The Best Travel Experiences in South Florida
- Best Museum: A collector's dream come true, Miami's Wolfsonian is a treasure trove of miscellany (a matchbook that once belonged to the King of Egypt) and artifacts hailing from the propaganda age of World War II.
- Best Cultural Experience: A walk through Little Havana is a fascinating study in the juxtaposition and fusion of two very vibrant cultures in which pre-Castro Cuba is as alive and well as the McDonald's right next door.
- Best Snorkeling Spot: Looe Key National Marine Sanctuary, Bahia Honda State Park. With 5.3 square miles of gorgeous coral reef, rock ledges up to 35 feet tall, and a colorful and motley marine community, you may never want to come up for air.
- Best Public Golf Course: Miami's Biltmore Golf Course, Biltmore Hotel. If it's good enough for former President Clinton, it's good enough for those of you who don't travel with a bevy of Secret Service agents. But the real question is: Are you good enough for the course? The 6th hole is notoriously difficult, with distracting water hazards among other difficulties. Nonetheless, it's an excellent course with a picture-postcard setting.
- Best Dive Bar: Jose Cuervo Underwater Bar. In May 2000, the legendary tequila company celebrated Cinco de Mayo by submerging an actual, $45,000 full-size bar and six stools about 600 feet off South Beach's First Street beach. For expert divers, this bar is more than your average watering hole.
- Best Place to Satisfy Your Morbid Curiosity: The Mystery, Mayhem and Vice Crime Bus Tour. Not that we're implying anything here, but Miami is a haven for people like O. J. Simpson and, at one time, Al Capone. It's a place where shady characters come to reinvent themselves. However, at times, they also tend to reincriminate themselves. See the spots where some of these criminals fell off the wagon -- it's morbidly delicious.
- Best Offbeat Experience: Although it's little more than a tropical shantytown, Jimbo's, located at the tip of Virginia Key, is consistently fantastic, with no-frills smoked fish, beer out of the bucket, and colorful locals, all of which make it the best offbeat and off-the-beaten-track experience in South Florida.
