Recently on our way to Europe, our flight to Dallas got canceled due to weather. Our options were to spend a day in Philly or Miami on a long layover. We opted for Miami as both of us have never been to Miami, and Philly’s forecast was rainy
Our flight was a red-eye and landed in Miami at 0600. Neither of us slept much on the 4 hour flight so we were pretty jet lagged. Our first order of business was to drop off our luggage at the storage facility in the Miami Airport, Communitel
After we dropped off our bags and grabbed a coffee, we hopped in an Uber to South Beach. We made it to the beach just after sunrise.
The beach was quiet and not many people were there yet. We sat and finished our coffees and put our feet in the warm ocean.
We decided to walk the beach boardwalk north for a bit and find some breakfast. We stopped at Shepherd coffee on Ocean drive, the street that runs parralel to Miami beach. The art deco buildings were cool to see and by this time more people were out and about.
We ordered iced coffees and breakfast sandwiches at the counter and took a seat outside. There was a brave little bird that was flying around and he even came up and tried to peck at my egg salad sandwich!
The food and coffees were tasty and prices were decent for the area. It looks like there are a lot of brunch restaurants around. However we don’t typically eat a ton of food first thing in the morning and figured that spending $30+ dollars on a huge breakfast wouldn’t be worth it.
I like to pull up google maps when I travel to see what things are in the neighborhood. I find that there are always places I wouldn’t otherwise discover. We decided to walk about a mile north to the Miami Beach Botanical Garden. A free garden that opens at 0900. It’s on 4 acres and is a decent size for an hour-ish long stroll.
It was peaceful, and not many people were there first thing in the morning. I especially loved the orchids growing on trees everywhere. I have several orchids at home so I always appreciate seeing them in the “wild”. Orchids are notorious for needing very specific care at home, and after many years I’ve been able to get mine to re-bloom pretty regularly
By this time it was about 1030, so we decided to walk back to the beach and rent some beach chairs and relax. There are tons of vendors renting out chairs and umbrellas. It was about $50 for 2 lounges and and an umbrella for the day. This would be a much better price if you were planning on staying the whole day. However at this point were were exhausted and had only slept about 2 hours in the last 24 hours, so we wound up falling asleep on the lounge chairs.
For a light lunch we stopped at Le Sandwicherie for some tropical smoothies. They also serve sandwiches. This is a small shop with outdoor counter seating only.
Our next flight left at 1600 (4pm) so at about 1 pm we decided to Uber back to the airport, which is about a 20-25 minute ride.
All in all it was a nice way to spend a long layover in Miami.
Other options were to visit Little Havana or the Wynwood walls which is a street art installation.
Most of what I read online recommended only leaving the airport if you have a 6+ hour layover or longer.
Hope this helps
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