Visiting Miami - need some ideas please

[wendaeh]

Hoping for some ideas for visiting Miami for a day. We are a family of five - me and DH, DS-18, DS-16, DD-14. We arrive in Ft Lauderdale at 9:30 am on Easter Sunday - cruise the next day. We have a rental car and are staying near the MIA airport at the Comfort Suites. Any ideas for what to do for the day - teens are not big into museum/zoo stuff and we have excursions planned for every day of cruise, so not looking for a tour per se. Boys and Dad going to the Miami Heat game that night at 7pm -- me and DD will be looking for something to do after dropping them off (we like shopping).

 

Would like to check out South Beach, but even from the website I found I can't tell if it's all walkable, or where to park....what beach would be good if we just want to bum for a few hours before checking into our hotel? Is there a Catholic Church nearby for Mass at some point? Will most things be open on Easter day?

 

Also, my guys are very big Miami Dolphins fans -- any must-do's for them?

 

Thank you:D

[miamiyogi]

No the Beach isn't exactly walkable from the Arena. You can find public garages on South Beach on 5th and 7th streets. If you get in those lots just walk east to the ocean.

 

In downtown Miami has the oldest Catholic Church in Miami --Gesu.

 

If you wanted to shop, maybe after dropping the boys off drive over to Lincoln Road Mall, you can amble about and get a bite to eat or a drink.

 

If you want a very different style of Beach, check out Bill Baggs State Park, it one of the top ten beaches in the US.

[agc291]

The beach is walkable, be aware that when we were there after Thanksgiving the beach was absolutely covered in jellyfish. There is parallel street parking on Ocean Dr which seemed plentiful when we were there.

 

There is a nice path that you can follow the is part of Lummus Park that had a lot of people working out and running/roller blading etc.

 

It was a very nice area but be aware of the extremely large homeless population in the area. (I live in the DC area and it was was worse than I've seen here). They werent bothersome but it is something to think about.

 

 

 

[wendaeh]

Thanks for the great info! I already contacted the church and they will be sending me their Easter schedule -- very beautiful! We may just walk around Soth Beach for a little rather than hitting the beach depending on how tired everyone is from an early flight. The picks of the beach looked like our beach in NJ ;) except our dunes are higher

[megr1125]

http://www.masstimes.org

 

that's what i use..you can google a miami zip code if you want...maybe look up the one for the hotel (though they should be able to tell you..)

[wendaeh]

www.masstimes.org

 

that's what i use..you can google a miami zip code if you want...maybe look up the one for the hotel (though they should be able to tell you..)

 

This is awesome! We often travel over Easter since the kids are off school and I am always looking for churches -- this site is so helpful - definitely going to bookmark it