Miami Travel Information

Check Availability

What Type of Travel?

Vacations Air Accommodations Cars Cruises

What Type of Vacation?

Air + Hotel Hotel + Car Air + Hotel + Car

What Type of Air?

Round Trip One Way

Travel Details

Cruise Line:
-- Select a Cruise Line -- CarnivalCelebrityCostCrystalCunardDisneyHolland AmericaNorwegianPrincessRoyal CaribbeanSeaburnWindstarOrient LinesRadissonSilverseaWindjammer Barefoot cruises

Cruise Destination:
-- Select a Cruise Destination -- AfricaAlaskaAsiaBahamasBermudaCaribbeanEuropeHawaiiMediterraneanMexicoNorth AmericaPanama CanalSouth AmericaSouth Pacific

Coming from:

Going to:
Miami Anaheim Aruba Athens Atlanta Atlantic City Baltimore Barcelona Bermuda Birmingham Boston Cancun Charlotte Chicago Cozumel Dallas Denver Detroit Dublin Fort Lauderdale Frankfurt Grand Cayman Hawaii (Big Island) Hong Kong Houston Kauai Las Vegas London Los Angeles Los Cabos Manila Maui Mexico City Miami Montego Bay Montreal Nashville Nassau Negril New Orleans New York City Oahu / Honolulu Orlando Palm Springs Paris Philadelphia Phoenix Portland, OR Puerto Rico Puerto Vallarta Punta Cana Reno Rome Salt Lake City San Diego San Francisco Santa Fe Seattle St. Louis St. Thomas Sydney Tampa Tokyo Toronto Tucson Vancouver Washington D.C. -- Choose a Destination --

OR see more
destinations.

Depart date:
AnytimeMorningAfternoonEvening12:00 midnight1:00 AM2:00 AM3:00 AM4:00 AM5:00 AM6:00 AM7:00 AM8:00 AM9:00 AM10:00 AM11:00 AM12:00 noon1:00 PM2:00 PM3:00 PM4:00 PM5:00 PM6:00 PM7:00 PM8:00 PM9:00 PM10:00 PM11:00 PM

Return date:
AnytimeMorningAfternoonEvening12:00 midnight1:00 AM2:00 AM3:00 AM4:00 AM5:00 AM6:00 AM7:00 AM8:00 AM9:00 AM10:00 AM11:00 AM12:00 noon1:00 PM2:00 PM3:00 PM4:00 PM5:00 PM6:00 PM7:00 PM8:00 PM9:00 PM10:00 PM11:00 PM

Adults (18-64):
12345

Children (0-17):
012345

Seniors (65+):
012345

Preferred Airline:
No Preference AeromexicoAir CanadaAir ChinaAir EuropaAir FranceAir JamaicaAir New ZealandAir Tahiti NuiAirTran AirwaysAlaska AirlinesAlitaliaAll Nippon AirwaysAloha AirlinesAmerica WestAmerican AirlinesAsiana AirlinesATAAustrian AirlinesbmiBritish AirwaysCathay PacificChina AirlinesChina Eastern AirlinesContinentalCzech AirlinesDeltaEl AlEmiratesEVA AirwaysFinnairFrontier AirlinesHawaiian AirlinesIberiaIcelandairJapan AirlinesKLMKorean AirLAN AirlinesLAN EcuadorLOT-Polish AirlinesLufthansaMalaysia AirlinesMexicanaMidwest AirlinesNorthwestQantas AirwaysSASSpirit AirlinesSun Country AirlinesSwiss International Air LinesThai Air InternationalUnited AirlinesUS AirwaysVirgin Atlantic

Hotel Chain Search:

Preferred Car Company:
No Preference HertzAdvantage Rent-A-CarAvisDollar Rent A CarEnterpriseThrifty Car RentalAlamo Rent A CarBudgetNational Car RentalPaylessSixt

Preferred Car Class:
No Preference EconomyCompactMidsizeStandardFull SizePremiumLuxuryMinivanSUVSports CarConvertible

Best Price Guarantee!

More Travel Options

Early settlement

The earliest evidence of Native American settlement in the Miami region came from about 10,000 years ago. The first inhabitants settled on the banks of the Miami River, with the main villages on the northern banks.

The inhabitants at the time of first European contact were the Tequesta people, who controlled much of southeastern Florida, including what is now Miami-Dade County, Broward County, and the southern parts of Palm Beach County. The Tequesta Indians fished, hunted, and gathered the fruit and roots of plants for food, but did not practice any form of agriculture. They buried the small bones of the deceased with the rest of the body, and put the larger bones in a box for the village people to see. The Tequesta are credited with making the Miami Circle.

Juan Ponce de León was the first European to visit the area in 1513 by sailing into Biscayne Bay. His journal records that he reached Chequescha, which was Miami's first recorded name. It is unknown whether he came ashore or made contact with the Indians. Pedro Menéndez de Avilés and his men made the first recorded landing when they visited the Tequesta settlement in 1566 while looking for Avilés' missing son, shipwrecked a year earlier. Spanish soldiers led by Father Francisco Villiareal built a Jesuit mission at the mouth of the Miami River a year later but it was short-lived. After the Spaniards left, the Tequesta Indians were left to fend themselves from European-introduced diseases like smallpox. By 1711, the Tequesta sent a couple of local chiefs to Havana, Cuba to ask if they could migrate there. The Cubans sent two ships to help them, but Spanish illnesses struck and most of the Indians died.

The first permanent European settlers arrived in the early 1800s. People came from the Bahamas to South Florida and the Keys to hunt for treasure from the ships that ran aground on the treacherous Great Florida reef. Some accepted Spanish land offers along the Miami River. At about the same time, the Seminole Indians arrived, along with a group of runaway slaves. The area was affected by the Second Seminole War, during which Major William S. Harney led several raids against the Indians. Most non-Indian residents were soldiers stationed at Fort Dallas. It was the most devastating Indian war in American history, causing almost a total loss of population in the Miami area.

After the Second Seminole War ended in 1842, Fitzpatrick’s nephew, William English, re-established the plantation in Miami. He charted the “Village of Miami� on the south bank of the Miami River and sold several plots of land. In 1844, Miami became the county seat, and six years later a census reported that there were ninety-six residents living in the area. The Third Seminole War (1855-1858) was not as destructive as the second one. Even so, it slowed down the settlement of southeast Florida. At the end of the war, a few of the soldiers stayed.

In 1891, a wealthy Cleveland, Ohio woman named Julia Tuttle purchased an enormous citrus plantation in the Miami area, augmenting a smaller plot of land she inherited from her father to make a total of 640 acres. Tuttle’s husband, Frederick Tuttle, died in 1886, and she decided to move to South Florida due to the “delicate health� of her children. She and William Brickell tried to get railroad magnate Henry Flagler to expand his rail line, the Florida East Coast Railroad, southward to the area, but he initially declined.

However, in the winter of 1894, Florida was struck by bad weather that destroyed virtually the entire citrus crop in the northern half of the state. A few months later on the night of February 7, 1895, Florida was hit by another freeze. That freeze wiped out whatever crops survived the first one, and the new trees. Unlike the rest of the state, Miami was unaffected, and Tuttle's citrus became the only citrus on the market that year. Tuttle wrote to Flagler again, persuading him to visit the area and to see it for himself. Flagler did so, and concluded at the end of his first day that the area was ripe for expansion. He made the decision to extend his railroad to Miami and build a resort hotel.

On April 7, 1896 the railroad tracks finally reached Miami, and the first train arrived on April 13. It was a special, unscheduled train, and Flagler was on board. The train returned to St. Augustine later that night. The first regularly scheduled train arrived on the night of April 15.

On July 28, 1896, the incorporation meeting to make Miami a city took place. The right to vote was restricted to all men who resided in Miami or Dade County. After ensuring that the required number of voters was present, the motion was made to incorporate and organize a city government under the corporate name of “The City of Miami,� with the boundaries as proposed. and the city was incorporated with 444 citizens.

Miami's growth up to World War II was astronomical. In 1900, 1,681 people lived in Miami, Florida; in 1910, 5,471; in 1920, 29,549. As thousands of people moved to the area in the early 1900s, the need for more land quickly became apparent. Up until then, the Florida Everglades only extended to three miles west of Biscayne Bay. Beginning in 1906, canals were made to remove some of the water from those lands. During the early 1920s, the authorities of Miami allowed gambling and were very lax in regulating Prohibition, so thousands of people migrated from the northern United States to the Miami region. The catastrophic Great Miami Hurricane in 1926 caused 373 fatalities and ended a large building boom. Between 25,000 and 50,000 people were left homeless in the Miami area. The Great Depression followed, in which more than sixteen thousand people in Miami became unemployed.

On February 15, 1933, an assassination attempt was made on President-elect Franklin Delano Roosevelt by Giuseppe Zangara, an Italian anarchist, while Roosevelt was giving a speech in Miami's Bayfront Park. Mayor Anton Cermak of Chicago, who was shaking hands with Roosevelt, was shot and died two weeks later. Four other people were wounded, but President-elect Roosevelt was not harmed.

By the early 1940s Miami was recovering from the Great Depression, but then World War II started. Many of the cities in Florida were heavily affected by the war and went into financial ruin, but Miami remained relatively unaffected. Over five hundred thousand enlisted men and fifty thousand officers trained in South Florida. After the end of the war, many servicemen and women returned to Miami, pushing the population up to almost a quarter million by 1950.

Following the 1959 revolution that unseated Fulgencio Batista and brought Fidel Castro to power, most Cubans who were living in Miami went back to Cuba. That soon changed, and many middle class and upper class people Cubans moved to Florida en masse with little possessions after Castro began to remove freedoms and rights. Miami generally welcomed the Cuban exiles. In 1965 alone, 100,000 Cubans packed into the twice-daily "freedom flights" from Havana, Cuba to Miami. By the end of the 1960s, more than four hundred thousand Cuban refugees were living in Miami-Dade County.

Although Miami was not really considered a major center of the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, it did not escape the change that occurred. Miami was a major city in the southern state of Florida, and had always had a substantial African-American and black (to differentiate individuals of Caribbean origin) population.

In December 1979, police officers pursued motorcyclist Arthur McDuffie in a high-speed chase after McDuffie made a provocative gesture towards a police officer. The officers claimed that the chase ended when McDuffie crashed his motorcycle and died. The coroner's report concluded otherwise. One of the officers testified that McDuffie fell off of his bike on an Interstate 95 on-ramp. When the police reached him he was injured but okay. The officers proceeded to remove his helmet, beat him to death with their batons, put his helmet back on, and called an ambulance claiming there had been a motorcycle accident. An all-white jury acquitted the officers after a brief deliberation.

After learning of the verdict of the McDuffie case, one of the worst riots in the history of the United States, the infamous Liberty City Riots, broke out. By the time the rioting ceased three days later, over 850 people had been arrested, and at least eight white people and ten African Americans had died in the riots. Property damage was estimated around one hundred million dollars.

Later, the Mariel Boatlift of 1980 brought 150,000 Cubans to Miami, the largest in civilian history. Unlike the previous exodus of the 1960s, most of the Cuban refugees arriving were poor. Castro used the boatlift as a way of purging his country of criminals and of the mentally ill. During this time, many of the middle class non-Hispanic whites in the community left the city, often referred to as "white flight." In 1960, Miami was 90% non-Hispanic white; by 1990 it was only about 10% non-Hispanic white.

In the 1980s, Miami started to see an increase in immigrants from other nations such as Haiti. As the Haitian population grew, the area known today as Little Haiti emerged, centered around Northeast Second Avenue and 54th Street. In the 1990s, the presence of Haitians was acknowledged with Haitian Creole language signs in public places and ballots during voting.

Another major Cuban exodus occurred in 1994. To prevent it from becoming another Mariel Boatlift, the Clinton Administration announced a significant change in U.S. policy. In a controversial action, the administration announced that Cubans interdicted at sea would not be brought to the United States but instead would be taken by the Coast Guard to U.S. military installations at Guantanamo Bay or to Panama. During an eight-month period beginning in the summer of 1994, over 30,000 Cubans and more than 20,000 Haitians were interdicted and sent to live in camps outside the United States.

Hurricane Andrew caused more than $20 billion in damage just south of the Miami-Dade area in 1992. The Elián González uproar was a heated custody and immigration battle in the Miami area in 2000. The contoversy concerned six-year-old Elián González, who was rescued from the waters off the coast of Miami. The U.S. and the Cuban governments, his father Juan Miguel González, his Miami relatives, and the Cuban-American community of Miami were involved. The climactic stage of this prolonged battle was the April 22, 2000 seizure of Elián by federal agents, which drew the criticism of many in the Cuban-American community.

The controversial Free Trade Area of the Americas negotiations occurred in 2003. It was a proposed agreement to reduce trade barriers while increasing intellectual property rights. During the 2003 meeting in Miami, the Free Trade Area of the Americas was met by heavy opposition from anti-corporatization and anti-globalization protests.

On July 27, 2005, the popular ex-city commissioner Arthur Teele walked into the main lobby of the Miami Herald headquarters, dropped off a package for columnist Jim DeFede, and told the security guard to tell his wife Stephanie he "loved her" before pulling out a gun and committing suicide.

People and culture

Demographics

Miami is the 46th most populous city in the U.S., just behind Minneapolis and Omaha. The metropolitan area, which includes Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, ranks sixth in the United States behind Dallas and is the largest metropolitan area in the Southeastern United States. As of the census of 2000, there were 362,470 people, 134,198 households, and 83,336 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,923.5/km² (10,160.9/mi²), making Miami one of the more densely populated cities in the country. There were 148,388 housing units at an average density of 1,606.2/km² (4,159.7/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 66.62% White, 22.31% African American, 0.22% Native American, 0.66% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 5.42% from other races, and 4.74% from two or more races. 65.76% of the population were Latino of any race. 11.83% of the population were non-Hispanic whites. The ethnic makeup of the city is 34.1% Cuban, 22.3% African American, 5.6% Nicaraguan, 5.0% Haitian, and 3.3% Honduran. In 2004, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) ranked Miami first in terms of percentage of residents born outside of the country it is located in (59%), followed by Toronto (43%).

There were 134,198 households out of which 26.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 36.6% were married couples living together, 18.7% have a female head of household with no husband present, and 37.9% were non-families. 30.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.61 and the average family size was 3.25.

In the city the population was spread out with 21.7% under the age of 18, 8.8% from 18 to 24, 30.3% from 25 to 44, 22.1% from 45 to 64, and 17.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 98.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.3 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $23,483, and the median income for a family was $27,225. Males had a median income of $24,090 versus $20,115 for females. The per capita income for the city was $15,128. 28.5% of the population and 23.5% of families were below the poverty line. 38.2% of those under the age of 18 and 29.3% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.

Based on the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports Program, Miami ranks as the second most dangerous metropolitan area in the United States, based number of murders, rapes, robberies, aggravated assaults, burglaries and motor vehicle thefts that have occurred in the metropolitan area. The city proper ranks 14th.morganquitno.com (external)

The city ranks second-to-last in people over 18 with a high school diploma, with 23% of the population not having that degree.

A wide variety of languages are commonly spoken throughout the city. The City of Miami has three official languages - English, Spanish, and Haitian Creole. Other languages that are spoken throughout the city include Afrikaans, Brazilian Portuguese, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, and Russian. Miami has one of the largest populations in the U.S. (74%) of people who speak a language other than English at home.

The Latin- and Caribbean-friendly atmosphere in Miami has made it a popular destination for tourists and immigrants from all over the world, and the third-biggest immigration port in the country after New York City and Los Angeles. In addition, large immigrant communities have settled in Miami from around the globe, including Europe, Africa, and Asia. The majority of Miami's European immigrant communities are recent immigrants, many living in the city seasonally, with a high disposable income. For example, Miami's Italian-born community numbers only around 45,000, but it is the wealthiest Italian American community in the United States.

Today there are sizable legal and illegal populations of Argentines, Bahamians, Barbadians, Brazilians, Colombians, Cubans, Dominicans, Dutch, Ecuadorians, French, Haitians, Jamaicans, Israelis, Italians, Nicaraguans, Peruvians, Russians, South Africans, Turks, and Venezuelans throughout the metropolitan area. While commonly thought of as mainly a city of Hispanic and Caribbean immigrants, the Miami area is home to the largest Finnish, French, and South African immigrant communities in the United States; as well as one of the largest Israeli, Russian, and Turkish communities.

Religion

Miami is home to adherents of many religions, and is considered one of the most religiously diverse locations in the United States, containing practitioners of all major religions. The majority of Miamians are Roman Catholic and the Archdiocese of Miami leads the largest archdiocese in the Southeast. The Miami area has the third-largest Jewish community in the United States, after New York City and Los Angeles. Other religions practiced include Voodoo, Santería (Lucumí/Lukumi), Orisha/Anago/Shango/Oyotunji, Candomblé and other forms of animist, Amerindian practices, Yoruban-derived and African-influenced religions throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.

Media

Miami is served by two English-language newspapers, The Miami Herald and South Florida Sun-Sentinel, and Spanish-language El Nuevo Herald. The Miami Herald is Miami's primary newspaper with over a million subscribers focusing mainly on issues that affect the Miami and Miami-Dade area. It also has news bureaus in Broward, Monroe, and Nassau, Bahamas. It publishes daily Monroe County, Nassau, and International Editions along with the daily Miami-Dade edition. The newspaper also publishes The Herald, a daily Fort Lauderdale paper.

Miami is the 12th largest radio market and the 17th largest television market in the U.S. Television stations serving the Miami area include WAMI (Telefutura), WBFS (UPN), WBZL (The WB), WFOR (CBS), WHFT (TBN), WLTV (Univision), WPLG (ABC), WPXM (i), WSCV (Telemundo), WSVN (FOX), WTVJ (NBC), WPBT (PBS), and WLRN (also PBS).

Sports

The Miami Heat is the only major league team that plays its games in Miami. The Miami Dolphins and the Florida Marlins both play their games in the suburb of Miami Gardens. The Orange Bowl, a member of the Bowl Championship Series, hosts their college football championship games at Dolphin Stadium. The stadium has also hosted the Super Bowl; the Miami metro area has hosted a total of ten, more than any other city, and is hosting another in 2007. The Florida Panthers NHL team plays in neighboring Broward County, Florida at the BankAtlantic Center in the city of Sunrise. Miami is also the home of the Miami Orange Bowl, the home site for all University of Miami Hurricanes football games.

Miami is also home to some of the best Paso Fino horses where competitions are held at Tropical Park Equestrain Center.

A number of defunct teams were located in Miami, including the Miami Floridians (ABA), Miami Gatos (NASL), Miami Screaming Eagles (WHA), Miami Seahawks (AAFC), Miami Sol (WNBA), Miami Toros (NASL), Miami Tribe (PSFL), and the Miami Tropics (SFL). The Miami Fusion, a defunct Major League Soccer team played at Lockhart Stadium in nearby Broward County.