Miami and the Keys

This Drive Comes From...

National Geographic Driving Guide: Florida and the Southeast

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A drive of startling beauty, this road trip ranks among the most scenic in the United States. From the upthrust architecture of Miami to the horizontal sweep of the Everglades and the limpid aquamarine reefs of the Florida Keys, the drive keeps you awestruck. Only one road goes to the southernmost point in the continental United States, so this is a one-way trip—appropriately enough, for once in Key West many people choose never to leave.

Beginning in Miami with the art deco landscapes of Miami Beach and the opulent Mediterranean showplaces of Coral Gables, the drive moves persistently south. After stopping at several commercial jungle gardens and Biscayne National Park, you strike southwest for an excursion across the marshy bird-filled backwaters of Everglades National Park. Then it’s on to the keys for a 100-mile [161-kilometer] odyssey down the Overseas Highway. You end in Key West, that charming oddball of southern towns, where every sunset is a cause for celebration. CONTINUED

- Miami
- Monkey Jungle
- Flamingo
- Maritime Museum of the Florida Keys

(Continued From Top)

Miami

Venetian Causeway and the Miami skyline

Photograph © Raymond Gehman

Brash newcomer to Florida, Miami (Convention & Visitors Bureau, 701 Brickell Ave. +1 305 539 3000) sprouted to life when Henry Flagler extended his Florida East Coast Railway down here in 1896, a year after a killer freeze ruined his orange crops in the northern part of the state. Travelers and businesses have been flocking to the Sunshine City ever since. A highlights tour starts in Miami Beach, a 10-mile [16.1-kilometer] strand weighted with behemoth hotels, many of them financed by the Mafia in the 1930s. In South Beach, visit the Bass Museum of Art (2121 Park Ave. +1 305 673 7530. Closed Mon.; Adm. fee). The coral stone building is devoted to Renaissance religious art, paintings by Rubens, Bol, Jordaens, and temporary exhibits. Walk or drive a few blocks southwest to the Holocaust Memorial (1933-45 Meridian Ave. +1 305 538 1663), an eerily effective sculpture garden dedicated to the Jews who perished during World War II. Walk around the vine-draped circular plaza, with its granite walls laminated in photographs and inscribed with a chronological history of the genocide. A central bronze sculpture depicts a 42-foot-tall [12.8-meter-tall] arm upon which emaciated figures desperately cling.

Miami Beach?s Art Deco District

Photograph © Raymond Gehman

Like a transplanted New York, the Miami Beach area offsets dense blocks and grimy sidewalks with chummy neighborhood restaurants and bars. But as you continue down Collins Avenueand then Ocean Drive, it’s a different story. Enjoying a spirited rebirth, the famous Art Deco District features hundreds of jazzy buildings outfitted with neon, glass brick, and bright paint. Traffic crawls from 15th to 6th Street, so it’s best to walk. Find yourself a seat at one of the many sidewalk hotel bars and enjoy the amazing procession of glamour day and night. If you don’t spot an actual movie star or super model, you’ll at least see people who ought to be.

Take the General MacArthur Causeway (US 41/Florida A1A) across Biscayne Bay for a superlative view of Miami’s bold skyline. The Historical Museum of Southern Florida (Metro-Dade Cultural Center, 101 W. Flagler St. +1 305 375 1492. Adm. fee) offers a brief overview of 10,000 years of Miami-area history. Included are exhibits on tourism, boom-time architecture, the Everglades, and Cuban immigrants.
For a relatively secluded beach nearby, drive out to the end of Key Biscayne (Toll) and enter the Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Recreation Area (+1 305 361 5811. Adm. fee). Nature trails course the 415-acre [168-hectare] park, and a 1.25-mile [2-kilometer] beach offers white sand and turquoise water for sunning and bathing.
Back on the mainland, head south on Bayshore Drive (Miami Avenue) a short distance to Vizcaya (3251 S. Miami Ave. +1 305 250 9133. Adm.fee), the regal Italian Renaissance-style villa built by industrialist James Deering in 1916. European decorative arts fill 34 rooms and splendid views overlook the formal gardens. Outside, a barge-shaped stone breakwater accentuates the magnificent view of Biscayne Bay.
Staying south on Bayshore Drive brings you to the suburb of Coconut Grove, an early seaside settlement that manages to maintain its village identity. Lush with bougainvillea and banyans, the area has become an eclectic jumble of artist bungalows, swish boutiques, and hot nightclubs.
Driving south on Old Cutler Road takes you through a bayside neighborhood that includes Fairchild Tropical Garden (10901 Old Cutler Rd. +1 305 667 1651. Adm. fee). The 83-acre [33.6-hectare] botanical wonderland was tossed into a tropical salad by Hurricane Andrew in 1992, but it is green again with ferns, flowering shrubs, lily pools, and jungle backdrops. The Parrot Jungle and Gardens (11000 S.W. 57th Ave. +1 305 666 7834. Adm. fee) is a 1930 s tourist mecca featuring paths through lush plantings and past talking birds, as well as tortoises, flamingos, and monkeys. A trained-bird show and petting zoo are just right for children.

Monkey Jungle
The cageless Miami Metrozoo (12400 S.W. 152nd St. +1 305 251 0400. Adm. fee) has nearly 300 landscaped acres [121 hectares] upon which animals from Africa, Asia, and Australia roam. You can ride a tram or monorail around the park, or walk a 3-mile [4.8-kilometer] trail. Just south, the low-key Monkey Jungle (3 miles [4.8 kilometers] W of US 1, 14805 S.W. 216th St. +1 305 235 1611. Adm. fee) specializes in primates. Squirrel monkeys dig into the boxes of raisins that visitors are allowed to offer them; crab-eating macaques swim for food tossed into their pond; and spider monkeys and gibbons swing in their enclosures.
The main corridor south through here is US 1, a frankly dreary stretch of transmission shops, exotic dancing joints, and tract housing that pushes up against the Everglades. But by the time you’re south of the Monkey Jungle, you’ve just about left development behind. Between Homestead and Florida City, travel east 9 miles [14.5 kilometers] on N. Canal Drive (S.W. 378th Street) to Biscayne National Park (+1 305 230 7275). Land comprises only 5 percent of this aquatic paradise, a vast expanse of blue-green water shared by tropical fish, waterbirds, and other marine animals. A Visitor Center has videos and exhibits on the park’s ecosystems, and a concessionaire offers glass-bottom boat tours and snorkel and scuba excursions.

Alligator, Everglades National Park

Photograph © Raymond Gehman

Back on US 1, drive south and then west on Florida 9336 through a patchwork sea of strawberry fields, sugarcane, and tropical nursery plants. After about 10 miles [16.1 kilometers] you arrive at the entrance to the 1.5-million-acre [607,028.5-hectare] Everglades National Park (+1 305 242 7700. Adm. fee), whose mangrove swamps and saw-grass prairies the Native Americans called pa-hay-okee, or “grassy waters.” Maps at the entrance station will get you underway, but it’s a good idea to stop at the entrance Visitor Center for more visual information and help in planning your visit.
The main park road wanders 38 miles [61.2 kilometers] down to the tourist town of Flamingo. Several short nature trails along the way give you a good idea of the variety of Everglades scenery. The first and most popular stop, at the Royal Palm Visitor Center, offers two trails. The 0.5-mile [0.8-kilometer] Anhinga Trail, loops a slough frequented by alligators and plumed birds such as egrets and herons.
Starting in 1905, engineers began draining water from the Everglades for nearby population centers, leaving the local wildlife to fend for itself. Despite conservation efforts, animals have suffered. As Miami’s population has soared, the number of wading birds has declined—93 percent since the 1930s.
A little farther along, the Pa-hay-okee Overlook has a boardwalk leading to an observation deck where you can view an enormous landscape of grasslands—accessible only to canoeists with skills to navigate the maze of narrow waterways around dense hammocks.

Flamingo

Poling canoes through the Everglades

Photograph © Chris Johns

Down in Flamingo, the waters are more accessible and you can rent a canoe or take a cruise into the wetlands or bay. Once home to renegades and plume hunters, this busy terminus now offers a campground, a hotel, a Visitor Center, and a restaurant and bar with a view onto Florida Bay.

John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park

Photograph © Stephen Frink

Retrace your steps back to US 1 and head south. Mangroves and lowlying foliage line the roadside as you cross the first of 42 bridges and begin to thread that necklace of coral jewels known as the Florida Keys. The longest one, 30-mile [48.3-kilometer] Key Largo (Chamber of Commerce +1 305 451 1414) introduces itself with marinas, bait-and-tackle shops, and some 25 dive operators—in a town of 15,000 souls. Mileposts on US 1 (descending as you travel south) are used for addresses. Drive down to Mile 102.5 and turn left for the John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park (+1 305 451 1202.Adm. fee). The country’s first underwater park extends about 3 miles [4.8 kilometers] into the ocean and 25 miles [40.2 kilometers] along the shore. Though the water is usually clear enough to see for more than 100 feet [30.5 meters], for best views you need to get beneath the surface, where an extravagant undersea garden of color and motion rivets your attention. More than 600 species of fish and 40 kinds of coral inhabit these waters. A park concessionaire is fully stocked with ways to get you under, from scuba instruction to snorkel tours and equipment rentals.

Maritime Museum of the Florida Keys

Fish billboard, Key Largo

Photograph © Raymond Gehman

Across the highway, the Maritime Museum of the Florida Keys (+1 305 451 6444. Closed Sat. and Sun.; Adm. fee) contains rare treasures and artifacts recovered from sunken ships dating from the 17th century. And a good local haunt for seafood and key lime pie is Jim & Val’s Tugboat Restaurant (Off Mile 99, 2 Seagate Blvd. +1 305 453 9010). Down the road, the Florida Keys Wild Bird Rehabilitation Center (Mile 93.6. +1 305 852 4486. Donation) takes in a variety of shore and forest birds, most injured by fishing lines.
South of Key Largo, the road is lined by hibiscus and palms, with views of emerald waters opening up on either side. In the early morning and other lightly traveled times you almost feel as if you’re flying over the sea. This compelling road, the Overseas Highway was built along the bed of Henry Flagler’s 1912 railroad. An awesome feat of construction in its time, the railroad was wiped out by a hurricane in 1935.
Continue down to Long Key, stopping at Long Key State Recreation Area (Mile 67.5. +1 305 664 4815. Adm. fee) for a quiet commune with nature along lagoon and beachside on the 1.25-mile [2-kilometer] Golden Orb Trail. Soon you’re driving across the breathtaking Seven Mile Bridge, one of the longest bridges in the world. To your right is an older version of the bridge, now for pedestrians only. The panorama of ocean and bay grows more and more vividly green as you head southwest. Though the road is the thrilling attraction for miles and miles, one more worthwhile turnout just after the bridge takes you to Bahia Honda State Park (Mile 36.8. +1 305 872 2353. Adm. fee). Claiming one of the best beaches in the keys (where sandy beaches are rare), this attractive park also has a mangrove forest and hardwood hammock with such unusual West Indian plants as the orange-flowering geiger tree, the yellow Alamanda, and the Jamaican morning glory. At a concession stand here you can pick up a snack, rent a boat or snorkel equipment, or sign up for aparasail ride.
The next major island, Big Pine Key, is known for its diminutive Key deer, the smallest subspecies of the white-tailed deer on the continent. Though protected by the National Key Deer Refuge, the declining population numbers about 300. Since 1995, more than 200 have been killed by cars on the highway.

Continue to the end of the line— Key West (Chamber of Commerce +1 305 294 2587), 150 miles [241.4 kilometers] from Miami and 90 miles [144.8 kilometers] from Havana, Cuba. One of the the state’s largest and richest cities in the 1880s, it is now one of its most outlandish and endearing. To get downtown, follow signs for Florida A1A (beaches/airport) to the left, not to the right (historic district). Both ways lead to the historic district, but the ocean drive is prettier with less traffic, and it takes you right past the East Martello Museum & Gallery (3501 S. Roosevelt Blvd. +1 305 296 3913. Adm. fee), a perfect place to start. Housed in a Civil War-era fort, this haphazard collection nonetheless gives a fine overview of the island’s flavor, with exhibits on pirates, shipbuilders, rumrunners, and railroaders. A gallery of island eccentrics offers a glimpse at the characters that have washed up here—people like the Iguana Man, who used to bike around town with a half-dozen reptiles slung across his back and perched on the handlebars of his bike.
In the historic district, tour the house of another eccentric, the Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum (907 Whitehead St. +1 305 294 1136. Adm. fee). The legendary writer owned this large Spanish colonial-style home from 1931 to 1961 and penned most of his masterpieces in the backyard studio. In addition to his furniture and swimming pool, you’ll see nearly 50 cats, descended from Hemingway’s own.
For a panoramic view of the island and surrounding waters, climb the 90-foot [27.4-meter] Key West Lighthouse Museum (938 Whitehead St. +1 305 294 0012. Adm. fee). From up here you can also survey the distinctive Bahamian-inspired architecture—light and breezy verandas, raised foundations, and tin roofs.
Not far away, the Harry S Truman Little White House (111 Front St. +1 305 294 9911. Adm. fee), favored retreat of the 33rd President, stands on the grounds of a former submarine base. Thirty-minute tours paint a portrait of Truman and his presidential successors Eisenhower and Kennedy on holiday here.
Nearby Duval Street, once low-key, now churns with noisy bars, T-shirt shops, and an endless parade of lock-stepped honeymooners and tattooed drifters, men in pirate bandanas and tourists on mopeds. What keeps this street from becoming just another generic hip locale are landmarks like the Wrecker’s Museum (322 Duval St. +1 305 294 9502. Adm. fee), a repository of Key West lore in what is considered the town’s oldest house (1829). Rooms are furnished in period, and exhibits show how salvaging shipwrecks once made Key West the country’s wealthiest town. Down at Greene and Front Streets, the Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society (+1 305 294 2633. Adm. fee) exhibits gold, silver, and other booty recovered from two Spanish galleons that sank 25 miles [40.2 kilometers] offshore in a 1622 hurricane. Fisher spent 16 years in search of the treasure, worth about 400 million dollars.
Now walk over to Mallory Square, the former shipwrecking hub that today draws tourists to its congeries of shell shops, tropical-drink bars, and tour vendors. Mallory is most famous for its nightly sunset-watching ritual. Jugglers, magicians, ropewalkers, and tarot-card readers entertain a dockside crowd, while the ocean and sky shimmer with soft colors... as another day at the end of the road draws to a close.