Hit south beach for breakfast and watch out for cars on the beach

What do you mean? Where is the wrong side of the tracks?

Check out "The Standard" for something a little bit alternative to stay. And arrange taxis/limos from your hotel for getting to outlet stores. Alternatively, any of the big hotels right on South Beach. I walked all around the South Beach ("SoBe") area day or night and never thought it was anything but safe.

The Standard looks pretty nice but it's $580 a night with tax ect. Seems accommodation is pretty exxy in Miami.

Thanks Capt!

I go there once in a while for work, and spent a full season there a few years ago.

As the guys say: go Miami Beach (South Beach).
Choice of hotels, waterside, beach is OK (reminds me of Gold Coast, but not as tacky).

Nightlife is OK, safe and tame there. Plus no risk of getting lost.
There a few good Cuban restaurants at night on this 'island', look for the low-profile ones - great cuisine.
Avoid the tacky beach-side at night on Ocean Drive, they're like a Manly expensive restaurant...
Go Collins.

On the beach side in the morning, you'll easily spot a few places with an open-air gym.
That's where the models go for pictures you see in the magazines.
Pictures make it look like they're jogging and using the apparels, but they leave right afer said pictures are shot.
Still, good incentive to take up morning jogging for a while...
(The missus hasn't made the link yet...)

Renting a car for the Keys, good advice.
Perhaps renting to drive across the Everglades, unique but not that exciting.

If you have time, renting to drive along the west coast of Florida - much, much nicer and drivable than the east coast, which is dead boring.

The Causeways to the island have a couple of boat rentals and a windsurfing rental/school, if you're into these things.

Avoid going walkabout blindly - either car or walking, you might get caught in some nasty neighbourhood. Surprising how this changes abruptly quickly..

Have a great trip !

Forgot the big one. If you get a choice do not fly in or out of Miami in the afternoon. Due to the Everglades that joint has the biggest thunderstorms I've ever seen and every day like clockwork when we were there, but that was summer time.
If you shop around you should be able to find something on special right on the beach. We paid about about half the normal rate from memory.

Try airb&b for places to stay, you may be surprised whats available.
Other than that see if you can buy one of the Wyndam or affiliated time share resorts owners time share stay. People who cant use the allotment, will sell these at a huge reduced rate to pay yearly fees to break even.

Well, Miami was freakin amazing!

The Bahamas were my fav - the water is so clear and everything so relaxed. Shopping bags filled with lobster tails for $20. I was staying at my mates place there and we would wake up and go for a snorkel right off his jetty and grab a couple of lobsters for brekky. Few espresso's to recover from the previous night, then on the boat to find an island for lunch. Chat n Chill was cool, drinking beers and eating amazing ribs on an island paradise.

There was a place called Santana's that served some awesome Grouper and Lobster with coleslaw in front of the nicest beach I've ever seen in my life. The ladies working there were pretty cool and keep the beer and tunes happening while your there.

Onto Miami and this place was pretty different with super high end cars lined up outside our hotel. I mean 2-3 Lamborghini's, a couple of Ferrari's, several convertible Bently's and a few Rolls Royce Phantoms. Even Maybach's were commonplace. The place is insane. Everything was either insanely expensive or insanely cheap but all the same products, just depending on the place. I mean you could pay $28 for a Chivas in one hotel and then go next door to the bar and it would be $4.50. The really rich people didn't want to have to leave the hotel bar and be seen at somewhere cheaper.

The bars and restaurants on Ocean Drive were great fun. Drinks were cheap compared to Perth and chicks would walk around selling cigars and ciggies everywhere you went. On the first night I kind of went 'stuff it, we are on holidays' and didn't look at the prices or care what we spent. Had a great seafood dinner, drank high end spirits, Mrs drank all sorts of cocktails, smoked cigars, finished with several beers. Spent about $300 all up. Same night in Perth would have cost $2,000 easy.

Was awesome to grab a 12 pack of beers on the walk home, for $10 mind you, and sit on the hotels front lounges watching the people go by.

Most mornings we would go to Jerry's Diner that had great food and was 24hrs.

More to come when I have time.