Budget · 3-hour walk · Miami
South Beach art deco in three hours
The ocean front, the deco hotels behind it, and the two pedestrian streets inland.
South Beach has the largest concentration of art deco buildings anywhere, about eight hundred of them in one square mile, and the walk is flat, short and shaded by design. Go in the late afternoon when the pastel facades take the low light and the heat has broken.
The route, stop by stop
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Ocean Drive
Twenty blocks of deco hotels facing the sand, floodlit in neon after dark.
30 min here Walk here → -
Art Deco Welcome Center
Run by the preservation league that saved the district from demolition in the 1970s. Self-guided audio tours from here.
30 min here Walk here → -
Espanola Way
A 1925 Mediterranean-revival lane, pedestrianised and awninged, two blocks long.
25 min here Walk here → -
Lincoln Road
A pedestrian mall since 1960, designed by Morris Lapidus with shade structures and fountains down the middle.
35 min here Walk here →
More in Miami
Every walking route in Miami, or the full Miami guide for where to stay and what a day costs.