Favorite places in Miami, Part 2

Miami is probably one of my favorite Cities in the US. I created this post and part one to help a friend plan an upcoming trip to the City of Sun. Miami is more than just the main port to the caribbean. 

Downtown is referred as the area north of the Miami river. Brickell, the financial district, is located south of the river. The most beautiful hotel that I've ever stayed, the Viceroy, is located in Brickell. I can't wait to return to their Spa and pool. I stayed there with my best friends for my Bachelorette weekend. You can see the pictures from that weekend here. Brickell key is a small island of Brickell with mostly luxury residential buildings and the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. The metrorail or a $5 dollar taxi connects the areas. 

Viceroy's Pool

Brickell Key from Brickell

the Spa @ the Viceroy Hotel

The best about staying in Downtown is that the newest hotels and restaurants are located in this area. If you don't know where to go, head to Mary Brickell Village. Within a few blocks there are several stores, bars, coffee shops, and restaurants. My favorite bars in the area are Baru, Segafredo, Blue Martini, and Kukaramakara. There are many options within walking distance. If you are staying on South Beach and want to go out in downtown a taxi will probably cost $30 each way.

Segafredo Brickell

Drinks and Sushi @ Kyma

The most popular tourist area in downtown is probably Bayside Market Place, Bayfront Park, and the American Airlines Arena. There is a water taxi stop at Bayside. I've never taken the water taxi. Maybe on another trip to Miami I will take it towards South Beach.

Biscayne Bay from Bayside Market Place

Bayside Market Place 

There are many hotel options all over the City. Since I always stay for one night or two I like to stay in south beach or Brickell. Other nice areas are Coconut Grove, Key Biscayne, North Miami Beach, and Sunny Isles. Ft lauderdale is another great option and it is only 20 minutes north of Miami. If you need help deciding where to stay let me know and maybe I can help.

Weekend in Miami, Day 2

After a fun night we had a hard time getting out of bed. My plan was to have lunch in South Beach, and window shop on Lincoln Road. However, we were not feeling so well this day. We never go out dancing, and we are definitely getting old. We had a late breakfast at the hotel and we went to see one of my childhood friends in Downtown. We didn't even feel like relaxing at the beautiful pool in her building. We parked at the meters by the Intercontinental hotel and walked one block to her building. That is where I took the pictures of Biscayne bay. 

Chopin Plaza

Bayfront Park getting ready for ULTRA 2012

Coolest Lounge Chairs

A pool with a sculpture is a perfect example of Miami Style

Brickell Key from the pool

Nap Time?

After the short visit, it was time for lunch.  Our last stop in Miami was at La Carreta, a great cuban restaurant. There are 8 locations in Miami including one in the AmericanAirlines terminal at Miami International Airport. The one at the airport is fast food style, so the quality of the sit down restaurants is a lot better. 

After a delicious cuban lunch we drove back to Tampa. Weekends are never long enough and they are even shorter when there are so many things to do.  I am sure that we will be back to Miami soon and on my next trip I will take more pictures. I promised a friend to write about my favorite places in Miami for her upcoming trip. I will find some old pictures and do a long post about it.

Weekend in Miami, Day 1

Miami is a 4 hour drive from Tampa. We were lazy and decided to drive Saturday morning instead of Friday night. The reason for the trip was a Juan Luis Guerra concert at the AmericanAirlines Arena. I reserved a hotel room at the Marriott in downtown Miami. This hotel is within walking distance to the arena and a short taxi ride from the club where we were planning to go after the concert. I really wanted to stay at the Viceroy again specially because they have the best pool that I've ever seen. However, spring break and the upcoming Sony Ericsson Open, Ultra Music Festival, and the Winter Music Conference had hotel room prices in Miami extremely high. 

We drove with another friend from Tampa. It is always nice to have as many people as possible in the car for the long ride. I felt that it was a shorter drive just because we didn't stop talking. We dropped her off at her sister’s place in Miami. We were going to meet them at the concert later that night. Andre and I headed to one of my favorite restaurants in Miami where he had never been. The Knife is an Argentinean style steak house that is also affordable. We payed $25.75 each for an all you can eat style meat grill (parrilla) and a great salad bar. The price includes one bottle of wine per person (or 2 beers) and one dessert from the menu. I started going to this place about 11 years ago and I still like it. The price varies from lunch to dinner and between weekends and weekdays. We didn’t order 2 bottles of wine because we still had to drive to our hotel. The one bottle that we had was really good. For dessert I ordered the dulce de leche crepe and Andre was too full for anything other than ice cream. Andre was so happy with his meal that he said he would consider moving to Miami just because of the knife. 

After our large lunch we headed to the Marriott in Biscayne Bay. We had a very nice room with partial bay view. We decided to walk towards the arena and start the night without worrying about our car. We met with our 2 friends inside and had an amazing time at the Juan Luis Guerra concert. You can read all about the concert here. 

The view from our room

Biscayne Bay from our room

Downtown Miami

After the concert, it was time to party Colombian style. There is a club that is originally from Cali that was so successful that they opened in 2 more cities in Colombia and one in Miami. I love this place, Kukaramakara, because you dance with a live band instead of a DJ all night long. We completely underestimated St. Patrick’s day. I really thought that nobody cared about this day in Miami. We were in the car for at least 1 hour because of traffic when normally that drive takes 10 minutes or less. Finding a parking spot was another challenge that night. We finally made it and we got a small table close to the stage. The 4 of us ordered a bottle of Aguardiente and danced the night away. 

Andre and I left at around 4:00 AM and took a taxi to the hotel. Considering that most clubs close at 5:00 AM, we left early. We were exhausted after a long day and were ready for bed. Kukaramakara was a lot of fun. I would love to go back on our next trip to Miami. 

Weekend in Miami, Juan Luis Guerra Concert

A few months ago, I found out that one of my favorite singers was coming to Florida. Juan Luis Guerra is a very famous merengue singer from Dominican Republic. He has been around for as long as I remember. I learned how to dance with his songs in the 1980s. He announced in his twitter that the US tour included Miami, Orlando, and NYC. The Orlando show was never scheduled. I debated if I should spend the money to go see him. Two weeks before the show we decided to drive to Miami and see him.  I was going to regret not going to his concert. His last album is as good as the ones from 20 years ago.

Photo Credit: Guaberry.net

American Airlines Arena, Miami

I went to a Luis Miguel concert in Miami alone last year. I won’t mind going to another concert alone except that this kind of music makes you want to dance. I’m OK singing alone, but dancing alone is different. Andre is not a big fan of any kind of tropical music, but he knows how much I like Juan Luis Guerra. He said that he would come with me to the concert. I gave him an opportunity not to go since I was going with 2 other friends. He surprised me when he said that he likes Juan Luis Guerra. The best thing about his concerts is that he doesn’t just sing merengue, he also sings bachatas, boleros, and even a rock song with Juanes (on a screen). I enjoyed singing all of the old and new songs. We didn’t stop moving our feet for 2 hours. The concert was last Saturday and my voice is not completely back.

The arena getting full minutes before the show

Since we didn’t get the tickets in advance, we had seats on a high level section. When I got the tickets, I was informed that the concert was close to be sold out. I didn’t see a single seat empty in the AmericanAirlines Arena. I enjoyed every single minute of the show, but it is not the same as a watching the concert from the floor. I’m only 5’3” (161 cm) and I can’t see that much on the floor. However, the energy is completely different. I got a few pictures and videos but the quality is not great.

Juan Luis Guerra, a son de guerra tour, Miami

from our seats

The last song of the night was an acoustic version of "Ojala que llueva Cafe". I made the video below which is probably the only one worth sharing. All of the others have me and my friends screaming and singing with my not so beautiful voice. 

SONG LIST

1. Apaga y Vámonos
2. La Bilirrubina
3. La Travesía
4. La Llave de Mi Corazón
5. Bachata Rosa
6. Salsa Medley
7. Son Al Rey
8. Como Yo
9. El Costo de la vida
10. La Calle
11. Mi Bendición
12. Para ti
13. Niagara en Bicicleta
14. Visa Para un Sueno
15. La Avispas
16. Bachata en Fukuoka
17. La guagua
18. En el Cielo no hay hospital
19. La Cosquillita
20. Voy a pedir tu mano
21. Bachata Medley

Viceroy Hotel, Downtown Miami

Two weekends ago, I went to Miami with 3 friends for a nice and relaxing weekend. We wanted to stay at a nice hotel and we were between the beach or the downtown area. Since most of us always stay at the beach we decided to stay in Brickell, the financial district of Miami. We found a nice hotel with the best pool at a very good rate. We booked the Viceroy Hotel for 2 nights. When we arrived we were extremely happy with our room, changed clothes, and headed to the spa. It was a rainy afternoon and it was perfect to have a nice and long massage. The spa was wonderful and we felt pampered from the moment that we walked in. The jacuzzi area was incredible with floor to ceiling windows overlooking the bay. I was able to take one picture hiding from the staff. Pictures are not allowed during treatment hours for privacy. My apologies for the 2 girls in the bikini in my picture but they were in the way of my quick picture. The hot and polar pools are perfect to relax and drink a mimosa before or after treatments. I had the raindrop massage for 90 minutes and it was the best massage of my life. This is the description from their website:

Raindrop Harmony:Drops of essential oils fall like rain onto the spine and are then massaged in using a gentle feathering technique to stimulate the central nervous system. Your therapist then performs a full-body massage that leaves you detoxified and balanced. The service concludes with a comforting foot massage.

spa with water therapies

Photo credit: Viceroy Hotel website

We later learned that the pool and spa are shared by the Viceroy Hotel and a luxury residential building. The gym is also located in the spa, it has the basic cardio and weights and also personal trainers to hire. I didn't ask the PT rates but I am sure they are much higher than in Tampa. The gym also has a spinning studio that transforms into an aerobics room for group classes that hotel guests can do for $15 a class. The spa's ladies room had lockers, showers, sauna, a eucalyptus steam room, and it is equipped with everything you could need including slippers, towels, razors, iced cold towels for the steam room, and ice cold water with orange slices that gave it a nice flavor. They also have the floor to ceiling windows overlooking the bay. If I lived there I would never leave my home to go to work! It would be impossible to get away from that pool and the bay views from the windows. Unfortunately, we did not had a nice view from our room.

Photo credit: Viceroy Hotel website

Photo Credit: Viceroy Hotel website (the middle pool is a jacuzzi)

Friday night we went to Club 50, located in the 50th floor of the hotel. Since we were guests at the hotel we had no problem getting in a guy with us but if you are going in a group of boys and girls get ready to wait by the door for a while or get there very early. At club 50 there was a private pool deck with a bar and inside was a lounge with windows all over to let you see the Miami skyline. The music was a mix of house, hip hop, and Latin music. 

Photo Credit: Viceroy Hotel website

Photo credit: 2night.com

Our room was the "deluxe king" room. It had a tub and a shower and no privacy as the "wall" was just a wood cut out shape between the bed and the bathroom. The room had a kitchen with a stove, microwave, glassware, mini bar, and a fancy cappuccino maker. we had to watch a video on how to use the cappuccino machine which wasn't that good without cream and I got billed $4 for it. There was a channel just for that on our TV. We ordered room service at 4:00 AM after we returned from the club. We ordered a delicious pizza and a guacamole with chips for $40. It was a bit high but it was very good and considering the time we didn't want to go look for food somewhere else. We also ordered food at the pool's restaurant Cafe Icon. The paninis were good and reasonable priced but be prepared to pay almost $4 for a can of soda and a 18% tip automatically added to everything.

Picture taken from the bathroom with my phone

As we get ready to take another road trip to Jacksonville tomorrow, I am looking forward to spend the following weekend in Miami. I met a girl that works at the Gansevoort Hotel in south Beach and she offered to get me good rates. I texted her this week to ask about a room and I am waiting for a response on the rate. Take a look at the pictures from their website and you will understand why I am excited to possibly staying here.

**Please forgive me for the formatting issues with this post. I did everything I could to correct them but I couldn't get it to work. Blogger had maintenance yesterday and it might had to do with it. **