In addition to the Crandon Park Tennis Center there’s also kayak rentals, biking, volleyball, baseball and outdoor skating rink.

The Marjory Stoneman Douglas Biscayne Nature Center, which was named after the journalist and conservationist who championed the protection of Florida’s wetlands, is the county’s eco-tourism center and provides guided nature walks along Key Biscayne’s eastern shore, moonlit canoe trips amd turtle release tours. You’ll also find Crandon Gardens, a former zoo with free-roaming swans, iguanas and an American crocodile

Crandon Park is located at 4000 Crandon Blvd, Key Biscayne, Florida. Phone: 305.361.5421 Crandon Park is open daily 8A.M. to Sunset.

Crandon Park | Miami’s Best Beaches is a post from: Miami Beach

Oleta River State Park is a biker’s paradise with 10 miles of challenging and intermediate trails, four miles of novice trails, and three miles of paved trails. You can rent bikes at the concession stand for $10 – $15 per hour.

Canoeing and kayaking are also popular activities at Oleta River State Park. You can choose from the river or Biscayne Bay for your water adventure. Canoes and kayaks are also available for rented at the concession stand and run from $8-$12 per hour or $25-$35 per day.

If you’re a naturist, you’ll find plenty of egrets, manatees, bald eagles, and fiddler crabs to observe.

Historic Blue Marlin Fish House and Outdoor Experience, a casual cafe and self-guided interpretative center, recently opened just west of the entrance. Both make for a day of fun at Oleta River State Park.

Oleta River State Park is located at 3400 N.E. 163rd St., North Miami Beach, Florida. Phone: 305.919.1846 Entrance fees are: $1 per person on foot or bike; $5 per vehicle up to 8 people, $1 each additional.

Oleta River State Park | Miami’s Best Beaches is a post from: Miami Beach

While Haulover Beach is most famous for being a nude beach, its pristine white sand shores and beautifully landscaped sand dunes offer so much more to see.

All of the facilities at Haulover Park are county operated. Ten minutes from the best salt water fishing in Florida, the marina at Haulover Beach ranks with the best on the eastern seaboard. It provides dockage for 106 private boats, several charter boats for deep sea fishing, party boars for drift and reef fishing, sightseeing glass bottom and moonlight cruise craft.

Spacious parking lots on the bay side of the park are connected with the beach by underpasses. The beach area has a life guard station, first aid room, free dressing and shower rooms, beach accessory rentals, check room, refreshment pavilion, picnic tables and barbeque grills.

The park gets its name from Baker’s Haulover, a narrow neck of sand which was located at the south end of the present park. There a dredged cut extending into the sea connects the bay and the ocean. Years ago before the government put in the cut, fishermen had to haul their boats across the sand to reach the ocean.

Haulover Beach Park is located at 10800 Collins Avenue, just north of Bal Harbour, Florida. Phone: 305. 947.3525.

Park entrance fee is $5 per car.

Haulover Beach | Miami’s Best Beaches is a post from: Miami Beach

One of the most scenic points of interest you’ll find here in this 410-acre park is the beautifully restored Cape Florida Lighthouse, which was built in 1825 as a navigational aid to sailors. The lighthouse is the oldest building in southern Florida.

For recreation at Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park you can rent bikes, beach chairs, and umbrellas, and there are also fishing platforms and a playground for the kids.

Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park was named after the late Miami newspaper editor who spearheaded development of the park.

Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park is located at 1200 S. Crandon Blvd., Key Biscayne, Florida. Phone: 305.361.5811 or 305.361.8779

Entrance to the park is $1 per person on foot, bike, motorbike, or bus; $5 per vehicle up to 8 people. The park is open daily 8 until Sunset, and lighthouse tours are available Thursday to Monday at 10A.M. and 1P.M.

Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park | Miami’s Best Beaches is a post from: Miami Beach

The beach area around 12th Street is a popular gay hangout, as is the Palace Bar just to the east on Ocean Drive. There’s a heavy European influence in South Beach, so don’t be surprised to see topless women lounging around.

Your best bet for parking is to use one of the City’s public parking garages located at 7th & Collins and 13th & Collins Avenue.

Lummus Park begins at 5th Street and separates Ocean Drive and the beach. Its promenade turns into a boardwalk at 15th Street and it’s a must-do for bikers, joggers, rollerbladers or anyone wishing to take a leisurely stroll. The boardwalk runs way up north past the Fontainebleau and Eden Roc hotels, and it makes for a very scenic walk.

South Beach | Miami’s Best Beaches is a post from: Miami Beach

The main area you’ll want to visit is a 17-block strip located on S.W. Eighth Street known as Calle Ocho. Here you’ll see cigars being hand-rolled, restaurants serving Cuban sandwiches and café con leche, drink fresh coconut and sugar cane juice, dance to Latin music and hear locals discussing politics of their former homeland.

Over time, the influx of artists and musicians into Little Havana have turned the area into an artistic enclave where Latin American cultures converge.

The Calle Ocho Walk of Fame (between 12th and 17th Avenues), you’ll see the sidewalk of stars for top Latin celebrities like Celia Cruz, Gloria Estefan and Julio Iglesias.

Every March, as part of Carnaval Miami—the world’s largest street festival, more than one million people attend an enormous street party known as the Calle Ocho Festival featuring music, dancing, and food from every corner of the Latin world.

Artists are especially attracted to Little Havana by relatively inexpensive rents. The artist community is showcased on Viernes Culturales (Cultural Fridays), an open-air art festival which takes place on the last Friday of every month along Calle Ocho.

Calle Ocho’s tourist district exudes color with its bustling pedestrian life, and many popular cafeterias have outside service windows.

The architecture of Little Havana features a large collection of bungalows, which were a popular Miami style in the 1920s.

There are dozens of cigar shops along Calle Ocho, where you can see cigars being hand-rolled and bearing family-owned labels that date back to the 1930s.

One of the most photographed areas of Little Havana is Domino Park, also known as Maximo Gomez Park, named in honor of the Dominican-born general who was chief of the Cuban Liberation Army during the wars of independence against Spain. Cubans gather daily to play dominoes, drink Cuban coffee and reminisce about the old days in Cuba. Domino Park, the Tower Theater and the Latin Quarter Cultural Center converge at the intersection of Southwest Eighth Street and 15th Avenue to form the cultural Mecca of Calle Ocho.

The Tower Theater is host to many Cuban musicians and artists, and provides Cuban film, dance and theater performances.

Miami’s Little Havana is a post from: Miami Beach

The island is just seven miles long and two miles wide. The Village of Key Biscayne is a posh resort community in the center of the island, and is home to a very wealthy crowd. Worth Magazine recently placed the island at number 134 on its “250 Richest U.S. Towns” list.

There are two parks on the island, and both offer activities to explore the island’s ecology. Crandon Park, on the north end of the island, has volleyball courts, baseball fields, and an outdoor skating rink.

Also at Crandon Park is The Marjory Stoneman Douglas Biscayne Nature Center. It was named for the journalist and conservationist who was instrumental in bringing protection to Florida’s wetlands. It offers guided walks along the island’s east shore, moonlit canoe trips, and turtle release tours.

The Park is also home to the 18-hole Crandon Park Golf Course.

Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, to the south of the village, has nature trails, picnic areas, and a restored 170-year old lighthouse.

Bill Baggs beach is often the site of movie shoots due to its natural splendor and indigenous foliage and unspoiled beach. Windsurfing and boating are also available. For dining, Le Croisic is one of Miami’s best French bistros.

Key Biscayne is a post from: Miami Beach

The estate was built through the incredible vision of James Deering who was at the time, vice president of the International Harvester Company.

Deering commissioned young New York painter Paul Chalfin to oversee his project and the two men traveled throughout Europe researching the continent’s residential architecture for design elements. Also engaged to work on the project were architect F. Burrall Hoffman and Colombian landscape architect Diego Suarez.

The house was constructed so as to appear several hundred years old, as if it had been the home of several family generations.

It took almost 10 years to construct Vizcaya at a time when Miami’s population was only around 10,000. Yet more than 1,000 workers were hired to complete its construction, including laborers and craftsmen from the Caribbean and Europe.

Vizcaya took nearly 10 years to complete including its gardens and fountains, and to acquire the necessary art to fill the masterpiece we now know as Vizcaya.

Deering passed away in 1925. Between 1952 and 1955 Deering’s heirs conveyed the estate along with its substantial furnishings and art to Dade County on condition that Vizcaya be used as a public museum in perpetuity.

Viscaya is located at 3251 South Miami Avenue, Miami, Florida, 33129. Phone: 305.250.9133

Viscaya is a post from: Miami Beach

Miami Beach Average Monthly Temperatures & Rainfall is a post from: Miami Beach

Flamingo Tennis
11th Street at Jefferson Avenue
Miami Beach, FL
305-673-7761

Haulover Beach Park
10800 Collins Avenue
Miami Beach, FL
305-940-6719

Arthur Snyder Tennis Center
16851 West Dixie Highway
North Miami Beach, FL
305-948-2947

Crandon Park Tennis
7300 Crandon Boulevard
Key Biscayne, FL
305/365-2300

Ives Tennis Center
1475 Ives Dairy Road
North Miami Beach, FL
305-652-7260

Kerdyk Biltmore Tennis Center
1150 Anastasia Avenue
Coral Gables, FL
305-460-5360

Key Biscayne Tennis
6702 Crandon Boulevard
Key Biscayne, FL
305-361-5263

Miami Lakes Park
6411 NW 162nd Street
Miami Lakes, FL
305-558-6642

Salvadore Park
1120 Andalusia Avenue
Coral Gables, FL
305-460-5333

Sans Souci Tennis Courts
1795 Sans Souci Boulevard
North Miami, FL
305-893-7130

Surfside Tennis Center
8750 Collins Avenue
Surfside, FL
305-866-5176

Tamiami Park
11201 SW 24th Street
Miami, FL
305-223-7076

Tropical Park
7900 SW 40th Street,
Miami, FL
305-553-3161

Tennis in Miami Beach is a post from: Miami Beach