Researched & checked — 30 Oct 2026

Miami in 3 Days: South Beach, Wynwood and Little Havana, With the Real Costs Shown

NEW Published 30 October 2026

Three days in Miami split the way the city divides itself — a day on the sand and neon of South Beach, a day in the muralled streets of Wynwood and the domino parks of Little Havana, and a day that trades the city for Vizcaya's gardens or the Everglades' river of grass, with every fare and ticket price checked against the people who actually charge it.

SECTION 01How Is This 3-Day Miami Itinerary Laid Out?

The plan respects the water. Day 1 stays on the island: South Beach from the sand to the neon. Day 2 crosses to the mainland for the two neighbourhoods that show Miami's present tense — Wynwood and Little Havana — and finishes at Vizcaya, the bayfront estate in Coconut Grove. Day 3 leaves the city for the Everglades, the one part of this trip that genuinely needs a car. Each day is a single district done properly, rather than three done in transit.

The transit arithmetic is worth learning once, because it shapes every day. Miami-Dade Transit's standard fare on Metrobus and Metrorail is $2.25 a ride, and transfers between bus and rail are free when you pay with an EASY Card or EASY Ticket; the card itself costs $2. A Daily Transit Pass is $5.65 — two and a half single fares — and a Weekly Transit Pass is $29.25, which suits a three-day trip with an airport ride at each end. Metrorail and Metromover run from 5 a.m. to midnight, seven days a week. And the system's gift to visitors: Metromover, the driverless loop that circles downtown and Brickell, is completely free — no card, no fare, just walk up and ride. Metrorail also runs between Miami International Airport and downtown at the standard $2.25 fare.

• Day 1 — South Beach: the beach · Ocean Drive and the Art Deco district · Collins Avenue · the neon after dark
• Day 2 — Wynwood, Little Havana and Vizcaya: Calle Ocho and Domino Park · the Wynwood Walls · Vizcaya Museum & Gardens
• Day 3 — The Everglades: Shark Valley on the Tamiami Trail · or a slow city day if the weather turns

One seasonal honesty note before the days themselves. NOAA puts the Atlantic hurricane season at 1 June to 30 November, with activity peaking from August through October — also when Miami's heat and humidity peak. Winter and early spring are the forgiving months; a summer trip is doable, but should be planned around shade, water and afternoon storms.

SECTION 02Day 1: South Beach and Ocean Drive

South Beach's two great sights cost nothing, and the first is the beach itself — a broad, pale sweep running the length of the island, lifeguard towers standing along it in painted colours. Swim in the morning, when the water is calmest and the sand emptiest, and treat the afternoon as architecture time. Facing the beach across Ocean Drive stands the Art Deco district: block after block of 1930s hotels in pastel stucco, preserved as a single streetscape. Walking it is the sight; there is no ticket, because it is simply a public street that happens to be one of the most famous in the world. Come back after dark, when the neon comes on and the same façades perform the trick a second time in electric colour.

What South Beach does charge for, relentlessly, is parking. The City of Miami Beach's own rates make the point plainly: on-street meters in the Entertainment District and South Beach zones cost $4.00 an hour, and in South Beach the meters run from 9 a.m. to 3 a.m. — a beach day at the meter is a $20-plus decision before lunch. The municipal garages are the lesser evil, with a $20 daily maximum and a $15 weekend and event flat rate on Friday to Sunday nights at the central garages. Read that table the way locals do: as a sign saying take the bus. Miami-Dade Transit crosses the causeways from downtown constantly at the standard $2.25 fare, and a $5.65 day pass turns the island into a walk-on, walk-off proposition.

SECTION 03Day 2: Wynwood, Little Havana and Vizcaya

Start in Little Havana, because it starts early. The neighbourhood's spine is Calle Ocho — Southwest 8th Street — a few blocks of cigar rollers, coffee windows serving cafecitos, bakeries and fruit stands, all free to wander. At its heart sits Máximo Gómez Park, known to everyone as Domino Park, where the regulars play dominoes and chess under the pavilion with an intensity the visiting spectator should respect: watch, enjoy, and let the games be theirs. This is a living neighbourhood first and a sight second.

From Little Havana, turn north to Wynwood, where a former warehouse district has become an open-air gallery the size of a neighbourhood. Its anchor is The Wynwood Walls, the curated compound where the street-art project began. Admission is $12 for adults (18+), $5 for youths 13–17 and $10 for seniors 65+, with children 12 and under free; general admission includes a complimentary spray-painting experience, and the visit is self-guided. The Walls are open daily from 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. — go at opening, when the courtyards are quietest and the light is kindest to the murals. Two things worth knowing: the surrounding streets of Wynwood are themselves covered in large-scale murals and cost nothing to walk, so the ticket buys the curated core, not the whole experience; and if you are a Miami-Dade County resident, the Walls announced free admission for county residents — with a photo ID showing a Miami-Dade address — running through 2028.

The afternoon belongs to Vizcaya Museum & Gardens, the Italianate villa a Gilded Age industrialist built on Biscayne Bay in Coconut Grove — the house theatrical and European, the gardens formal on one side and jungle on the other, the whole place a cool green exhale after two days of city. Adult admission is $25, with children aged 6–12 at $10 and children 5 and under free; US veterans and active-duty military enter free, as do visitors on SNAP/EBT benefits through Museums for All, with up to three guests. Vizcaya is open daily except Tuesdays, from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. — plan around the Tuesday closure, the easiest mistake in this itinerary to make. One current caveat from the museum itself: guided tours of the Main House are temporarily unavailable while preservation work is under way, so the visit is self-paced until they resume; the gardens are unaffected.

SECTION 04Day 3: The Everglades, Done Honestly

For day three, the city gives way to the landscape that was here first. Everglades National Park protects the southern end of a slow, shallow river of grass that runs down the Florida peninsula, and the National Park Service's advice for approaching it from Miami is specific: Shark Valley, on US-41 — the Tamiami Trail — is the entrance closest to Greater Miami, 25 miles west of the Florida Turnpike exit. The drive takes about an hour, traffic allowing. The same road runs east back into the city and becomes Calle Ocho in Little Havana — yesterday's neighbourhood is the end of today's highway. The park's entrances are far apart — the Park Service warns they are at least an hour's drive from one another — so choose Shark Valley and commit; it is the Miami-side visit, built around a loop road into the sawgrass. There is essentially no public transport inside the park, which is why this is the itinerary's one car day. The park itself is open 24 hours, and the Park Service advises arriving before 10 a.m. on busy winter weekends, advice worth obeying.

Entrance pricing needs care, because it changed for international visitors. A private vehicle pass is $35, covering the passholder and all passengers for seven consecutive days at all entrances; motorcycles are $30, and individuals arriving on foot, by bicycle or by paddle pay $20, with under-16s free. But the Park Service's Everglades fees page states a further rule in plain words: non-US residents aged 16 and over must pay an additional $100 per person fee unless admitted with an annual or America the Beautiful pass. Two non-resident adults in one car are therefore looking at $35 plus $200 — $235 at the gate — unless a pass covers them; the park's own annual pass is $70. US residents and citizens pay no such surcharge. Whichever way you enter, this is a fee set by the park, printed here exactly as the park states it — check the park's fees page before you go, because a rule this new is a rule that can move.

A word on airboats, sold hard all along the Tamiami Trail. The Park Service does not sell airboat rides, and this guide prints no airboat prices: the operators are commercial businesses whose prices could not be verified from an official source to the standard this site requires. If an airboat hour appeals, price it directly with the operator — and weigh it against what Shark Valley gives you from the loop road for the entrance pass alone.

SECTION 05What Do the Paid Parts of This Itinerary Cost?

Miami's headline neighbourhoods are free; the money goes on three tickets, transit and — if you insist — parking. At the prices checked for this guide:

• The Wynwood Walls: $12 adults, $5 ages 13–17, $10 seniors 65+, children 12 and under free; spray-painting experience included; open daily 10:30 a.m.–6:30 p.m.; free for Miami-Dade County residents with local photo ID.
• Vizcaya Museum & Gardens: $25 adults, $10 children 6–12, 5 and under free; veterans and active-duty military free; closed Tuesdays; hours 9:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m.
• Everglades National Park: $35 per vehicle for seven days (motorcycle $30; $20 per person on foot or bike, under-16s free) — plus $100 per person for non-US residents 16+ unless entering on an annual or America the Beautiful pass.
• Miami-Dade Transit: $2.25 a ride with free bus–rail transfers on an EASY Card ($2); day pass $5.65; weekly pass $29.25; Metromover free.
• South Beach parking, if you must: meters $4.00/hour in the Entertainment District and South Beach zones (9 a.m.–3 a.m.); municipal garages $20 daily maximum.
• Free: South Beach and Ocean Drive, Little Havana and Domino Park, the Wynwood streets outside the Walls, Metromover — the majority of this itinerary.

Two adults doing all three days on transit, with both attraction tickets and a shared vehicle pass for the Everglades, spend roughly $120 on admissions and fares between them — before the non-resident surcharge, the one line in this budget that depends on your passport rather than your plans.

SECTION 06What Mistakes Do First-Time Visitors Make?

Driving to South Beach and feeding the meter. At $4 an hour from 9 a.m. to 3 a.m., a beach day at the meter outruns the $20 garage maximum and dwarfs a $5.65 transit day pass. The causeway traffic is the second half of the same mistake.

Going to Vizcaya on a Tuesday. It is the museum's weekly closing day, and no amount of standing at the gate in Coconut Grove changes it. Swap days 2 and 3, or put Vizcaya anywhere else in the week.

Learning about the $100 Everglades fee at the entrance. Non-US residents aged 16+ pay it per person unless a pass covers them. Read the park's fees page before the trip and decide about a pass with the numbers in front of you — not at a booth on the Tamiami Trail.

Treating Wynwood as only the Walls, or only the streets. The $12 ticket buys the curated courtyards and the spray-painting experience; the free surrounding streets hold murals of the same scale. Do both, in that order, and start at the 10:30 opening.

Ignoring the season. Hurricane season runs 1 June to 30 November, peaking August to October on NOAA's account, and summer afternoons bring heat that reorganises any itinerary. Summer visitors should plan like locals — early starts, indoor middays.

Official references and checking status

The prices, hours and ticket rules in this guide were checked against the official pages below on 30 October 2026. Two honest limits: Vizcaya's adult admission is in transition — the museum's standing price is $25 from 1 November 2026, and during preservation work it was discounted to $20 on the day this guide was checked, so confirm the day's price on the museum's own page; and the drive time to Shark Valley is given as approximate because it depends on Tamiami Trail traffic.

• Miami-Dade County — Implementing Order 04-133 (the county's published transit fares: the $2.25 base fare, free Metromover, the $5.65 day pass and the $29.25 weekly pass)
• The Wynwood Walls — Admissions ($12 adult, $5 youth, $10 senior, under-13s free; spray-painting experience included)
• The Wynwood Walls — Hours & Directions (daily 10:30 a.m.–6:30 p.m.)
• Vizcaya Museum & Gardens — Visit (admission prices; open daily except Tuesdays, 9:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m.)
• National Park Service — Everglades: Fees & Passes (the $35 vehicle pass and the additional $100 fee for non-US residents)
• National Park Service — Everglades: Directions (Shark Valley as the entrance closest to Greater Miami)
• City of Miami Beach — Parking meter rates ($4.00/hour in the Entertainment District and South Beach zones)
• NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory — Tropical Cyclone FAQ (hurricane season dates and peak)

Photos in this guide: Ocean Drive's Art Deco hotels lit at night, looking north past 10th Street, by Dough4872 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0); domino players under the pavilion at Máximo Gómez Park (Domino Park) in Little Havana by Phillip Pessar / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0). The Ocean Drive photograph is cropped; both resized and converted for this page.

General information only. This guide is based on official sources publicly available and checked on the date shown on this page. Visa rules change, and consular and USCIS officers decide every case on its own facts — nothing here is a confirmation or a guarantee for your individual case, and this is not legal advice. Always confirm the current requirement on the official page linked in this guide before you act, and consider a qualified immigration attorney for your specific situation.