'm going to go get pissed, I'd be better off going to a South Beach bar. Better looking scenery I'm sure. Latina locals there, vs. el geeko conference attendees at the hotel bar.

[osiris]

Miami is a beautiful place, though the last time I was there I spent a week drunk on the beach, so I saw only palms, bikinis and booze. You can run around for a day, or literally soak up the beach bar atmosphere and relax.

[analogue SPRINKLES]

Avoid getting shot

[Doofy]

Originally Posted by Eug 

at the end of April

Missing fashion week by two weeks: Epic fail.

Chalk up another vote for getting hammered on South Beach.

[k squared]

Head straight to South Beach. There are two areas to check out: the Art Deco district, between 5th and 15th and the Lincoln Road pedestrian mall area. If you want to check out the Miami scene, the Delano Hotel lobby/bar and the Shore Club are not too bad.

[Railroader]

Originally Posted by analogue SPRINKLES 

Avoid getting shot

[Eug]

OK, my conference is downtown at supposedly a 4-5 star hotel and I've tentatively booked my stay there for a reasonable rate. However, it seems like there's not much going on around there. So, nice hotel, boring area. Am I right? The hotel is the Intercontinental, east of the Marriott near the Bay on this map:



I could get a 3 star for the same amount at South Beach, but of course it would mean taxi-ing 5 miles it to the conference every day, over the Mac Arthur Causeway or the Venetian Causeway.

[k squared]

Yeah, there's nothing happening around the hotel. Personally, I would try to stay around South Beach and taxi back and forth.

[Eug]

OK, so I shifted to South Beach.

My gawd some of those hotels there are pricey. Somebody recommended Loews, but that's $500 a night. Ouch.

So, I'm staying at a smaller art deco style hotel instead.

Any restaurant recommendations? I've been told the Rusty Pelican for a splurge night out. I also came across this list:

Top Ten Miami Restaurants

[♥]

Here is THE list of places for food:

1. News Cafe for breakfast
2. David's Cafe for lunch (GREAT local food - Cuban)
3. The Forge for dinner - AWESOME.
4. China Grill is also flipping awesome if you can't make The Forge

Oh, and on the corner of Collins and 14th streets is a great fresh fruit market that makes wonderful smoothies and fruit drinks while you wait.

As far as what to do for the day I'd say just walk down through South Beach and enjoy the views. My favorite hotel there is The Leslie Hotel.

You're only there for one day so make the most of it and don't plan to do anything except relax, walk around, sip mojitos, and just enjoy the view.

[Eug]

Thx.

Actually, I'm there for three days, but when I was going to stay downtown I figured I'd only have about 1 full free day to spend at South Beach. However, now that I'm staying in South Beach I'll have more time to walk around there.

I'm staying at Sanctuary by the way.

[rozwado1]

If you don't have a car, get a cab ride to 5th and washington (i think) - the Miami Beach bicycle center. They rent decent bikes for $24/day, but you may be able to get a cheaper rate if you book a few days. Biking is the best way around, if you really want to check out the island.

Things to do:
1. Go for a walk down Lincoln and watch all the trendy ppl with stupidly huge sunglasses sip expensive drinks and 'over laugh' at bad jokes. Zeke's has get cheap beers and you can sit on Lincoln to people watch.

2. Go for a walk down Collins (12th to 6th) and watch all the trendy ppl with stupidly huge sunglasses buy expensive clothes and 'over laugh' at bad jokes. If you have girls with you, you can go into the hotels there around happy hour and get them free drinks. The hoteliers (?) will try to get you to stay there for the night, so just play it up, get free drinks and take off.

3. Bike down the boardwalk. 20th down to 5th is a good ride.

4. Hang out at 3rd street beach on the weekend. Droves of Brazilian girls flock there on weekends. Need I say more?

Cheap places to eat:
1. Check yelp.com - all is fairly true on there.
2. La Sandwicherie is great for decently priced sandwiches
3. Pizza Rustica on Lincoln and washington has great slices. Cash only.
4. Sum Yum Gai (yes, really) is great chinese and they have free delivery, probably to about where your hotel is.

Other info:
there are normal stores off Alton (west side). There's a 7-11 and CVS just south of 15th, so don't get suckered into buying expensive stuff at the little sobe markets by the beach. There's also a CVS on lincoln east of washington (i think). There are 2 Publix stores (grocery) on the west side - one on dade blvd and 18th-ish and one is on west and 20th.

I live over on lincoln and lenox, you can PM me if you need more ideas. Let me know what else you're looking to get into. (coke and hookers?)

[d4nth3m4n]

figure out where fat andy works and sit there all day drinking and chatting him up when he has enough time to talk.

[IceEnclosure]

hahaha. if his destination were Fort Lauderdale that'd be a great idea. There are ridiculous things happening on our beach right now. Tons of girls on the beach now, with Spring Break starting..

rozwado has the right ideas. use 'em. la sandwicherie, mmmmm. pizza rustica at 4am, MMMMMMM..

btw, roz, you going to any events for WMC? I've taken March 26-30 off from work, I'll be back and forth those days to Miami/beach.

[rozwado1]

Originally Posted by IceEnclosure 

btw, roz, you going to any events for WMC? I've taken March 26-30 off from work, I'll be back and forth those days to Miami/beach.

I want to see Erick Morillo on the 26th - he's playing Cameo, then Space til 10a. If I don't feel like sleeping, Steve Lawler and Richite Hawtin are playing the Surfcomber at 11a on thurs. Thurs night Lawler is playing ParkWest downtown.

As far as I'm concerned, Fri and Sat will be sleeping days - I might just head down collins and see who's playing the parties, but I didn't see any must-have events on the WMC List.

And I think I have a test on Friday at 8am...

[CMYKid]

Eug: Ditto soem of what Roz said, you definitely need to:

go to Zekes and have a hot dog and some of the better beer choices in town.

Big Pink is a great place to eat at 3am too, sorta touristy but still good food
and a great anthropological experience.

Automatic Slims: Automatic Slims

and you defintiely need to go here: Buck 15
DJ, art - Miami Beach, Florida

Also, you might have the hotel situation worked out but I started always staying here: Hotel Ocean. 3 room suites, $109ish, right on Ocean Drive next door to the Versace Mansion. Its a boutique place that convinced me to ditch the resort hotels for good.

[IceEnclosure]

Buck 15 is cool, and real. Automatic Slims is lame, and lame.

[CMYKid]

Yeah, I only threw it in for the live music angle, not knowin what he's into. I'm more of a Buck 15 fan too. Its close to my latest favorite, the Rock N Roll Couture store.

[IceEnclosure]

Originally Posted by CMYKid 

Yeah, I only threw it in for the live music angle, not knowin what he's into. I'm more of a Buck 15 fan too. Its close to my latest favorite, the Rock N Roll Couture store.

and to be fair, my distaste for Slims is based on their Fort Lauderdale Meathead location.

[CMYKid]

heh. I abhor anything with meathead involved.

[Eug]

So, any last minute advice? I'll be in South Beach tomorrow.

[IceEnclosure]

Eug, I have nothing to add, the advice above is solid, and I know of nothing going on in particular.

Have fun, weather should be great!

[Eug]

1) Pizza Rustica is great.
2) I will check out Ola soon.
3) I saw a woman today who handcuffed herself to her son. They were walking around Lincoln like that, shopping.
4) I saw another woman today who looked like a middle-class New York grandmother, except that she was wearing Harley garb (including the stereotypical gay bear Harley hat) and fishnet.

[k squared]

Originally Posted by Eug 

1) Pizza Rustica is great.

I miss Pizza Rustica. Which one did you go to? I've found the Washington location much better than the Lincoln location. Less stylish, I guess.

[Eug]

Went past both, but ate on the one on Lincoln. Ate on the patio so I didn't care what the interior looked like.

Went to Ola (on James Ave) too. Very trendy higher end latin fusion restaurant. Nice, cuz most were NOT tourists, but there was a lot of 20-35 year old eye candy dressed to the nines, and the food was very good. The main fish dish we had was very, very slightly overcooked - I like my fish almost raw, so most restaurants overcook their fish IMO - but the flavouring was excellent. And the escolar ceviche was to die for. Desserts were also awesome.

The problem with Ocean Drive is that it seemed to me that there were just far too many generic touristy seafood restaurants, with battered deep fried seafood and heavy pasta. I'm sure some were good, but the fact that they were filled with tourists and not locals concerned me.

P.S. Strange... I saw a guy riding around on his bicycle yesterday... carrying his 6-foot albino boa constrictor wrapped around his body.