World Tourism Blog

Subtropical Miami basks in the limelight of the Super Bowl football championship this weekend, showing off its sunny beaches and devotion to revelry.

The palm-fringed Art Deco hotels and glitzy Ocean Drive familiar from the movies and fashion magazines are actually across Biscayne Bay on the island of Miami Beach, so stay at a hotel in the South Beach neighborhood where a lot of the fun is an easy walk away.

Reuters correspondents with local knowledge offer tips to help visitors get the most out of a short stay.

FRIDAY

Noon — Slather on the sunscreen and go for a swim in the ocean. Stroll the white sand beach on the east side of Ocean Drive, and check out the goofily colored lifeguard stands.

2 p.m. — Walk the streets. Ocean Drive, Collins Avenue and Washington Avenue are lined with colorful Art Deco hotels housing patio cafes and boutiques. Learn more at the Art Deco Welcome Center at 1001 Ocean Drive. Gawk at the ornate mansion where Italian designer Gianni Versace was murdered at 1116 Ocean Drive. Leer at the World Erotic Art Museum at 1205 Washington. When your feet give out, pay 25 cents and hop onto the South Beach Local bus, which circles the southern end of Miami Beach.

6 p.m. — Stroll through South Pointe Park at the tip of the island and go to Monty’s South Beach overlooking the marina at 300 Alton Road. Sit at a picnic table under the thatched roof and watch the sun set over the Miami city skyline across the bay.

7:30 p.m. — Go to Joe’s Stone Crab at 11 Washington Avenue for exquisite crustaceans and mustard sauce. If you don’t want to bribe the maitre d’, skip the long wait for a table by getting take-out.

9 p.m. — Stroll and ogle on Ocean Drive. This neon-lit party street will be closed to traffic during Super Bowl weekend but delivers great people-watching any time, and the party lasts all night. Cap it off with a game of pool at a cheap and friendly dive, Club Deuce on 14th Street.

SATURDAY

7 a.m. — Haul yourself out of bed and head south on U.S. 1 to Key Largo for some snorkeling at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. If you can float, you can snorkel, so plunge in and admire the vibrantly colored fish in this protected sanctuary. Allow at least 90 minutes for the drive and give yourself time to rent your gear before catching the 9 a.m. tour boat that will take you out to the shallow reefs. There are afternoon boats but the seas are calmest in the morning.

12:30 p.m. — On the way back, veer onto the Card Sound Road and stop at Alabama Jack’s for conch fritters, a fresh fish sandwich and Old Florida atmosphere at this open-air restaurant on the water. Live country music starts in the early afternoon. 58000 Card Sound Road.

2:30 p.m. — Drive north and west to Everglades National Park, entering at the Shark Valley Loop Road, and take a two-hour tram tour through the River of Grass with park rangers to brief you on the alligators, exotic plants and wading birds. Or rent a bicycle and explore on your own, from a paved 15-mile loop path. This is a swamp, best seen in the dry winter months and avoided in the steamy summertime.

8 p.m. — After a shower and a nap, dine on classic Cuban food at Versailles, the noisy heart of the Cuban exile community at 3555 Calle Ocho in Miami, or sample the Asian-influenced grouper and mahi mahi at Pacific Time in Miami’s Design District, 35 NE 40th Street.

10 p.m. — There are plenty of cavernous clubs but the more intimate Jazid, at 1342 Washington Avenue on Miami Beach, has live music that runs the gamut from Latin, jazz, funk, son, soul, hip hop, reggae and every possible blend.

SUNDAY

9:30 a.m. — Stroll Lincoln Road, the cafe-lined pedestrian mall that traverses South Beach and is popular with dog walkers, skateboarders and buskers. Buy fresh fruit and homemade jam at the farmer’s market. Browse at Books and Books, 927 Lincoln Road, then brunch on seared tuna nicoise salad or tropical shrimp salad with mango at the bookstore’s sidewalk restaurant.

2 p.m. — If you don’t have Super Bowl tickets, catch a movie or take in a performance by the New World Symphony on Lincoln Road. Then stroll down to David’s 24-hour Cuban cafe near Meridian and fuel yourself with some hot, sweet Cuban coffee, the strongest stimulant you can buy legally on the streets. Home Security Systems.

No Super Bowl host does the spectacle quite like Miami, thanks to perfect weather, hard bodies and parties galore along South Beach.

Miami is an especially golf-friendly Super Bowl destination as well. The courses aren’t as abundant as other recent Super Bowl spots such as Jacksonville or Phoenix, but it’s almost guaranteed that there will be plenty of sunshine and you’ll be playing golf in Bermuda shorts.

And considering the Super Bowl’s next two venues — Dallas, which can have iffy golf weather in February, and Indianapolis (where you’ll want to be huddled up next to a roaring fire for sure) — if you were ever going to golf during Super Bowl week, this is your year.

Because there are fewer golf courses in populated, built-up south Florida, don’t expect to find many bargains. Count on paying top dollar for tee times and stay-and-play packages. Of course most of the area’s top resorts are either full or almost full for the weekend.

Here are your golf options during Super Bowl week in South Florida:

Upscale south Florida resort golf
While not as golf-rich as Orlando, Tampa, or the area from Jacksonville down to St. Augustine, south Florida does offers a handful of upscale resort golf courses.

The biggest game in town is the Doral Resort, home to five 18-hole courses, highlighted by the formidable PGA Tour host, the Blue Monster.

The Blue Monster is available for play any day except Friday and Saturday at this point, and the course is still booking times for a 1 p.m. shotgun start on Super Bowl Sunday.

The remaining four courses at Doral, include the recently opened Jim McLean Signature Course. Formerly known as the Silver, the rebuilt course named for the resort’s famous teaching pro, now plays to more than 7,100 yards and rivals Greg Norman’s Great White course at as second fiddle at the resort. Each of the Doral Resort courses have limited availability throughout the week depending on the day and space is available to the public. Call 800-713-6725 for booking info.

Don Shula’s Golf Resort, just a short drive from the stadium in Miami Lakes and home to a championship and executive course, is obviously going to receive a bit of attention during Super Bowl week. Spots are sold out on Shula’s Senator Course, a Bill Watts design, Feb. 2-6, with limited space available on the day of the big game. Home Security Systems.

which sees more than 70 parades roll through greater New Orleans before Fat Tuesday — is getting one more.

The Saints-crazed city plans to celebrate the team’s first-ever trip to the Super Bowl with a parade to honor them.

“There will be some type of massive parade in the city of New Orleans win or lose,” Mayor Ray Nagin told reporters Tuesday night.

Although his office tried to back away from the certainty of a parade on Wednesday, Nagin said he had already begun discussions with Saints officials and others.

“It’s not set in concrete yet,” Barry Kern said on Wednesday. “But I think it will be by the end of the day.”

One of the many things to be decided is who would pay for the parade.

New Orleans’ latest budget cut funding in several areas and put most city offices on a four-day week.

Police Superintendent Warren Riley estimated the parade would attract 200,000 people and security for it could run as much as $300,000.

Police spokesman Bob Young said Wednesday that amount could be cut, however, if the Saints parade was to roll behind a regularly scheduled Carnival parade, since police would already be on the parade route.

Meanwhile, parades scheduled to roll on the first big weekend of Mardi Gras — Feb. 6-7 — scrambled to keep from interfering with the Saints’ matchup against the Indianapolis Colts in the Super Bowl on Feb. 7.

The Krewe of Alla moved its parade from Sunday to Saturday and will roll behind Adonis and Choctaw.

Carrolton and King Arthur will still parade on Sunday, but will both start one hour earlier — 11 a.m. for Carrolton and noon for King Arthur.

In Houma, the krewes of Hyacinthians and Titans will roll an hour earlier so Houma residents can catch the Carnival parades and make it home in time for the Super Bowl kickoff.

Nagin said the divisional playoff game against Arizona and Sunday’s NFC championship game against Minnesota each generated between $500,000 and $750,000 for the city’s economy.

Saints fans prize the upcoming Super Bowl appearance, the first in the franchise’s 43 years of existence. This is only the ninth winning season for the club, which did not get its first one for two decades.

The 31-28 overtime victory over the Vikings on Sunday night marked the first time the Saints had hosted an NFC championship game. Home Security Systems.

This year’s Super Bowl is in Miami, but all South Florida wants to play.

The region’s three international airports give visitors the flexibility to try a variety of beaches, restaurants and social scenes on the mainland and south into the Florida Keys, said Rodney Barreto, chairman of the South Florida Super Bowl Host Committee.

“It’s not a bad place to be entertained while you’re waiting for the big game,” he says.

More than 70,000 ticket-holders are expected to attend the game, while more than 40,000 extra people will likely show up just for the parties and extracurricular activities, Barreto said. Many will extend their trips to include the Pro Bowl, also being played in Miami, on Jan. 31. Here’s a sampling of what they’ll find across South Florida:

FOOTBALL FESTIVITIES: The big game doesn’t kick off until 6 p.m. on Feb. 7, but the pre-gaming starts days earlier. A Feb. 3 fishing tournament in Miami, organized by the host committee, honors Oakland Raiders linebacker Marquis Cooper, free-agent NFL defensive lineman Corey Smith and former South Florida player William Bleakley, who died last year when their boat overturned off the coast of Florida. Former NFL coach Jimmy Johnson hosts the Billfish Bowl, Feb. 4-6 in Key Largo; the sailfish tournament, benefits Gridiron Greats, an organization helping retired football players with their medical costs.

The NFL Players Choir will perform in “The Super Bowl Gospel Celebration” at the Adrienne Arsht Center on Feb. 5. A free concert with fireworks is scheduled on the beach next to the Sheraton Fort Lauderdale Beach Hotel on Feb. 6; scheduled acts are Barenaked Ladies, O.A.R., and Robert Randolph and The Family Band. But you don’t have to come to Miami to catch The Who’s performance. The band will provide televised halftime entertainment during the big game.

Only VIP tickets remain for the Taste of the NFL fundraiser for hunger-relief groups on Feb. 6 in Fort Lauderdale. Taste of the NFL invites one chef from each city with an NFL team to cook with the help of an alumni player. A “Super Sunday Brunch” is planned Feb. 7 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood.

Tailgating is welcome at LandShark Stadium, though fan parking is limited because of security and other activities set up outside the stadium. Of course, Miami will try adding a little glamour. Morton’s The Steakhouse is offering platters of filet mignon sandwiches, lamb chops, shrimp cocktail, mini-New York cheesecakes and other gourmet options for tailgaters who don’t want to cook; order the platters for pick-up at the restaurant’s Coral Gables, North Miami Beach and downtown Miami locations. Donald Trump’s International Beach Resort in Sunny Isles Beach will send a personal chef with tailgating guests as part of its “Tail-Great” package.

Let’s be honest: People come to South Florida to see and be seen. Score an outside table at one of the restaurants on Lincoln Road in South Beach and watch shoppers, dog-walkers and beach-goers traipse by. Lounge chairs for rent on the beach offer a comfortable view of Miami Beach’s best-known tourist attraction: people wearing next to nothing. NFL cheerleaders will show off their, um, skills in a beach competition Jan. 29 in Fort Lauderdale.

For a more family-friendly sunbathing session, stretch out near the lighthouse in Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park on Key Biscayne, an island just off downtown Miami. The Venetian Pool in Coral Gables offers cool serenity; the swimming pool is a historic landmark carved out of coral rock and features caves, stone bridges and waterfalls.

A water taxi along the Intracoastal Waterway in Fort Lauderdale offers an alternative to area’s congested roadways. The route is lined with mulitmillion-dollar yachts and mansions belonging to high-powered executives, celebrities and socialites.

Locals and tourists swarm beneath the neon hotel lights on beachfront Ocean Drive in South Beach. A less glitzy strip of hotels and motels is worth a drive across the causeway downtown: the MiMo Biscayne Boulevard Historic District. “MiMo” is short for Miami Modern, an architectural style from the 1950s and 1960s. Their futuristic shapes can look shabby now, but the neighborhood is home to hip cafes and independent boutiques.

Missing the theme park experience of central Florida? Ride the wooden roller coaster, go-carts, bumper boats and other rides at Boomers! in Dania Beach.

Winter is the most comfortable time of year to visit the Florida Everglades. The best way to traverse its swamps and sawgrass is by air boat. Tiny Coopertown — with just eight residents — is a tourism hub with air boat tours, a restaurant that serves Everglades delicacies such as frog legs, and an exhibit housing more than a dozen live alligators. A tram carries visitors around a paved, 15-mile loop at the Shark Valley Visitors Center in Everglades National Park. Bicycles can also take you around the loop, but beware the speed bumps — those are alligators sunning themselves next to the pavement.

The Seminole Tribe of Florida also calls the Everglades home. Details about the tribe’s air boat tours, motocross course, RV campground, traditional village and casino gambling are available at.

An entire state park lies underwater off Key Largo. Snorkeling, scuba and glass-bottom boat tours launch daily from John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. Home Security Systems.