Miamii BABY. That’s right, your girl spent Spring Break in where the term itself originated from.
I’ve always wanted to go to Miami, with its luscious palm trees, gorgeous beaches, people, and glamorous party scene. I was fortunate enough to attend a world-famous event, Ultra Miami, a three-day festival in the downtown core of Miami. This event was unbelievable; you can bet I’ll be back again and again for it.
Aside from jumping up and down and marveling at some of the stellar music sets, I spent some time exploring the neat little spots in Miami. Given the short amount of time, I think we made pretty decent use out of it. So without further ado, this is where I ate, partied, and shopped in Miami, Florida.
Miami: Premium Real Estate for Ocean-view Dining
When I was researching where to indulge my taste buds for the trip, one of the first requirements was that it had to have an ocean view. And if you’re into that like me, you’re in for a treat because Miami and South Beach are practically dotted with them.
Quick note: Miami and South Beach are separate islands, separated by a bridge. In Miami, you’ll find a typical split between the downtown, concrete jungle vibes, and the water—and going inwards, you’ll have your typical USA suburban areas connected by freeways. It’s pretty cool because you’ll see some of the bridges within Miami Beach ‘open up’ to let the yachts pass through. There are a ton of them 🛥️
If Miami is the sizzling brunette with the Louboutins, South Beach is the pretty younger sister with sandy blonde hair and legs for days.
We only drove into South Beach for a quick bite close to sunset, but I can only imagine how beautiful and picturesque it is during the day. Beaches, fine dining, shopping, and a bustling nightlife— say less!
We decided upon a restaurant located inside a trendy boutique hotel called the Standard. One thing about this hotel is that it smelt AMAZING (earthy and clean like a spa). When you go up the elevator, you’re led down this long, narrowish lane surrounded by tall green bushes. It was neat that they had a firepit equipped with hanging hammock-style seats tucked into this mini oasis.
As you enter the restaurant, named The Lido, you immediately catch a glimpse of the vast ocean and if you squint hard enough, you can spot the mansions sprawling across one of the areas adjacent to where we were. A large swimming pool and sunbeds open to members is on the other side of the restaurant. We were the youngest people in the restaurant, with most people there being in their 30s and 40s. The menu wasn’t cheap, but it wasn’t outrageous either, considering the view and ambiance we had. Another thing I really loved was the loud and vivacious tropical beats they had thundering in the background. It really did suit the place nicely.
The dress code here is non-existent— I saw men dressed in business casual and women in uncomfortably high heels, to a stunning blonde in a matching athletic fit. I would recommend if you were to come here, wear something comfortable and cute. Overdoing it on the outfit department screams that you’re ‘not from around here’. In fact, it’s the girls who kept it simple, you could tell were the ones actually staying at the 4-star boutique (which sells itself as a “spa with rooms”). This playful little spot will cost you upwards of $500 USD a night.
After meeting up with some of our friends, we headed downstairs to the hotel bar, The Monterrey. This quaint spot, with reminisce of the speakeasies from the nineties, could sit at most 12-ish people.
My partner mentioned it reminded him of the bars in New York City. The majority of the space comprised lounge seats dipped in mahogany, and most of the tables were decorated with train carriage lamps.
I think all that was missing to complete this aesthetic was honestly an ashtray. They had a pretty solid selection of martinis, whiskeys, and other house-crafted cocktails. It’s too bad at this point of the night, I was getting the whiff of my end-of-trip sickness. Couldn’t enjoy the cocktails this time. Oh and heads up— they do not serve coffee.
The second spot was probably one of my favorites throughout the trip. On the second day of our trip, we ventured out to Biscayne Bay, the financial district of Downtown, Miami. We made our way to a neat restaurant tucked in the corner of a building overlooking the ocean. Crazy About You, is an ocean-side restaurant with a stunning and artistic interior, as well as an equally tasteful patio. We obviously had to catch some of the rays outdoors.
Their food is extremely affordable and tasty— although a bit on the salty side. We started with their skillet-baked cornbread, oozing with butter from the middle. They’re famous for this for a reason. This was probably the moistest cornbread I ever had.
This is kind of a side note, but I loved how their second option for champagne by the glass was Moet & Chandon (my favourite!!). For $14/glass, again, this is relatively affordable. Back home, it’s extremely rare to see restaurants serve Moet by the glass and when they do, it can easily round up to $28 a glass (for reference, the full bottle costs ~$80 CAD).
For mains, C and I got the pan-seared albacore tuna club sandwich, which came with a generous smear of mayonnaise and chunks of sliced avocado. Although tasty, it was extremely salty and meaty. Next time, I would go with well done, instead of medium rare. Of course, to pair, crispy matchstick fries. The mains cost less than $20 USD!!
Final touches: They served our receipts in a mini blue locker. Again, the whole aesthetic of the restaurant is playful, tasteful, and modern. Most of the tables inside are guarded by colourful miniature bear figurines.
Why didn’t you get Cuban food?
If you didn’t know, Miami is extremely close to Cuba. Hence, they have one of the largest Cuban populations in the world. With that comes a great handful of Cuban restaurants. We lived 20 minutes away from Versailles, coined ‘the most famous Cuban restaurant in the world.’ Their food is quite affordable, the menu is ample, and I believe there’s something for everyone at this establishment. But you’ll probably anticipate a line. If you don’t want to go to glorified restaurants, a quick local search will bring up plenty of options to get your fill of Ropa Vieja and Sandwich Cubano. And lots of Cuban coffee!!
We didn’t get a chance to taste Cuban food. Three of the five days were eaten up by festivals and parties. The other two, I really wanted to maximize and splurge a little ie. dining at cute ocean-side spots, and the Dior cafe, which I will talk about in a bit.
The Dior Cafe: Every Bougie Girl’s Dream
The Dior Cafe is located in **one** of the Diors in the design district in Miami, on the third floor. You can expect to wait 20- 45 minutes to get seated. That was no problem, we left our names with the attendant and went shopping. The design district technically is comprised of several streets, but it’s ‘designed’ in a way where it feels like a connected plaza or village.
You can find every designer under the moon here, but the typical ones you’ll see are Louis Vuitton, Dior, Moncler, Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta, Cartier, Chanel, and Fendi. The design district is built in a way that reflects a distinctive artistic and creative flair. There are a number of interactive art pieces like swings, and they didn’t cheap out on the painting.
Many of the buildings are painted with vibrant colors like yellow and baby pink, but it doesn’t distract you from the opulence of the main statements—the designer stores. The designer stores are grandiose and architecturally magnificent— big chef’s kiss.
We stopped by the newly built Moncler store which was decked out in glass and screens. Then, we stopped by a ‘hip’ designer store, called Kith, which carries an assortment of brands, including their own. Inside, they even have a Sadelle’s restaurant (super popular here). I say hip because the clientele here is significantly younger than the clientele from other shops. We both got a new pair of chic Nikes, and surprise, their sales tax is surprisingly low!
After our little shopping adventure, we went back to Dior to get our seating. The cafe itself is so adorable, it literally looks straight out of White Lotus (monkeys and all!).
You can expect to pay around $15 USD TO $20 USD just for coffee, and about double that for alcohol. They also offer little bites and meals. All coffee is ‘stamped’ with their logo, although it was a little disappointing it wasn’t the full ‘D-I-O-R”.
Overall, I found the experience to be super adorable and relaxing, as they limit the number of people they seat. Great photo op opportunities!! But be prepared to drop $20-$40 USD, I think of it basically as admission price + a free drink! 😂
Next time: I would love to check out more upscale and chic spots, and coffee! I didn’t get a chance to explore the coffee scene here in Miami.
Miami: The City That Never Sleeps
If you thought Paris was a sleepless city, Miami is that on steroids. During Miami Music Week, which intertwines with Ultra Miami, people fly in from all over the world to go to the legendary club shows and events that sprawl across the city. You can expect to see big-time DJs casually playing at warehouse clubs and bringing their entire entourage with them.
If you love techno, check out Factory Town, which is an outdoor club. There are around five stages, which make you feel like you’re being transported to some ungodly place. Expect plenty of smoke, laser beams, million-dollar visuals, and folks in blow-up Athenian costumes strutting about through the crowds. One night, they had one of the stages themed as a Greek city for elrow. The parties here run until the morning. But the drinks ain’t cheap— so you better prepare yourself earlier (in whatever way you prefer). We saw Afterlife on the first night, which was highly anticipated and Instagrammable, but kind of disappointing musically. We found it extremely repetitive.
If you’re more of a basic bitch like me, you have to check out Space Miami. This club is world acclaimed and runs 24 hours. One of our biggest regrets throughout the trip was missing out on this club. This was because we didn’t get tickets beforehand, and they had already sold out on the day we tried to get them. If you ever happen to stop by Space, you’ll have to tell me what it’s like. 😢
There are also a number of clubs in South Beach, one of our friends recommended called Treehouse, which goes until about 5 am. When it comes to clubs, we were made aware that it works a little differently in Miami than in Vancouver. It’s all about who you know— if you know a local who frequents the club or knows the people working at the club, you can expect perks like discounted prices or expedited entry. If you’re traveling and don’t know any locals— good luck 😂You can always try to pay to play!
Ultra Miami: There’s nothing like Ultra Miami, and my partner’s been to a lot of raves—including EDC in Vegas. I’d like to first make a shoutout to whoever decided to contract those washroom systems called Komfort. It’s literally so comfortable— complemented with full AC and a flush system. I would go and hide in the bathroom on the third day when it got too hot. This was some princess shit compared to the hell bathrooms we’re all used to at typical raves. We got the general VIP wristbands which gave us access to a private shaded area with its own dock of bathrooms, drink and food booths, beanie bags, and our own small platform for the live stage. However, the big win was that it literally took two seconds to get from the entrance of the festival to the inside. No lineup, nada.
Ultra Miami is uniquely located in Downtown Miami, meaning you can stare at the main stage (which is MASSIVE), and then look behind you at the soaring residential buildings. They also have a Ferris wheel running nearby, which compliments the aesthetic?
There is the Main Stage (mainstream hits), the Resistance Stage (techno), Live Stage (has colosseum seating), and the Worldwide Stage.
Our favorite remains to be the Resistance stage, which is a semi-dome structure. It’s pretty dark in there, but the sound is isolated and crisp. You’ll find famous drum and beat artists and techno artists at this stage.
If you love mainstream artists like Zedd, Martin Garrix, David Guetta, and Marshmellow, you obviously have to spend some time near the end on the Main Stage. They pull off every stop at this stage, including fireworks, laser beams, and drone shows.
The artists often will play unreleased, new music here. I can’t quite describe in words how massive and technologically enabled this stage is. All I can guess is that it cost millions to build the hundreds of screens and lighting. My favorite performance on the main stage was probably the duo between Zedd and Martin Garrix, in which they played a lot of their old music (so not the stuff you hear on the radio). Timmy Trumpet, a hardstyle artist absolutely killed it with nothing but pants, a cowboy hat, his trumpet, and award-winning confidence. He bounced around the stage effortlessly and played the highest notes on the trumpet that you’ve ever heard along with his hardstyle tracks. My only thing about the main stage is that it gets very crowded near the end of the festival. It’s not as enjoyable when you’re squished between people and are staring at people’s heads instead of the set. Still though, would recommend it if you’re looking for a few surprises. Even the most renowned artists will put a little more effort and specialty into their Ultra set.
If you love food, there’s something for you too. There are a number of food booths all across the event so you never have to worry about going hungry. Power smoothies, sushi burritos, tacos, Korean chicken sandwiches, mac and cheese, hot dogs, and burgers— they have a wide range for any palette. As for alcoholic beverages, expect a typical nightclub variety, and the price is around $15-$20 USD per beverage. Again, my tip is to go with a certain amount of money you’re willing to lose (they do accept cash).
Overall, if you love a thumping night scene and would like the opportunity to catch a random famous artist on a Tuesday, Miami is a very viable option for you. In terms of safety, you just have to be a little mindful as in any other city. Use common sense: Don’t walk alone in the more run-down areas late at night. Even in Downtown Miami, there is a stretch of the city that’s not as well-kept as Biscayne Bay. Ubering around is extremely easy, and you can expect to catch Ubers even early in the morning when you’re dragging your feet back home(they’re used to it).
Would I recommend it?
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ A 5-star yes. Whether you’re looking for a relaxing vacation on the beach, or you want to party until you see Jesus, Miami has something for you. Miami does have all the glamour and glitz that’s displayed in movies, but its real charm is the vibrant energy of the locals. Even our Uber driver was turning up with us at 11 pm. You’ll also find large communities of Latinos and Cubans here, which add to the warmth and personality of this coastal city. If you’re looking to splurge and spend some $$$, the design district can fulfill all your wardrobe desires, and the restaurants and their cocktail lists are too lengthy to even mention here. If you’re a gawker like me, meaning you just adore the ambiance and sophistication of certain locations, you will love Miami. So throw your hair back, have a glass of champagne, and sit back and enjoy the glorious views of this sleepless city.
Secret Prose 
Leave a comment