Miami FL.

A few weeks back, my friend and I decided that we wanted to head to Miami FL for a few days over Spring Break. More than anything, we just wanted to get away from the cold horrible-ness of MA at that time, but we also just wanted a few days to chill out. Here’s what we got up to..

We flew from Bradley Airport CT down to Fort Lauderdale (FLL) FL on the Saturday that Spring Break started. We decided to just stay until the Wednesday, as we both had to get back and do work ready for exam period which was just around the corner. Both sets of flights were split into two. On the way to Miami, we stopped in Charlotte and on the way back in Detroit. While this made the traveling time a lot longer and more exhausting, it kept the cost down quite considerably! We stayed right by South Beach, in a hostel called The Tropics. We booked through Expedia and they actually mucked up our booking by one night, which was annoying, but thankfully we and the hostel found a way around it.

Found me a saxophone!

A little food alley, meant to be representative of small streets in Europe (Spain, Italy, France, etc.).

Hanging out at the Grove.

Now onto what we actually did – we didn’t really do the whole Spring Break thing. Both of us are into exploring, so we took the opportunity to really have a look around the city. We hit the beach a few times too. That sea was so freaking nice!

So, day 1 (technically 2, because day 1 was spent traveling): we decided to spend the day at the beach, after buying suncream, of course (protect yourselves, kids). We spent pretty much the whole day lounging on our beach towels reading, listening to music, gossiping, chilling out and swimming in the sea. It was so lovely, and I barely burned (quite the feat for me, as I’m so pale!). That evening (after we showered), we took a wander to see what we could eat. We ended up at a lovely little Chinese place, where we basically ate our body weights in food and then went on for a couple of cocktails.

Chilling at the Cheesecake Factory

Wallart in Little Havana

Mojitos with a giant sugar cane..!

Day 2: It was super cloudy on this day, so we took the opportunity to chill out for a bit at the hostel before we decided to splash out on a bus tour. Here, we got a guided tour of the Miami beach area before crossing to Downton Miami. We decided to get off at Coconut Grove to find some kind of food. We ended up at the Cheesecake factory (my first ever time) where we ate our body weights in burgers, fries and cheesecake (the gluten-free kind, duh). Also, I’m sensing a theme here…eating our body weights in food! We were there until about 4.30pm, before hopping on the bus back to Miami Beach where we decided to find some cocktails at a local beach bar. Good times!

Sarah and I at the Grove

On a bus this time..

Wallart in Little Havana (my fav one!)

Day 3: We decided to keep on exploring while the weather was still a little overcast. We hopped back on the tour bus (our tickets ran for two days) back to the purple route that went through Coconut Grove. We stayed on a little longer before hopping off at Little Havana, a Cuban area of Miami. Here we did some exploring, took some pictures with some epic street art and then ate a lovely little Cuban restaurant. Here I tried plantain for the first time (and my life was changed forever). I also almost lost my phone too. We returned, picked up some Miami t-shirts, hit the beach for a couple of hours and then went for a few cocktails that evening (duh). (We actually went to the most hideous cocktail bar that was so sexist and pig-like that we left no tip & almost vomited because of how degrading it was..)

Day 4: This was pretty much spent traveling. We figured out the bus to FLL airport before boarding a plane to Detroit and then another plane to Hartford. It was on this day that I nearly vomited on a plane because the turbulence was so hideous. Good times.

So that was my experience of Miami. I highly recommend the beaches and Little Havana. I’d love to go back and see a little more of the city in the future though!