Culture and history meet industry and entertainment in Downtown Miami.

Greater Miami is synonymous with beautiful beaches and towering palm trees – but in its urban center, it’s the cityscape of glittering skyscrapers over Biscayne Bay that gets all the attention. Diverse, dynamic and densely populated, Downtown Miami and the adjoining Brickell area is a hub of international finance, dining, arts and entertainment that no visitor should miss.

Despite its modern façade, this neighborhood has its roots firmly planted in the past, springing up along the banks of what is now known as the Miami River. Miami’s first development boom started here in the 1900s, and icons such as the DuPont Building (Miami’s only Art Deco skyscraper) and the Freedom Tower (where Cuban refugees were processed for entry into the U.S.) were raised in the following years. Today, the Freedom Tower is home to the Museum of Art and Design (MOAD) at Miami Dade College. Downtown Miami’s newest architectural icons – which do double duty as popular entertainment venues – include the contemporary art-focused Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM); the Miami-Dade Arena (home to the NBA’s Miami HEAT); and the Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science, which houses an aquarium and a 250-seat planetarium.

Visitors can easily get around Downtown Miami’s compact core using CitiBikes, scooters and the Metromover (a free, air-conditioned elevated train). It winds through Brickell – where the shops at Brickell City Centre and Mary Brickell Village entice – and heads north to attractions such as the waterfront green spaces at Maurice A. Ferré Park and Bayfront Park, and to the shops at Bayside Marketplace, where the nearly 200-foot-high Skyviews Miami Observation Wheel offers panoramic views of Biscayne Bay. Bayside is also a hub for sightseeing bus tours and boat tours, which take passengers through the bay islands, fringed with palatial waterfront homes, many of them celebrity-owned.

Of course, a day of exploration requires fuel, and this neighborhood brims with appetizing options for lunch, happy hour and dinner. Dine at Area 31 on the 16th floor of the Kimpton EPIC Hotel or at La Mar by Gastón Acurio on the terrace of the Mandarin Oriental, Miami on Brickell Key, with spectacular views of Biscayne Bay and the skyline.

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