Overview

We visited Miami and the Florida Keys over Thanksgiving. We were not thoroughly impressed by anything in particular, although we enjoyed our stay. Some places seem to be worth visiting more than others: read on for more details.

In More Detail

We started out by visiting Miami Beach. The Art Deco district is an interesting place for a stroll: many of the buildings are quite ornate and colorful. We ate lunch at Cafe Neuf and wondered what Cuba looks like.

We stayed at Mandarin Oriental which is located on a private island (different from Miami Beach), in downtown Miami. We wanted to stay there because we were quite happy with our stay at Mandarin Oriental in San Francisco. The hotel room was clean and quiet, yet it didn't meet our high expectations---the windows looked "oily" on the outside (possibly due to the recent hurricane), and the sink was slow to drain. A general comment about both MO hotels we have visited: the staff is a bit too eager to help with trivial tasks with a clear expectation of being tipped; moreover, only valet parking is available, which at times is an incovenience unless you want to spent extra money and enjoy being served. The food at restaurant Azul was advertised as some of the best you can have in Miami, and we can confirm that it is excellent.

There is an alley in front of Mandarin Oriental Miami which allows for a pleasant walk along the water with a view of downtown Miami and the highrise buildings along Brickell Avenue. This is an area of impressive development, and magazine articles claim that most of the units are not primary residences. This matches our view that there isn't much high-profile work to do in Miami unless you are in a service-oriented profession like hospitality, law, medicine, or recreation.

On the next day we drove south. First, we stopped at Everglades Alligator Farm. There, we could observe alligators at various stages of development, and took a trip on an "airboat" (a boat with a flat bottom, propelled by a huge, noisy fan on the back; good for traveling over very shallow water or grass). We also wanted to taste alligator meat, so we ordered some "alligator bites". Unfortunately, their taste was dominated by the spices and the batter. We guess the bites are prepared with a lot of batter in order to compensate for their size. In any case, we would have preferred to taste a smaller, simply prepared piece of alligator meat. Either way, we doubt alligators deserve the status of "delicacy".

We continued south on our way to Key West. There, we expected to find sunny beaches and high-quality recreational opportunities. Instead, we found a downtown full of noisy bars and generally not-so-good restaurants (with a few notable exceptions). We stayed at Eden House, which is a very comfortable (though not perfectly clean) hotel several blocks from Duval Street. One of the best features of Eden House is the restaurant next door, called Cafe Med. We highly recommend this restaurant. We also highly recommend the bruschettas at Fogarty's on Duval Street.

Our last stop on the Keys was Key Largo. There we stayed at Kona Kai Resort & Gallery. Kona Kai is impeccably maintained. We didn't see a single bug in the room and everything was sparkling clean. There are free kayaks and ping-pong table that guests can enjoy, along with a nicely heated pool and jacuzzi. The staff will be happy to make your dinner and activities reservations for you. We booked a very reasonably priced half-day trip on Morning Star---a sailboat that takes only up to six people to some of the more distant reefs. If you like to snorkel, we think this trip is well worth taking.

Overall, we think we had the best time in Key Largo. We recommend all the other places for a daytrip or one night's stay, however in terms of recreational value, we got the most at Kona Kai---it offered pretty much all that we wanted, all in one place.