Before I moved to this city, I visited several times. As a tourist, I hit up the main spots, meaning South Beach, Coral Gables and Coconut Grove, but it wasn't until I moved here that I found some of my favorite places, like Old Cutler Road, The non-Coco Walk part of the grove and some others. You know this because these are many of the places I go with the intention of blogging about them, showing them to people who are visiting Miami, or who have lived here but never seen this side of our city.
This past Saturday, I got to be a tourist in my own city again. El Hombre and I took a tour of Miami with The Miami Tour Company. We took the city tour, which leaves from the Miami Beach Botanical Garden, and takes you on a three hour tour of Miami and South Beach. This was a narrated bus tour (closed buses, with AC.. thank God because it was warm outside) that runs on GPS.
I know what you may say, three hours is a long time to be on a bus. But the tour takes you from South Beach to Coconut Grove, down Old Cutler, through Coral Gables and Little Havana, and ending in Bay Side, where you can continue onto the Everglades, Boat Tour or head back to the beach. Also, as El Hombre pointed out, you got alot of information about Miami in a small amount of time (and there is a bit of dry humor here and there.) Plus it stopped in the grove for lunch, at the Biltmore (once again, my favorite hotel in Miami) and in Little Havana, so you could snap pictures, stretch your legs and chat with the tour guide.
It was nice having El Hombre along because he is a Miami native, and I could verify information with him. We both learned a few new things, for example, I would never have thought we had the third biggest skyline, nor would I have realized the cemetery in the Bahamian Village was the backdrop for Thriller (you better believe I YouTubed that as soon as I got home.) I also had never been in the Bahamian Village, so that was kinda cool.
Overall, I think my favorite thing was hearing people's reaction to Vizcaya and the backroads of the Grove. So many people come here and never see anything other than the beach, and the view from the interstate on the way to the keys. This tour is cool because it lets you see a more "local view" of Miami. I don't have pictures because my camera sort of hates life, but I felt like I was reading back through my blog and adding some history behind my posts.
6 comments:
Why did I always think you were from Miami? Silly me!
You're right, there's soooooooo much more to Miami than SoBe.
Probably because I have a local to help me hit up the spots I cover in my blog. I'm actually from North Carolina, believe it or not!
I agree, it took me a few years to discover the non-Miami Beach side of Miami....
Hi Christina,
Thanks for joining us on the tour. I'm happy you and El Hombre enjoyed it.
No funny story about being late to the bus? :)
Sorry your camera didn't work. Your welcome to use a picture from our Flickr stream, or the video we have on YouTube.
Gus,
I try not to complain too much about what a pain it is to get through the random spots of traffic in Westchester... ugh.
And no funny stories about Carnaval on the Mile and the congestion from that either ;-)
My camera has been giving me trouble for awhile. It doesn't take good pictures if there isn't perfect outdoor lighting. I need a new one, and I have been ogling a few. I may go back and put the video from the site. I also may add Thriller (I forgot to add that's my favorite music video of all time...)
I completely understand. No hard feelings. Were the other passengers as forgiving?
Sometimes, tourists on vacation can be uptight... That's one of the reasons we have so much music on the tour... it relaxes everybody.
Your driver, Rickey, said it everyone had fun!
We got there about 3-5 minutes late, and El Hombre flagged the bus on the way there. The people were amused I think, they gave him hell.
There were some rowdy guys on the bus on the way back, which I think annoyed some of the older people in the front of the bus, because they were chasing each other around BaySide. There was one guy rolling his eyes over that.
Ricky was really nice. As was Jim.
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