it was our first time in South Florida...and this was our plan for the long weekend:
Day 1 - the Keys
we arrived the day before and stayed at the Westin in Coral Gables (very good experience and would recommend the japanese restaurant in front of the hotel), woke up early in the morning as we had to do all the keys up to Key West. the drive is very nice and worth it, but you really need the whole day for the round trip. this will give you some time to visit Key West too. apart from that we couldn't or didn't see many things to do, although we stopped at a beach and swim for a while on our way back to Key Largo, where we spent the night.
Day 2 - Everglades
time to see some aligators. we went to the south part of the national park and here you can spend at least half a day going all the way down to Flamingo (where the sea is). stop at as many places as you can, although the first or second one on the left of the road is the one where you will be able to see more or some alligators.
that night we went to Azul, a restaurant at the Mandarin Oriental hotel. we loved everything from it, the food, the service, the setting and the restaurant itself. highly recommended for a special night :-)
Day 3 - Everglades, Alligator farm and Seaquarium
in the morning we went towards Shark Valley, which is the other entrance to the Everglades park. before getting there we stopped at Gator Park for the airboat tour, we liked it there although I believe all places might offer the same type of deal. then we arrived to the park's entrance but realized you could only visit the park by bike or tram. it was extremely hot so we talked to a ranger to see if it was worth it and the answer we got is that with everything we saw the day before we didn't need to suffer under the sun :-)
at this point we thought we could go to the Seaquarium, one of Miami's "most famous attractions". the place was OK, although we thought it was a little over rated. we have not been to the one in San Diego but I can suspect it is way better than this one. great place to bring kids though...
Day 4 - South Beach
hey, we couldn't miss South Beach right?? yes, the last day was a relaxing day at the beach.
all in all the vacation was fantastic. we loved the people, the places, the food and how cosmopolitan everything is. looking forward to get back there!
hope this can be of help!
xavier
