Gail Porter and daughter Honey in Miami
After a long flight, we arrived in Miami rather late on the Friday evening, so we went straight to the hotel restaurant to have a wee snack and admire the views of Biscayne Bay. The restaurant was not too expensive and as we were on budget and were not too hungry we decided to only order a starter.
The hotel Sonesta Bay, had a lovely heated outdoor pool on the 8th floor with great views of the Bay area. We couldn’t wait to try it out so Honey and I were in there first thing on Saturday morning. The pool was always a great and cash free way to spend our time – as we got to enjoy the sunshine and have a bit of fun at the same time.
In the afternoon, we decided to get our bearings and explore the surrounding area. We wandered down to Biscayne Bay and admired the beautiful boats moored there.
Lunch was at a very lively bay side restaurant called ‘Monty’s’. The food was average but we sat outdoors and enjoyed some great live music. The restaurant was great for kids as there was plenty of space to run around and some fun food – I love seafood and there was plenty of this on the menu as well! I wouldn’t really recommend it for a gourmet meal, but I would recommend it for a stress free and fun kids meal.
After lunch we headed to Coco Walk, which was a local outdoor mall. It had plenty of restaurants and coffee shops and it also turned out to be a great source of local information. We discovered that every 4th Sunday is ‘children’s day’ at Coco Walk and luckily for us that happened to be the next day so we made a note to head back!
We then visited the local art galleries which were all free of charge. Honeys favourite exhibition was the Britto show; he is a local artist, very modern and colourful and had some lovely pieces of work!
In the evening, we dined at what turned out to be our favourite restaurant – the Market Place. It was very cool indeed, with red leather sofas aligning the streets, a great menu and very friendly staff. The prices were average but the food was so lovely that we didn’t mind. As Honey and I had been to the US before we always try to remember to order either a starter each or a main meal between both of us as the portions are so huge. Honey promptly fell asleep in my arms on the comfy sofa and I carried her back to the hotel.
As I mentioned before, Sunday was kid’s day at cocowalk and so before we went there we bought some provisions from a grocery store. We had use of a mini bar in our room, so I liked to buy useful bits and pieces to keep in there so we could make a wee picnic or just have some snacks available. It‘s cheaper than constantly buying food from restaurants and a great way to help us stick to our budget!
Honey loved the children’s day, it was all free of charge and the weather was great. There were farm animals, a bouncy castle and face painting. That kept us busy for ages and it also it gave me a great opportunity to talk to the local mums about fun things to see and do while we were in town.
Following the children’s day, we prepared a little picnic and found a lovely spot on the Bay beside a play park and spent the afternoon enjoying the weather and the surroundings. Finally it was back to the hotel for a swim, then a light snack at a local sushi bar.
Monday we decided to treat ourselves. I had arranged for Honey to play with Dolphins at the Miami Seaquarium. I was kind of pushing the budget a wee bit, but all in all I thought it was quite reasonable for a very special experience. For Honey to swim with dolphins it would have been a rather expensive experience, but to play it was only $99. That included a half hour educational talk about dolphins, their habitats, feeding, the difference between females and males and lots of other facts told to us by the trainers. Then it was half an hour in the pool playing ball and feeding ‘Jupiter’, a two year old dolphin. It was an amazing experience for Honey – and for me!
The $99 also included a full day at the park which was home to killer whales, manatees, crocodiles among others; it was a great fun day out and when you look at what we did, it was great value for money!
The most expensive thing I found in Miami was the taxi fares and because of this we tried to stay as local as possible. This was fine though as there was so much to do in the Bay area that we were quite happy exploring on our doorstep.
Tuesday was our chill out day. Loads of swimming then brunch at the ‘Market Place’. The coffee selection was never ending, and we were adopting ‘Market Place’ as our local eaterie.
In the afternoon we found a little nail bar and treated ourselves to a manicure and pedicure each which came to the grand total of $12!
On Wednesday we ventured to Miami Beach, again the taxis were rather expensive but we felt we should make a little trip to the famous sands. It was too cold to swim but we enjoyed a lovely walk then went to the art deco district. The buildings looked amazing, we went to Gianni Versace’s home and sneeked a peek into Miami Ink – a reality TV show in the US which follows life inside a tattoo shop on Miami Beach.
We then took a duck tour around Miami which was great fun! A duck tour is a bus which turns into a boat and you get both a land and water tour. We had cut out coupons from a local magazine which entitled us to 15% discount. The tour was quite informative but more about the fun aspect and we were really pleased with ourselves for bagging a bargain!
Thursday was our final day so we packed, swam, lunched at our local, more swimming then off to the airport. Miami airport is not too good to hang around in. The shops are few and far between and the food choices were pretty dire. Fast food and duty free was all that was on offer so we grabbed a few snacks and then got ready for our trip home. We’d had a great few days in Miami and were really impressed with what we managed to pack in on such a small budget!
