Best Things to Do in South Beach Miami: Beaches, Art Deco and Ocean Drive

Miami has many neighborhoods, each operating at its own frequency. Little Havana pulses with Cuban music and the smell of café cubano. Wynwood speaks in color and murals. But South Beach — SoBe, to those who know it — is where Miami performs. Art Deco hotels line Ocean Drive in shades of turquoise and coral and cream. The beach stretches two miles of white sand against water that genuinely deserves the word turquoise. And the atmosphere carries the particular electricity of a place that has always known it was being watched.

South Beach Architecture

The Colony, Boulevard and Starlite Hotels

First, South Beach is an architectural haven and, as mentioned in my last post, it is home to the largest concentration of Art Deco buildings in the United States. In fact, in the 20-year span between 1923 - 1943, a whopping 800 Art Deco buildings were erected in the area I visited along Ocean Drive, and throughout the Art Deco Historic District.

The Carlyle Hotel

Art Deco gets its name from the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, which is the government-funded, Paris exposition where the style was first exhibited in 1925. Art Deco style is marked by vertical lines, vibrant colors, repetitive geometric shapes, and curved, ornamental embellishments.

That is my wordy, observational synopsis, anyway. Put more succinctly by an actual architect I know, the style "emphasizes clean lines and symmetry in its geometry." The Art Deco style was so prominent, that it not only influenced buildings, but art, fashion, furniture, jewelry, literature and film as well (think Great Gatsby).

Beacon Hotel

Once you familiarize yourself with the Art Deco style, and its equally beautiful romanticism and severe geometry, you will notice it's just about everywhere. In the United States, the most famous examples of Art Deco architecture are both the Empire State and Chrysler buildings in New York, Griffith Park Observatory in Los Angeles and the Paramount Theater in Oakland (which I wrote about in a much earlier post).

In Europe, Art Deco buildings abound and include the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Brussels, Belgium, the Eden Teatro in Lisbon, Portugal, and the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the first landmark Art Deco building in the world, completed in Paris, France where the style was born.

Art Deco thrives beyond the Western world as well. For example, on a recent trip to India, I spotted Art Deco buildings in Mumbai, along Marine Drive, as well as the blocks near Oval Maidan. These areas have been recognized by UNESCO as part of a World Heritage site due to the number of art deco buildings located there. In fact, a 2019 New York Times article said of Mumbai's art deco buildings, that they are, "the world’s second-largest collection of the buildings, second only to Miami."

Beaches

In Miami's South Beach, the Art Deco-inspired aesthetic has even influenced the life guard towers.

Of the more than 8,000 miles of coastline in Florida, this two-mile stretch of white sand is the state's most famous. The water is genuinely, improbably turquoise — the color of something from a travel brochure, except it is real, and warm enough to enter without hesitation, and clear enough to see your feet on the sandy bottom below.

The beach is wide and groomed and lined with the same Art Deco lifeguard towers that define the rest of the neighborhood — nearly 40 of them, each one unique, each one painted in colors that seem designed to compete with the umbrellas below. I swam, I sat in the sun, and I fully understood, not for the first time in Miami, how easy it would be to stay much longer than planned.

Glitz and Glamour

And the third reason South Beach is so famous, in my opinion, is the glamorous atmosphere that includes upscale restaurants, trendy nightclubs and celebrity sightings. To be honest, I had no intention of scouting for celebrities in South Beach, nor did I have any idea that they were so ubiquitous. I came to find out after I booked a short cruise to enjoy being out on the bright, blue waters, in the gorgeous weather.

As we made our way out of the Miami Harbor, I quickly learned that this tour would not only celebrate the beauty of Biscayne Bay, it would also take us past the glamorous homes of several celebrities. In the spirit of the glitzy, celebrity life, we started our cruise by sailing past the Miami skyline and the raised draw bridge (pictured above) that Paul Walker flew across in the movie "2 Fast 2 Furious."

From there, our boat captain took us past some very luxurious properties on Star Island, belonging to the rich and famous. See if you can guess who the following homes belong to based on my purposefully vague descriptions. Don't worry, I'll provide the answers at the end of this post.

1. If you ask this first homeowner how he purchased this mansion, he might just respond, "Everyday I'm hustlin'."

2. This house was previously owned by a basketball "giant" who won three titles with the Lakers before moving to Miami and winning another with the Heat.

3. It isn't clear that she lived here, but this star did film a music video in this house. While filming in the Miami sun, she probably didn't need her umbrella - ella.

4. This home was owned by a star who insists they are still "from the block" despite what this 30 plus million dollar property might convey.

5. This celebrity has gone by more than five different names over his career. At the time of this writing, he is the subject of ongoing serious legal proceedings.

6. The last spot on the list belongs to a man whose net worth exceeds that of all the celebrities alluded to above. He is a doctor, inventor, health care entrepreneur and Chairman and CEO of a Miami-based healthcare company.

Despite what our tour guide wanted us to believe, not all residents of Star Island are "stars," and many of the homes were not owned by the people he named, but I suppose those facts wouldn't have sold nearly as many cruise tickets. And his joke about the sixth person on my list being "Miami's biggest drug dealer, as the inventor of Viagra" wouldn't have received as many laughs if people knew the statement was patently inaccurate.

Nevertheless, this 55-acre, man-made island, with only 33 home lots is, or has been, home to several celebrities including those on my upcoming list, as well as Gloria and Emilio Estefan, Enrique Iglesias and Rosie O'Donnell. In addition, those who have, or had homes in nearby neighborhoods, include Oprah Winfrey, Matt Damon, Dwayne Wayde, Shakira, Jay-Z and Beyonce, David and Victoria Beckham, and the late, Gianni Versace (more on his home in my next post).

Finally, the celebrities attached to the photos above are:

1. Rick Ross

2. Shaquille O'Neal

3. Rhianna

4. Jennifer Lopez

5. Sean Combs, a.k.a. P Diddy, Puff Daddy, Diddy, Brother Love ...

6. Phillip Frost

South Beach is many things simultaneously, and that is precisely the point. It is a neighborhood where the architecture is serious and the atmosphere is not, where the beach is beautiful and the buildings that overlook it are equally so, where a Bogart film and a celebrity mansion tour and an 800-building Art Deco district can all coexist without contradiction. Miami's restaurants and art scene come next — and they are, it turns out, as layered as everything else this city does.