Miami-Dade County

Miami-Dade County is in the Greater Miami region of Florida.

Cities

• 1 Miami - The core city of the Miami (South Florida) metropolitan area.
• 2 Miami Beach - The main destination for tourism, beaches, and partying. It is a separate city from Miami, on an island off the coast.
• 3 Miami Gardens
• 4 Coral Gables - Has some nice museums and parks.
• 5 Doral
• 6 Florida City
• 7 Hialeah
• 8 Key Biscayne
• 9 North Miami Beach
• 10 Palmetto Bay
• 11 Sunny Isles Beach
• 12 Surfside

Other destinations

• 1 Biscayne National Park
• 1 Everglades National Park, 40001 State Road 9336 Homestead. A UNESCO world heritage site, this park hosts a variety of habitats, species, and activities. (updated Feb 2024)

See

• Zoo Miami, west of Palmetto Bay, is the largest and oldest zoological garden in Florida. It houses over 1,200 wild animals and is a free range zoo. Its climate allows it to keep a wide variety of animals from Asia, Australia and Africa like no other zoo in the country.
• The Frost Art Museum at Florida International University in Doral has a large variety of 1960s and 1970s American photography, pre-Columbian artifacts, ancient African and Asian bronzes, and Caribbean and Latin American paintings and artwork.
• Homestead Bayfront Park is a natural atoll pool and beach next to Biscayne National Park near Homestead. It has a full-line snackbar, picnic pavilions, grills, fishing area and a large playground. Boat launch and boat services.
• Coral Castle is an odd complex of stone structures near Homestead, built with enormously heavy stones, and allegedly by one man, without the help of modern equipment.
• The Barnacle Historic State Park is a preserved house built in 1891 near Coral Gables.

Do

• Oleta River State Park, near Sunny Isles Beach, is Florida's largest urban park. It has 15 mi (24 km) of off-road bicycling trails. Paddle through lush mangrove forests, go fishing, or swim.
• The Miami-Dade County Fair & Exposition in Doral is ranked one of the largest and most successful fairs in the nation. Typically held in late March and early April, the 18-day event offers close to 100 rides, nearly 170 food vendors, 50 games, souvenir and gift shops and the World Agriculture competition. Not to be missed is the daily Mardi Gras parade.
• The Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens near Palmetto Bay hosts the Miami Dolphins (NFL), Miami Hurricanes (college), and Orange Bowl (college), and is the main venue for the Miami Open (tennis). The stadium grounds have become home to the Formula One Miami Grand Prix, using a temporary street circuit constructed specifically for that event.
• Homestead-Miami Speedway is a NASCAR track near Homestead that plays host to many important car racing events.

Eat

It's not well-known that the Miami area is the area where Burger King has its headquarters. Aside from fast food, Miami-Dade County is really deep in Hispanic culture. it won't be an abnormal sight to see tacos, picadillo, or other cultural dishes served on the streets.

Ropa vieja

Much of Miami's population comes from internal migration from other parts of the country and from immigration. Greater Miami is known as a cultural melting pot, where people maintain some of their cultural traits. The overall culture of Miami and Miami-Dade is heavily influenced by its large population of ethnic Latin Americans and cultures from Caribbean islands such as Jamaica, the Bahamas, Cuba and who are mainly Spanish or Haitian Creole.

Enjoy such meals such as a Cuban dish of ropa vieja (shredded flank steak in a tomato sauce base), black beans, yellow rice, plantains and fried yuca with beer.

Buy

• Aventura Mall near North Miami Beach has nation-wide chains such as JCPenney, Macy’s and Abercrombie and Fitch. It also has Rainbow Valley Playground, a play spot for children. The other notable landmark of this mall is its 24-screen movie theater.
• Dadeland Mall in Kendall near Coral Gables is one of the United States’ first malls. Macy's and Saks Fifth Avenue are some of the stores now represented at Dadeland.
• Dolphin Mall in Sweetwater near Doral has Off 5th (a Saks Fifth Avenue outlet store), Marshall’s HomeGoods, Burlington Coat Factory, a movie theater, and many busy restaurants.
• Bal Harbour Shops near Surfside has several designer labels including Chanel, Cartier, Fendi and Gucci among others. $5 parking fee.
• The Falls, a mall west of Palmetto Bay, has Brooks Brothers, Pottery Barn, and tropical waterfalls.
• Sunset Place, is a mall near Coral Gables, with the Gap, Urban Outfitters, Victoria’s Secret, a Niketown store, and a large movie theater.
• Miami International Mall in Doral has 120 stores including Macy's, Dillard's and JCPenney.

Learn

• 1 Barry University, 11300 North East Second Ave (in Miami Shores), ☏ +1 305-899-3100, fax: +1 305-899-2971, admissions@mail.barry.edu. This Catholic university, 20 mi (32 km) outside of Miami, has majors such as biomedical and forensic photography as well as the very popular nursing, education and liberal arts majors. The university is co-ed with close to 10,000 students enrolled. 
• 2 Florida International University, University Park, ☏ +1 305-348-2863, fax: +1 305-348-3648, admiss@fiu.edu. With over 40,000 students enrolled in this public co-ed university spread out over two campuses, Florida International University is one of the largest universities in Florida and the 11th-largest university in the U.S. With over 280 majors in 26 schools in colleges including its top-ranked College of Business, School of Architecture, College of Engineering, College of Law, and College of Medicine, it is one of Florida's top universities. 
• 3 Florida Memorial University, 15800 Northwest 42nd Ave, toll-free: +1-800-822-1362, fax: +1 305-625-4141. A largely African-American student body can be found on this private Baptist co-ed college campus (formerly known as Florida Memorial College). The university has over 1,950 students and majors such as business administration, commerce management, elementary education and criminal justice studies. 
• 4 Johnson & Wales University—North Miami Campus, 1701 Northeast 127th St (in North Miami), ☏ +1 305-892-7600, fax: +1 305-892-7020, admissions@jwu.edu. One of Johnson & Wales’ many campuses across the country, this co-ed, private university offers majors in the culinary and baking and pastry arts, business and hospitality. This campus is also one of Johnson & Wales’ largest after the original school in Providence, Rhode Island, with 2,500 students enrolled. 
• 5 University of Miami, ☏ +1 305-284-4323, fax: +1 305-284-2507, admission@miami.edu. Coral Gables, Over 16,000 men and women are enrolled in this private college. Business, communication, medicine and biology majors are popular here. 

Go next

• Broward County - north
• Monroe County - south and west
• Collier County - northwest