Miami is a city with a vibrant nightlife, and a large selection of entertainment for adults. However, only those who have never been there think so.
This city is perfect for families who travel with children. Beaches everywhere are wide, shallow, fairly clean, and equipped with rescue towers. In addition, a lot of natural attractions around Miami have prepared interesting tours and activities for the youngest travelers. Here’re a few ideas to have a good time in Miami with the whole family. You will need a car to try them out, thus click here for Easirent car rental FLL to reserve it now.
Zoo Miami
In the vicinity of Miami, there are a lot of places where you can look at all the living creatures, and Zoo Miami is one of them. At first glance, the zoo features nothing special: it’s small, the animals represented there can be seen in other zoos, and when it’s hot, you won’t see many of those animals who live there.
However, the zoo is worth visiting, especially if you travel with children. In addition to several water and dry playgrounds, there’s a zoo for the little ones where kids can pet, ride a camel or feed a pony. The zoo itself is traditionally divided into parts of the world – each such part presents the most typical animals and plants of the region. There’s a rather large aviary for birds, which you should definitely look into. Some birds living there are very sociable.
The most fun and impressive attraction is feeding giraffes. For $5-10 you are given a bowl of chopped lettuce, and then you climb to the platform and approach the giraffes that are already pulling out their gray tongues in anticipation of delicacy.
It’s categorically impossible to pet the giraffes and touch them for the face. Nevertheless you will get a lot of pleasure from such close contact with these giants. Also, in Zoo Miami you can feed the rhinoceros.
Getting there: the zoo is located about 45 km away from Miami Beach – you need about 40 minutes to reach it by car. A large free parking is provided.
Operating hours: 9:30am-5:30pm daily, Christmas Day 12pm-5:30pm, Thanksgiving Day 9:30am-3:30pm. The ticket office and the entrance to the zoo close at 4pm.
Cost: adults (over 12 years old) – about $17; children (from 2 to 12 years old) – about $13; up to 2 years – free of charge.
Everglades National Park
Everglades is a unique natural park in Florida, located on the territory of more than 6 thousand square kilometers. This is home to a huge number of animals and birds. The most popular among tourists is a predator – of course, an alligator. This is one of the few corners of virgin nature left on Earth.
The park offers interesting aero-boat tours. You’ll be able to choose the duration and direction of the trip through the park depending on your hobbies and preferences: half an hour tour on a large aero boat (about 20-25 people), all day long journey and even overnight options are at your disposal.
Getting there: you’ll spend about 40 minutes to get to it from Miami Beach by car. Free parking is available.
Operating hours: aero-boat trips usually start at 9am, the last boat departures between 4pm and 5pm.
Cost: half an hour excursion – $22 for adults, $ 11 for children from 7 years old, children up to 7 years old are free of charge. The cost of a private tour depends on the number of people in a group and the duration of the tour, starting from about $170 per 30 minutes for a group of not more than 4 people.
Bill Baggs Cape State Park
(photo by VISIT FLORIDA)
The park is located on an island south of Miami Beach. Bill Baggs Cape State Park is considered to be one of the most beautiful and clean beaches, and a nice place for family holidays, as well as a popular venue for wedding ceremonies.
Perhaps the main highlight of the beach is the extraordinarily beautiful lighthouse – it’s open to the public twice a day. In addition to the lighthouse itself, the lighthouse caretaker’s house has been opened, and park workers are happy to tell stories from the lives of rangers. Entrance to the lighthouse and caretaker’s house is free of charge.
The beach in the park is not as wide as in Miami Beach, but visibly cleaner. The depth in the ocean starts quite close to the shore, maybe that’s why there are practically no waves there.
In the second half of the day, even near the coast, there is a fairly strong current, and near the lighthouse, the current is always strong and it’s forbidden to swim there. On the beach, for a modest fee, you can rent deck chairs and umbrellas ($20 for two deck chairs and an umbrella for the whole day), but there are no lifeguards on the beach. There’s a shower and a cafe with a good meals. Also, spacious picnic areas in the shade of the trees are presented.
Getting there: it’s situated within 20 minutes’ drive by car from Miami Beach, and a large free parking is arranged.
Operating hours: the park is open daily from 8am till sunset.
Cost: entrance to the park by car (from 2 to 8 people) – $8; car or motorcycle (1 person) – $4, pedestrians, cyclists, passengers over 8 people – $2. A visit to the lighthouse and caretaker’s house is free of charge.