Things to Do in Miami

The beach is free, and that is the whole argument

The best thing in the most expensive-looking city in America costs nothing.

Miami sells itself on the version with a bottle and a banquette, and then the actual best thing here is a public beach that anyone can walk onto. Take the free trolley up to North Beach where the sand is wider and the crowd is local, or walk into the water anywhere along South Beach and look back at the Deco facades. Bring your own cooler. Swim where a lifeguard can see you and pay attention to the flags on the stand — the ocean here has rip currents and the afternoon storms arrive faster than you'd believe.

Everything below is built on the same principle. In Miami, the good part is priced by the car, by the gate, or not at all — and a group is exactly the right shape to take advantage of that.

Eight dollars a carload

Florida's state parks charge per vehicle. Fill the vehicle.

Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, at the bottom of Key Biscayne, is $8 per vehicle carrying two to eight people — $4 for a single occupant or a motorcycle, and $2 a head for anyone walking, cycling, riding along as an extra passenger, or getting dropped off by a car service. Inside there's a proper beach, trails through pine and sea grape, and the Cape Florida lighthouse, built in 1825 and the oldest standing structure in Miami-Dade.

Eight dollars for the car, eight people in it. That's a dollar each for a lighthouse and a beach.— On group math

Oleta River State Park in North Miami is $6 per vehicle on the same two-to-eight basis, and it is the active day: mangrove creeks to kayak, and the best mountain-bike trails in the county. Both parks take the money at the gate. Neither requires you to plan anything more complicated than who's driving.

The Everglades, priced by the vehicle

The one day worth renting a car for, and the arithmetic that proves it.

Everglades National Park charges $35 for a private vehicle, which admits the driver and every passenger and is good for seven consecutive days at any park entrance. On foot or by bike it's $20 per person. Eight of you in one car is under $4.40 each; the same eight arriving on foot is $160. The park takes no cash at all — card or a digital pass only, so sort that before you're at the gate.

The closest way in is Shark Valley, where a 15-mile paved loop runs straight out into the sawgrass. Walk part of it, or rent bikes there and do the whole thing; alligators lie beside the path in numbers that stop being alarming after about twenty minutes. If you want the airboat version, that's a private operation outside the park — Everglades Holiday Park runs airboat rides with a gator show at $41.99 for adults and $29.99 for children aged 3 to 11, and the wider market sits around $28 to $35 a head.

Messi plays here now

The most relevant new building in Miami, and tickets start lower than you think.

Sport here goes further than that. The new JAM Arena at Casino Miami opened in February 2026 — 1,500 seats for music, comedy and sport, built into the old jai alai fronton, which is a very Miami sentence and a genuinely odd, good room to find yourself in.

The sandbar, and when a boat is worth it

The one paid thing that gets cheaper per person the more of you there are.

On weekends, half of Miami anchors in waist-deep water off Haulover and stands around in it. That's the sandbar, and it is the single most Miami thing you can do that isn't free. It also has a tipping point worth knowing, because charters here are priced by the boat rather than by the seat: a private pontoon for up to ten runs about $650 for a half day and $1,000 for a full day, captain included. Split ten ways, the half day is $65 each — roughly what one person pays for a seat on a shared tour, for a boat that goes where you want it to.

Below about six people the arithmetic stops working and a shared tour is the honest answer. Above it, this is the day everyone talks about afterwards. Bring your own cooler and water, agree the total before you book, and remember that a captain is a job — tip them properly, separately from whatever the booking site added.

Wynwood, and what you are actually paying for

The murals are free. The courtyard is the ticket.

Wynwood Walls is the enclosed courtyard of commissioned murals, and it costs $12 for adults, $10 for over-65s and $5 for ages 6 to 17, booked online. It's good. But the neighbourhood around it is covered in painted walls that cost nothing to look at, and most of what people photograph and post is out on the street rather than inside the gate. Do both if you like art; do the streets if you're deciding where six people's money goes.

Two more that reward a group and don't ask much: the free Metromover through downtown and Brickell is a sightseeing loop that happens to be public transport, best at dusk. And ICA Miami in the Design District is free, Wednesday to Sunday, 11am to 6pm, with timed tickets booked ahead.

Where we would book

Two tickets to buy early. Everything else you turn up for.

Buy Inter Miami tickets through the club or Ticketmaster and be wary of resale sites, which add margin rather than seats. Wynwood Walls and ICA Miami both sell timed entry on their own sites, and ICA being free is not a reason to skip the booking — it still runs out. The state parks and the Everglades take payment at the gate, by card. Airboat operators sell online and there is no advantage to prepaying unless you want a specific slot. Bikes at Shark Valley are first-come. And the beach, the Metromover and every mural on a public wall in Wynwood remain gloriously, permanently free.

Related guides

• Your Miami Travel Guide — the visa, the bill, and the free half of the city.
• The Miami Food Guide — why the best table in town is in a strip mall.
• The Miami Culture Guide — arrivals, exile, and who ended up on the high ground.
• Miami Group Trip Guide — six visas, one car, one bill.
• Things to Do in NYC — 23 plans, most of them better in a crowd.