Each week we ask a Channel Island resident to share their holiday experiences with our readers.
Who better to kick us off in style than popular Channel Island TV and radio presenter, Gary Burgess, who tells us all about his recent trip to Miami.
“It’s like Disney built it or Instagram put the whole city through one of its filters. Miami really is as spectacular as the movies and TV shows filmed there make out.
Trips to the US have been fairly regular in recent years. My list of places around the world to tick off is growing longer than either annual leave or my bank balance can keep up with, as the call of America keeps on winning the day.
This time around, a trip based out of a hotel in Miami Beach – a city in its own right next door to Miami itself – and where my husband and I spent an undue amount of time sitting in bars and cafes on the iconic Ocean Drive watching the world go by as the sun beat down on the palm tree-lined beach.
There’s so much to see and do in Miami, but doing nothing is equally worthwhile. Just taking a stroll, or people watching, is time well spent. You can feel your internal batteries recharging and the worries of “real life” ebbing away.
Our first morning began with a walk along the coast at South Beach from our hotel at the junction of Collins Avenue and 29th Street, heading north to the heart of the waterfront action. A gentle 20 minutes along the boardwalk gives you chance to take in the iconic Art Deco architecture. Those hotels are every bit as special as you might imagine. Beneath them are bars, cafes and restaurants, including the iconic News Café, which is open 24 hours a day and is ideal for pausing for a drink or a meal while Miami flies by.
You’ll see the tanned and he toned strolling by showing off their flesh as they head onto the beach where keep fit equipment helps them keep those muscles toned. You’ll see couples in open top sports cars doing laps of the neighbourhood, their purpose seemingly to be seen. At any other time I may sneer at their vanity. This time, however, it all added to the feeling you really were inside the ultimate Miami stereotype. And there were no complaints from me about that.
One of the joys of Miami Beach is the ease of getting around. On foot, no problem. But if you want something else to take the strain a regular and completely free to ride streetcar network means getting from A to B in air conditioned comfort is no trouble at all.
And one place we chose to go to look at the shops by day, and to eat and drink and – yes – do more people watching by night was Lincoln Road. It’s a long, very very long, tree-lined pedestrianised street packed with everything you need. Al fresco dining, big name and small boutique shops, and a buzzing atmosphere everywhere you go.
On our second day we boarded one of the hop on hop off bus tours that wend their way through the greater Miami area to see even more of this southern corner of Florida. Little Havana leads to an art district. Then you’re downtown and before you know it you’re passing Star Island where the rich and famous live.
We hopped off at Bayside Marketplace, a waterside shopping and eating complex, where we boarded a boat for a tour of the coast. That’s where we got to see Star Island up close. It’s one of a number of smaller islands with mansions on the perimeter and super yachts sitting on the water’s edge like a car would on a drive way. We saw Olivia Newton John’s home. There was the guy who invented Instagram. Oh, and there’s where David and Victoria Beckham live. You can smell the money in the air… while we and our fellow passengers sailed by back to reality.
One thing I picked up again and again in Miami was the friendliness of the people. It was genuine without being schmaltzy. There were smiles all around. And there was a clear pride in Miami exuding from the people of Miami. Even the customs and immigration officers were chatty at the airport. When does that ever happen?!
If you want to burn the candle and party your way through your holiday, you can certainly do that in Miami. If you want to shop til you drop, you will feel spoiled for choice. For us, it was about going slow, resting and relaxing, and that’s perfectly do-able, too.
We left Miami wanting to have stayed even longer. And they’re the best kinds of holidays.
Miami, we’ll be back. And I hope you’ll get he chance to do so, too.”
Our thanks to Gary Burgess for his holiday tips. If you would like to write about your own holiday experiences, please contact us by emailing: newsroom@channeleye.media.