Welcome to the USA, a country I have visited many many times – so many I have covered 25 of the 50 States, having driven through most of them. Our Caribbean Cruise Ship will depart from Miami, a place first visited during a work trip back in 2000. After all sets of photos below I present a few interesting stats and facts of Miami.
Nicholas Thomas Drinias (to be called “Bundy” from now on) departed Sydney at 11:15am on Thursday 18 December 2025 on an American Airlines Boeing 777-300ER bound for Los Angeles. A steady trip that took 13.5hrs. After a 3hr layover in LA we headed directly to Miami on an American Airlines Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner. Another very smooth trip taking 4hrs 15min with only cookies and pretzels to sustain us !!! They do not even sell food on board, making Jetstar feel like Luxury Star !!! American domestic flights are still frugal and uninspiring. After 21hrs of travel, we caught a yellow cab to our BnB Art Deco style accommodation in the middle of the Miami Beach strip only 25min away. Uber would have been cheaper. Our building and room was modern, clean and in walking distance of everything. We booked it through booking.com but operated BnB style with no reception, just two codes for lobby and room. It was 6:30pm same day we left Sydney so no time to shop. Just shower and off to a Cuban Restaurant. 80% of restaurants on Miami Beach are Mexican or Cuban. Almost everyone speaks Spanish – Blindfold me and I swear I was in Central or South America !!! This is not white America. The weather was warm and humid – much like Northern Queensland in Winter. Our first impressions were inspiring. Very well-kept, pastel-painted, rainbow-lit buildings lining Collins Avenue with no more than 3 levels in keeping with the original Miami. Latin-American dance music filled the moist air. Our Cuban restaurant was packed. A vast, reasonably-priced menu that in USD was great but struggled with our lousy AUD exchange rate. Our braised chicken and beef, lined with rice, plantains and black-eye beans hit the spot after all that uninspiring airline food. $16USD for the main compared to $USD23 for 3 Tacos and $45USD for the cheapest steak. We would definitely go supermarket shopping for dinner food the next day.
The next day came slowly. We slept as soon as our heads hit the pillow and slept in to 9am. Scattered puffy clouds with plenty of sunshine in between. After some exercises and supermarket homework we hit the streets of Miami Beach to a huge solo walk. The ornate, Art-Deco Miami Beach is quite small comprising three parallel roads to the main beach: Ocean, Collins and Washington covering around 5km from the southern ocean entry in the south to the north. We walked all three roads from 10:30am to 3:30pm taking photos and film and enjoying the sounds of Spanish and Latin-American sounds. Ocean Drive is clearly the best with iconic hotels, clubs, bars and restaurants opposite parkland and of course, Miami Beach which you cannot see from Ocean Drive. The photos below tell it all. We visited the following iconic locations: Southpointe (Park, Viewpoint, Beach), The Carlyle Hotel (Where the movie BIRDCAGE was filmed), The Montana Café (dedicated to Tony Montana from the film SCARFACE), Espanola Way (Tree-lined pedestrian strip full of restaurants, cafes & bars), Main Synagogue. At the end of our first full day, we stocked up on olives, cheese and wine plus dinner dishes for the next 3 days. Tony Montana kept us company that night with his “little friend” followed by an easy sleep.
The next day was Tri-Tour Day !!! 8:30am to 7:00pm of three tours covering the Everglades, The Broader Miami and The Bay Biscay Sunset Cruise. Amazing. 71km stood between Miami Beach and the Everglades. Florida is flat. Like a pancake. One urban centre is connected to another with plenty of industrial centres in between. And no wonder. Who is going to employ all those thousands of people living in landscapes that are unidentifiable from one another. We even drove past the huge new stadium approaching completion for the World Cup 2026. There is a massive new elevated freeway system connecting the airport with Miami Beach that is supposed to be completed in-time for the World Cup but looks like it may just make it to the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ !!! The Sawgrass Everglades are 71km from our resting place. The hovercrafts are loud and fast and there are alligators and birdlife everywhere as you will see below… The double-decker bus tour was terrific. Covered all of our solo-walk yesterday and even more. Ventured 24km beyond across Bay Biscay to central CBD Miami which has more skyscrapers than the Gold Coast !!! Half of these are residential which explains the huge retirement population living here. The Wynwood locality is the artsy university district full of residential buildings painted in colourful wall murals. Little Havan is close by filled with smells of Cuban Cigars, Salsa Sounds and Tacos Tastes. Our double-decker open-top bus then took us to Bayside Marketplace (like Darling Harbour in Sydney) where a small barge-like boat took us on a sunset cruise. What a cruise. A small boat with a BIG view. Of what you may well ask ? Fabulous city views and palatial homes of the rich and famous averaging $USD30million. Sylvester Stallone, Shakira, Mel Brookes, Jackie Chan, Shaq, Jennifer Lopez, Antonio Banderas and Bundy. Witnessed a glowing orange sunset on our way back after one hour on the Bay. Finished the cruise with a very mature Sav Blanc at the port before busing it back to our room. We enjoyed supermarket-bought, microwave-heated, pulled-pork in Jim Bean Smoked Mesquite BBQ Sauce washed down with Pinot Gris and Die Hard 2. That sauce was the best I have ever tasted. A great first day tour with even better to come tomorrow…
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Today was our first snorkel day in the Caribbean. Up at 6am to be picked up at 7am by a huge coach full of Spanish-Speakers from all over the world. To our surprise lots of Indians too. Key West is the last of 34 islands connected to each other by low bridges stretching out from the bottom of Florida. Key West Island is 272km and 3.5hrs drive from Miami Beach. Amazing geography. The island-hopping view is much like a Pacific Atoll – ocean on both sides of a narrow piece of land. The last helicopter chase scene from the film TRUE LIES with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis was filmed on the longest 7-mile or 11km bridge. We arrived at 11:30am to glorious humid sunshine at 27C with a very light breeze – much like Cairns in Winter. All this meant ideal snorkelling conditions in an open ocean. There are yachts and multi-million-dollar cruisers everywhere. I wanted to go for a 2km swim but could not find a beach or coastline – it was all marinas. Our catamaran was also boarding at 12;15pm which left me little time to cover my distance. The catamaran was huge with plenty of room under cover and out on the front for tanning. The 7-mile or 11km ride out to the Sand Key Reef took an hour and Key West is easily visible from there. Sand Key is part of the larger “Florida Coral Reef” (or Florida Reef Tract), which is the only living coral barrier reef in the continental United States and the 3rd largest in the world after Australia’s “Great Barrier Reef” and Belize’s “Belize Barrier Reef”. I have now snorkelled in the World’s top 3 largest reefs and “loving it” (Maxwell Smart) !!!
The Florida Coral Reef is 540km long and 7km wide and comprises over 6,000 individual reefs. Most reefs are ridges like ours at 2-5m underwater with diving necessary to capture the true colours of the coral, plants and fish as you will see below. The entire reef ecosystem supports more than 6,000 species of marine life, including plants, fish, and invertebrates. It is home to over 80 species of and over 500 species of marine fish. Healthy coral cover in the Florida Keys has plummeted by approximately 90% since the late 1970s. Current hard coral coverage is estimated at only 2%, down from historical levels of 40%. Despite this, the reef system supports a coastal economy valued at approximately $USD2.7 billion per year !!! So much for the “coral bleaching” screaming and shouting – more like “coral bitching” (Ha Ha Ha) !!!
Bundy was brilliant. Believe it or not, it was his FIRST snorkelling trip and dive. Amazing what 30 years of cafes can do to a person !!! He kept up with me for the whole hour we were in open ocean. No fear and no trepidation. Naturally, I did not expect Bundy to dive on his first foray but he did well to clean his mask and observe the shallow coral I left him at given the no-dive scenario. Despite what my photos suggest, this reef was for me a 5 out of 10 having been to many many reefs over my life. My 10 out of 10 goes to the reef around “Gilligan’s Island” in Tuvalu followed by my first scuba dive in Solomon Islands at 8 out of 10. Barrier Reef off Cairns is a 7 out of 10 and Belize a 6 out of 10. I shall leave my description of this reef to the photos that follow. Once back at Key West at 3:30pm we spent 2hrs walking the town. Wonderful pine-wood-cladded homes like Hyannis Port with super-gourmet mini-supermarkets and lots of brand-label doggies. This is another super-rich retirement island with its own mini-International Airport, for the rich Europeans to fly here to their homes and yachts directly !!! Our day in Key West ended through the eye of my new DJI Mini 4 Pro with first international flight here !!! Bundy and the rest of the bus slept all the way back while I prepared the photos of this post !!! Back at our room we ate a huge 750g platter of assorted sushi at only $24AUD which in Oz would be triple the price !!!
KEY STATS ON MIAMI:
• Population: The city's population is estimated at 487,014. The broader Miami-Dade County population is approximately 2.9 million.
• Ethnic Composition: Miami is a majority-minority city; 71.2% of residents identify as Hispanic or Latino. Other major groups include non-Hispanic Black (12.7%) and non-Hispanic White (12.3%).
• International Appeal: Over 55% of the city's residents were born outside the US.
• Age: The median age is 39.7 years, which is younger than the Florida state average of 42.8.
• Median Household Income: Estimated at $USD59,390.
• Unemployment Rate: The city maintains a low unemployment rate of approximately 2.8% as of late 2025.
• Poverty Rate: Approximately 19.2% of the population lives below the poverty line, which is higher than the national average.
• Key Industries: Major sectors include Professional, Scientific, & Technical Services, Health Care, and Construction.
• Global Standing: Miami ranks as the 26th most important financial centre globally and 7th in the United States as of 2025.
• Median Home Value: The median home value in the city is approximately $588,000.
• Homeownership: The homeownership rate in the city is relatively low at 30.7%, with the majority of residents renting.
• Visitors: Greater Miami and Miami Beach welcomed over 28 million visitors in 2024, with tourism contributing nearly $USD22 billion to the local economy.
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT MIAMI:
1. Only Major U.S. City Founded by a Woman: Miami is the only major American city founded by a woman, Julia Tuttle. Known as the "Mother of Miami," she convinced railroad tycoon Henry Flagler to expand his line to the area in 1896.
2. "Magic City" Nickname: The city earned this title due to its incredibly rapid growth. It transformed from a small settlement to a major city almost overnight, skipping the typical developmental stage of a town.
3. Cruise Capital of the World: Port Miami is the busiest cruise port on the planet, serving over five million passengers annually and hosting the world's largest cruise lines.
4. Largest Art Deco Collection: Miami Beach's Art Deco Historic District contains the world's largest concentration of Art Deco architecture, featuring over 800 historic buildings constructed between the 1920s and 1940s.
5. Bordered by Two National Parks: It is the only city in the United States surrounded by two separate national parks: Everglades National Park to the west and Biscayne National Park to the east.
6. Invention of Sunscreen: Modern sunscreen has roots in Miami Beach. In 1944, pharmacist Benjamin Green developed a red petroleum gel to protect WWII soldiers, which eventually evolved into the famous Coppertone brand.
7. Man-Made Shoreline: Most of Miami Beach’s iconic sandy shores are man-made. Because the area was originally a mangrove swamp, the sand is frequently imported from places like the Bahamas to combat natural erosion.
8. Gateway to Latin America: Miami is a major centre for international finance and trade, housing the highest concentration of international banks in the U.S. outside of New York City. More than 70% of its residents identify as Hispanic or Latino.
9. Origin of Burger King: The first Burger King (originally called Insta-Burger King) opened its doors in Miami in 1954. The company's global headquarters remains in the city today.
10. Only One Recorded Snowfall: Despite its tropical climate, it has snowed exactly once in Miami's recorded history—on January 19, 1977.
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