Hotels in Miami- good location ?

We;'re coming in the day before our Freedom of the Seas, May 4th cruise- we heard that you have to be really careful in Miami and should stay in Bayside-- does anyone have a good experience getting from the airport and then to the ship the next day-- and having something to do in the evening--please share!! Thanks--Happy Cruising.

There is nothing to do in the airport area except have dinner in your hotel. You will need either a rental car or a taxi to get to anyplace interesting. Bayside is the shopping/dining mall downtown near the port, not an area. The hotels bordering it are fine, and you can walk from them to Bayside in reasonable safety. My choice would be to stay in either South Beach or Coconut Grove.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn across the street from the Bayside Market and loved the location. There are a lot of shops and restaurants at Bayside. When we were there they had entertainment down by the water with a great band from Brazil performing. There are boat rides that you can take, for a fee of course, to check out the bay area. We saw a lot of the homes of many celebrities from our boat ride and also some playful dolphins. The Captain stopped the boat so that we could see them playing. We had a great time and hope to stay there again in April.

I'm not too sure about the night life though. The area outside of the motel is a little scarey, but there will be a lot of people walking around going between the two places. We did see a couple of homeless people who were asking us for money.

But, all in all I think it's a good place to stay if you have some time on your hands.

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We;'re coming in the day before our Freedom of the Seas, May 4th cruise- we heard that you have to be really careful in Miami and should stay in Bayside-- does anyone have a good experience getting from the airport and then to the ship the next day-- and having something to do in the evening--please share!! Thanks--Happy Cruising.

Bayside is a tourist trap and downtown Miami is not the best place to stay in terms of wanting to see anything that is actually Miami.

South Beach, Coconut Grove, and Coral Gables would all be much better picks. Downtown is deserted at night and Bayside is a tourist trap that you can see in any big city with a waterfront (South Street Seaport, NYC, etc).