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Do your part as a tourist, and don’t pile on the agitation when the mercury is already as high as it is in Miami.
No U.S. city has the power of seduction of sun-kissed Miami. Since the pandemic, it’s truly become a city with no slow season. A rotating door of nonstop happenings—from art world fairs and electronic and Latin music gatherings to Formula One, sporting events, and food and wine festivals—means there’s almost never an off-season in Miami, a city sometimes referred to as the capital of Latin America.
For the diverse community that lives here, sharing their city with hordes of tourists makes finding a quiet time to enjoy one of Miami’s gorgeous beaches—not to mention an affordable parking spot—an exercise in patience.
Here’s 12 things you, as a tourist, might be doing to piss off a Miami local.
1 OF 12
You Complain About the Driving, but Don’t Improve the Situation
Sure, the traffic on Miami’s six-lane highways can sometimes feel like it’s trying to compete with the F1 Miami Grand Prix event that takes place here every year. But don’t complain about how the locals drive and then proceed to cruise along with the top down in your convertible rental car, mugging for social media on the same roads they’re zipping along just to get to work.
2 OF 12
You Think Basel Is a City in Switzerland
Okay, so it is, but in Miami, Basel refers to one thing and one thing only: The annual Art Basel Miami Beach that’s part of Miami Art Week. Art Basel is a massive event held every December that showcases thousands of galleries and artists from around the world and hosts 20 international art fairs that play out all over the city.
3 OF 12
You’re Starry Eyed Over Cuba’s Mojitos and Vintage Cars
Miami’s relationship with Cuba is muy complicado, and if you roll onto Calle Ocho wanting to talk about how you went to the island for a vacation and it was a paradise of mojitos, salsa lessons, and vintage cars worthy of Instagram, you better be prepared to answer for it to the members of the diaspora who largely take an entirely different view of how communism has rendered their beloved island.
4 OF 12
You Refer to Miami Beach as South Beach
There is more to Miami’s beaches than South Beach, which refers to just the southern—and most touristy—stretch of the barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay that make up Miami Beach (along with Mid-Beach and North Beach).
5 OF 12
You Don’t Realize There’s More to Miami Than Sand and Surf
It used to be that Miami was synonymous with South Beach, for which we largely have Don Johnson and Miami Vice (along with Spring Break) to thank. But Miami’s diverse cultures really come to life in the neighborhoods off the sand in places like Coconut Grove, Coral Gables, Little Havana, Brickell, Little Haiti, Little River, and beyond.
6 OF 12
Friends Don’t Let Friends Drink Chain Coffee
In the Stateside home of the cortado and cafecito, you have no excuse for hitting the drive-through of the big green coffee chain giant to caffeinate like you can back home. Instead, you could be ordering an authentic Cuban coffee from the Ventanita at Versailles Restaurant or sipping a perfect espresso drink from Navi Coffee & Flowers with the cool kids in Coconut Grove.
7 OF 12
You Overlook Miami’s Creative Cocktail Culture
An oversized margarita with a couple of Coronas overturned into it? This has become the ultimate South Beach stereotype. You can do far better than that in a city as cocktail-savvy as Miami. Incredible gin cocktails infused with tropical Miami touches like mango and lychee beckon at The Collab, a gorgeous restaurant and cocktail bar hidden inside THesis Hotel Miami in Coral Gables. Out at the beach, Sweet Liberty keeps cocktail hour classy, to name just a few far better options than slurping frozen daiquiris at Wet Willie’s and the like.
8 OF 12
Don’t Forget Our Public Transport
Traffic is bad enough in Miami as it is, and that’s before Spring Break and all the many music and art festivals come to town. Parking garage prices tend to be exorbitant. And especially for those living in and around downtown, locals prefer to ride the city’s free MetroMover—an elevated people mover that operates in downtown Miami as well as the Omni and Brickell areas.
9 OF 12
Don’t Complain That the AC Is Too Icy
Miami is simply sweltering for much of the year, and as a result, locals tend to prefer their climate control on the Arctic end of the spectrum. That’s your problem if you’re not used to it and it’s giving you the sniffles. Their clothes will mold in their closets if they don’t blast the AC as low as they do.
10 OF 12
Not Being Open to Spanish
It’s estimated that well over 60 percent of the population in Miami speaks Spanish, and if you’re offended by someone approaching you first in that language rather than English, then you’ve come to the wrong city, mi amor. Nobody is going to hold it against you as a tourist that you don’t speak a lick of Spanish, but don’t dare hold it against anybody that they do.
11 OF 12
You Sleep On Miami’s Inner (Inland) Beauty
Miami is more than beaches and glittering skyscrapers along Biscayne Bay and all the other obvious eye candy that hogs the sunny spotlight. Lush tropical oases await visitors who towel off and detour just inland to spots like the 83-acre Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden and the hidden oasis called The Kampong, tucked away in a residential area of Coconut Grove.
12 OF 12
You Lump Miami-Dade and Broward County Together
Much like lumping New York City, Connecticut, and New Jersey together based solely on their proximity, Miami-Dade locals don’t appreciate being thrown in the same bucket as nearby Broward County, also known as the Greater Fort Lauderdale area. Just don’t do it.