The trip is six appointments long
Before flights, before the apartment, before anything: find out who already has a visa.
Argentina is not in the US Visa Waiver Program — it was removed in 2002 and hasn't been readmitted — so everyone travelling needs a B1/B2 visa. Interview appointments in Buenos Aires run at about 49 days out, swinging between roughly three weeks and two months by season and busiest from December to February, and then there's three to four weeks of processing afterwards. About three months, door to door.
Six friends going to Miami is not one booking. It's six appointments.— On the long pole
And they don't come as a block. The friends who already hold a valid visa are not the constraint; the two who don't are, and the trip's real start date is the last interview on the calendar. So the first message in the group chat isn't a date or a budget — it's "who has a visa, and when does it expire?" Everything else in this guide is easy. This is the part that decides whether the trip happens at all.
Argentina is in the process of rejoining the programme and the reporting points at 2027 as a possibility, gated on benchmarks including the refusal rate. Nobody can promise you a date. Plan on the visa.
Where a group sleeps, and why it decides your budget
Pick the neighbourhood by the free transit first, the price second.
Miami looks like a city that demands a car, and then quietly runs three free services. The Metromover covers downtown and Brickell — free, elevated, driverless, every 90 seconds to three minutes, roughly 5:30am to 10pm. The Miami Beach Trolley loops South, Middle and North Beach, free, roughly 8am to 11pm, every 15 to 20 minutes. Freebee is a free on-demand door-to-door ride inside a Mid-Beach and part-of-North-Beach geofence, Monday to Friday 6:30am–10pm, Saturday 8am–10pm, Sunday 8am–8pm.
Base yourselves on one of those and your daily transport cost is zero. Base yourselves off them and you're paying $4.00 an hour to park on the street in South Beach or the Entertainment District — enforced until 3am, and around the clock in the Entertainment District — or surging for two cars every time the group moves. At four to six you can improvise around this. At eight or more, pick the transit line first and treat it as a hard filter on where you look.
On the apartment itself: message the host and ask straight whether the place genuinely holds your number or merely sleeps them. And the person who puts their name on the booking and their card on the deposit is doing something real for the group. Be good to them.
One car, one day
Florida charges by the vehicle. This is the single best group deal in the state.
Rent one car for one day rather than a week of parking fees, and point it at a gate that charges per vehicle. Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park on Key Biscayne is $8 for a vehicle carrying two to eight — beach, trails, and an 1825 lighthouse — which is a dollar a head if you fill the car. Oleta River State Park is $6 on the same basis, with kayaking and mountain-bike trails.
And the big one: Everglades National Park is $35 per private vehicle, admitting everyone inside, valid seven consecutive days — against $20 per person arriving on foot. Eight in a car is under $4.40 each; eight on foot is $160. The park takes no cash, so bring a card. That single arithmetic difference is the reason the rental car exists on this trip.
The bill, and the three lines on it
A skill worth teaching the whole group on day one.
Miami restaurants commonly add an automatic 18–20% operations charge. Since 1 July 2025, Florida law requires it to be stated on the menu with its purpose, flagged on the face of the bill, and itemised on the receipt as three separate lines: gratuity, operations charge, and sales tax. Tax is 9% on Miami Beach and 8% at mainland places serving alcohol.
So a $200 dinner for eight on the Beach arrives as roughly $200 + $18 tax + $40 service = $258, about $32 a head, and the tip is already in there. Tell the table before the first dinner: read the three lines, then decide. It stops the well-meaning friend from adding 20% on top of 20%, which on a week of group dinners is real money.
The ventanita round
The best group ritual in Miami costs about two dollars. A colada is a strong Cuban coffee served in one cup with a stack of little thimbles beside it, built to be poured out and handed round. The average across 20 of the county's busiest coffee windows is $2.06 — cheapest $1.50, dearest $4.05 at Molina's Ranch in Hialeah. Five of you sharing one is 41 cents each. Nobody splits it. Somebody just buys it, and then somebody else buys the next one, and that's the whole system.
Three group days that actually work
Two anchors a day. Miami is too spread out for six.
Day one: land, drop bags, and let the free trolley take you up the Beach until everyone's awake. Swim. Eat somewhere with no reservation. End at a ventanita, then dinner in Little Havana — Versailles is open to midnight, later at weekends, and forgiving of a group that arrives late and undecided.
Day two: the rental car day. Everglades in the morning through Shark Valley while it's cool, back across town in the afternoon, and either Cape Florida for the light or Wynwood if the group wants walls and coffee. At eight or more, two cars and agree the meeting point before you leave, because phone signal in the sawgrass is a rumour.
Day three: split up on purpose, which is how big groups stay friends. Freedom Tower and the Design District for some, Domino Park and Calle Ocho for others, ICA Miami for anyone who wants free air conditioning and good art. Regroup for one proper dinner — the one meal you booked weeks ago — and check the Inter Miami fixture list, because a home game at Nu Stadium beats any plan on this page.
Where we would book
One thing months early, two things weeks early, the rest on the day.
The visa is the only genuinely urgent booking and it comes from the consulate — no agency can jump the queue. Apartments go on the usual platforms six to eight weeks out, longer over the winter holidays. Timed tickets for the Freedom Tower and ICA Miami go on their own sites a week or two ahead. Inter Miami tickets come from the club or Ticketmaster; skip the resale sites. Restaurants for eight or more want a phone call rather than an app. The rental car is cheapest booked ahead and collected at the airport. And the parks, the beach, the trolley, the Metromover and every ventanita in the county need no booking at all.
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.
- Things to Do in Miami — the beach, the sawgrass, and a stadium with Messi in it.
- The Miami Culture Guide — arrivals, exile, and who ended up on the high ground.
- NYC Group Trip Guide — the same job up north: big tables, beds for ten, and the subway.
