Best hotel in Miami

We will be flying into Miami for our cruise in Oct. and are looking for a decent hotel in a safe neighborhood. We also need to know the best way to get to the port. Should we shuttle or taxi? We've never been to Miami so any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

We stayed at the Sofitel in Miami and it was wonderful! They have a shuttle at the airport that will take you to the hotel and it will also take you to the port of Miami.

Because you are going in Oct. which is a low season for Miami, you will have many choices and should be able to find reasonable rates then. If you want to be near the port, look into the Intercontinental. You mentioned "decent hotel", so I'm sure you don't want to go into higher cost hotels. If you are familiar with Priceline, you generally get the best deals during the fall months.

Don't pay for any kind of shuttles. The cab is about 25$ from the airport to the port area hotels. And only 10$ to the cruise ship in the a.m. None of the port area hotels offer free shuttles. (You mentioned Miami, so I assume you want to stay near the port in Miami. ) If you are open to areas, you could even try South Beach, Coconut Grove or Coral Gables areas.

I have heard there are some unsafe areas and I don't want to be in any of them. We would like to stay as close to the port unless there's inexpensive transportation as we won't have a car to drive there. Since we're only staying 1 night pre cruise and 1 night post cruise and there will be 4 of us we don't want to pay to high of a price for the hotel or the transportation. Any area will be good as long as it's safe.

If you want to be close to the pier then look at the Holiday Inn at the Port ( on Biscayne) or the Intercontinental. You didn't mention a room rate budget, so can't really help but tell you what's the closest.

There have been many discussions on this board re hotels, so just start hunting for recs. It will help if you let us know what you are willing to pay. SOme people pay 200 for a room, some higher. Some look for budget hotels under 200. So it makes a difference as far as recs. Requesting a "decent" room doesn't really help.

But you are going in a reasonable time for lower rates.

Use a cab to get to the port no matter where you are staying! You'll pay one cab fare rather than a per person charge. And it's a lot faster!