Miami Travel Guide
Surfside and Bal Harbor
Including North along Collins Avenue, the next major settlement, Surfside is a self-contained, unremarkable beachside community that spans from 88 to 96 streets blocks here are full of one-and two-story single-family homes, as well as neighborhood amenities along Harding Avenue including a post office, drugstore, and banks.
Unless you need to make a pit-stop there, skip Surfside in favor of the tony Bal Harbour, which begins at 96th St. Belle Harbor's most telling feature is its name, Anglicized to underscore the pretensions to culture, history, and while; it's somewhat ironic, then, that Miami Beach's most self-consciously ritzy area should have such humble beginnings. It was originally nothing more than a soldiers training camp in World War II; and the town only incorporated in 1946 when many of those soldiers-who fondly remembered Miami-came back for more unsettled here permanently.
Most visitors today, though, come to Belle Harbor for one thing: the Bell Harbor shops, at 9700 Collins Ave. This bi-level, open-the air mall is positively charged with designer names: Fendi, Prada, and Gucci all have their Miami outposts here, although this exclusivity is becoming diluted with the arrival of everyday stores at Banana Republic and the construction of a competing luxury mall at Coral Gables, the village at Merrick Park. It may be a fun place to window-shop, but don't expect any bargains-even cafés are premium priced. Clearly, though, someone spending: Bal Harbor usually ties with the Cesar`s mall in Las Vegas as the most lucrative mall per square foot in the whole country.
Haulover Park and North
moving on North from Bal Harbour brings you to the nude Beaches in Haulover Park- in fact for more salubrious than their racy reputation might suggest. The Golden coastline here stretches for several sand packed miles before delivering it to the mouth package-holiday hell-though, admittedly, it's a golden sand hellmouth-in Sunny Isles Beach.
Haulover Park
Famous for being Miami's one nude beach, Haulover Park, a one-of-a-kind Collins Avenue, is far more than that: the glorious, wide sands make a visit here worth the trip, wherever you're standing, not to mention the excellent facilities-showers, picnic tables, and bathrooms-along the boardwalk that runs parallel to the oceanfront.
The clothing optional section to the north is clearly marked by warning signs on the footpath, although you don't have to strip off the sunbathed even their: either way, there's a volleyball court for sporting news, and an unofficial gay section at the northernmost and between sections 29 and 27. Spiffier local residents have been mounting a sneaky campaign techniques the newest, positioning the city for a new school to rebuild nearby; center zoning laws would apply and celebrated nude bathing. The fact that Belle Harbor's population is largely retirees with grown children means that they're unlikely to succeed, though at time of writing, no final decision's been taken; however, call the number listed check if you're determined to bathe in the buff.
Sunny Isles Beach
Poor Sunny Isles. This blatant Las Vegas rip-off was founded in 1952 especially as a holiday resort and dozens of natty motels quickly sprung up here along with ample beach; two were even named Sahara and Suez in Vegas’s honor. However, the resort soon lost its luster and spent much of the rest of the century languishing as an undesirable package-holiday destination filled with bargain-minded sun seekers, mostly from Europe.
The sumptuous beaches here to provide some saving grace, however. While elsewhere in Southern Florida, resorts have been bedeviled by coastal erosion, Sunny Isles heavy investment in renumeration-basically, Rogaine for beaches, dredged sand that has been dumped onto the thinning shoreline has paid off. Unfortunately, there is a downside to this ocean floor harvesting: shifting the massive sands has altered the tide, and created dangerous new riptides that can catch swimmers off guard.
Aside from his glorious sands, though, there's little reason to visit: Ritzier, soulless skyscraper hotels from the likes of Donald Trump are swallowing up the cramped but charming hotels. Many of the kitschier buildings thrown up in the 1950s are being torn down, but there are a few fun examples of Sunny Isles showmanship left along Collins Avenue. Concrete sheiks and camels guard the entrance to the now-closed Sahara, at number 18335; white and gold many sphinxes like marzipan statues look out on the driveway of the Suez at number 18215; while there's even a grand native homage-which looks disturbingly like a tablecloth pattern from the 1950s-on the back end of the Thunderbird at number 18401. Go see them now while you can; there are no preservation laws protecting the strip of coastline, and with development proceeding so aggressively, it's likely not long until little evidence at all is left from Sunny Isles’ heyday.
Golden Beach
Golden Beach holds little of interest for the visitor. As A1A threads through the subdivision, Travelers are thrown back into the Miami of the early 1980s when there were so many seniors in Miami Beach that it earned the nickname “God’s Waiting Room.” The aligning houses and condos are still stocked with old ladies enjoying the warm weather, tanning through retirement, but the number of blue hairs has certainly dwindled in the last 20 years.
If you stay on A1A, it will eventually embody the other nondescript resort town of Hollywood, bring you to Fort Lauderdale, although it's a roundabout route and you're better off using faster, interior road. |
