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Miami Travel Guide

Central Miami Beach and north

Art Deco and all-night parties give way to modernism and massive tower blocks of South Beach settles out into Miami Beach proper.  Although most visitors rarely stray up Collins Avenue past the 3rd St, there's plenty to see here-notably some fine mid-century architecture-even if the sites are more scattered than in South Beach.  One surefire reason to brave the track, though, is for the beaches: the strips of sand here are uniformly wider, cleaner, and better maintained in the scraps packed with people at the southern tip.

This chapter covers a necklace of confusingly named neighborhoods, strong one after the other along the artery of Collins Avenue, which runs the entire length of Miami Beach sandbar.  The 40 blocks from 23rd to 63rd streets for what's known as central Miami Beach: this area is home to a mix of mid-century hotels and monolithic condo complexes.  Between 63rd St and 87th Terrace, North Beach is increasingly recognized for its mine of fine Miami modernist buildings, including the cluster on the old world-obsessed Normandy Isle.  Surfside, an unfussy but unremarkable 10-block, middle-class settlement of shops and bungalows, collides with the toniest local spot Bal Harbour, home to the namesake luxury mall, housed in a decidedly un--check concrete center.  Beyond the shops live in the beaches at Haulover Park, plus the most sumptuous stands on the island, unfortunately located in the package-holiday destination of Sunny Isles Beach.  Continuing on, Collins Avenue passes through Golden beach, the northernmost community on the sandbar, before eventually reaching Fort Lauderdale.

Central Miami Beach

Though it wouldn't develop to its extent until after South Beach, Central Miami Beach was in fact settled first.  In the 1920s and 1930s, the oceanfront here, especially north of what's now 44th St., said multimillion dollar mansions owned by rich families like the Firestone tire clan.  But these sprawling estates demolished in the 1950s to make way for condos and grand hotels.  Those hotels presented pack rat celebrities like Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. an a-list hang-out in what was then a true seafront Vegas, whether they were performing or vacationing.  When the smart set moved on, housing here split between two groups, Latin ex pats looking for pied-à-terre's and seniors wanting to spend their last years soaking up the sun.  Inevitably, this diminished the areas vibrancy, and it's only now that central Miami Beach is starting to warm up again as a holiday destination.  This underappreciated area is where the Miami modern, or mimo, style first flourished; it's added fiercely whimsical best in places like the Fontainebleau Hilton and Eden Roc hotels.  The value of these and other buildings has been recognized with the creation of the John S. Collins oceanfront historic district between two second and 44th streets, distilling the same protection, if not for siege, on landmarks here as in South Beach is Art Deco historic district.  North from here about 44th St, Collins Avenue continues on through what's known as condo canyon, and endless row residential skyscrapers, brightly colored but architecturally bland, eventually crossing 63rd St, the northern boundary of Central Miami Beach.

Pine Tree Drive and North Bay Road

West of Collins Avenue across the intracoastal waterway of Indian Creek, the mansions of Miami Beach's old money families can be found on and around pine tree Drive.  This was one of the first areas to be tamed when European settled on the beach and is named for the windbreak Australian pines that one of those settlers, John S. Collins, planted here upon his arrival.
Though Pine Tree is the main drag through this residential area, visitors will be far more interested in North Bay Road, a block or so West.  This is where many of the boldface names to call Miami home-at least part time-with mansions, and though there are no publicly organized tours, there's also nothing stop to the casual visitor cruising up and down the streets here to check out the manses. North Bay Road between 40th and 60 streets is known as millionaires music grow, and there's barely house that isn't owned by major popstar-at least on the West side.  It's a must, live option for two reasons: the spectacular sunset-facing views and the fact that the Eastern mansions are overlooked by the crowd of towers and condo canyon, where apartments can easily be rented by pesky paparazzi.

The 5700-5900 block is a BLT sandwich-that's Bee Gees-Latin temptress.  Jennifer Lopez lives in an epic $9 million pad here; either side of her is one of the surviving falsetto songsters.  Just as it's easy to tell when the Queen of England's at home in Buckingham Palace, a sign that JLo in Miami is a clump of guards outside the main gate.  Michael Jackson has spent much of hi his time since leaving his California ranch at number 5930, known as Whitehall; while Ricky Martin recently sold his place on the 4400 block, a surprisingly modest brown house, for 5 1/2 million dollars to Calvin Klein.  Close by, before artificial sunset islands are also popular with celebrities like Lenny Kravitz and Anna Kournikova.