Miami Beach

Now often referred to as the American Riviera, Miami Beach was a sandbar accessible only by boat a century ago. It was the building of a bridge to the mainland in 1913 that enabled real estate investors like millionaire Carl Fisher to begin developing the island. The resort they created from nothing took off in the 1920s, becoming a spectacular winter playground. The devastating hurricane of 1926 Wall Street Crash singaled the end of the boom, but Miami Beach bounced back in the 1930s with the erection of hundreds of Art Deco buildigs, only to decline again after World war II. In another metamorphosis, Miami Beach is on the rise once again. As a result of a spited preservation campaign, South Beach (the southern part of Miami Beach) has been given a new lease of life. It boast the world’s largest concentration of Art Deco buildings, whose funky colors are no less arresting than the local population of body builders, fashion models, and drag queens. Anything goes in South Beach, where the mood veers between the chic and the bohemian, hence its nickname SoBe – after New York's hip SoHo district. The Art Deco hotels along Ocean Drive are everyone’s favorite haunt but there are other diversions, from trendy shops to higher-brow art museums. The district north of SoBe tempts few people, but what the two areas do share is a superb sandy beach, unbroken mile after mile.