It’s worth being clear about the name, because two cities share it. Miami is the big mainland city across Biscayne Bay; Miami Beach is the barrier island linked to it by causeways — a separate city with its own government, its own history, and its own unmistakable look. When people picture “Miami” — the pastel hotels, the neon, the sand and the candy-colored lifeguard towers — they are usually picturing Miami Beach. The bay between the two is narrow; the difference is not.
The 1920s land boom made Miami Beach famous, and the great 1926 hurricane nearly unmade it, ending the Florida boom in a single storm. But the rebuilding is what gave us the Beach we know. Through the 1930s, developers threw up hundreds of small, affordable Streamline-Moderne hotels along Ocean Drive and Collins Avenue, each one curved and finned and crowned with neon. Lincoln Road became the “Fifth Avenue of the South.” And when the war came, roughly half a million troops trained on these beaches — many of whom, unable to shake the sand from their shoes, came back to stay.
Why People Visit Miami Beach
Miami Beach rewards visitors who want style with their sand: the world’s great Art Deco strip, a wide Atlantic beach, walkable streets, and neon nights. Add the South Beach glow and the year-round Florida sun, and the man-made island makes an easy case for itself.
