Miami

Harry’s favourite city of his United States trip by a distance, and the one he says he could see himself living in. The Magic City, named for how fast it grew and still growing, on low tax, tropical weather and nightlife.

His strongest impression is linguistic: everything is signed in English and Spanish, everyone around him is speaking Spanish, and dropped here without being told he says he would assume he was in South America. His one reservation is that it feels a little fake — an American Dubai, the same phrase he used for Las Vegas.

How it got here

Three things, in order:

1. Henry Flagler’s railway, which industrialised the city.
2. Post-war retirees and veterans moving south.
3. Cubans and Latin Americans arriving through the 20th century fleeing communism.

The Venezuelan population is large enough that Harry’s barber was one. Burger King started here.

Districts and beaches

• Brickell — the modern financial district, and the one he singles out.
• South Beach — pristine, blue, and one of the best beaches he had been to in a long time. The Art Deco buildings along the front have been kept deliberately rather than redeveloped, which is what gives the strip its Miami Vice look.
• Star Island — where Scarface and Bad Boys were filmed, best seen from the water.

Miami is also the cruise capital of the world.

Jet skis

The set piece, and the practical notes are worth having:

• You must pass a written exam before they’ll rent you one.
• The safety briefing: a kill cord that cuts the engine if you come off, and you board from the back, never the side, or it tips.
• Top speed around 45mph.
• Harry’s verdict: expensive, half the price in plenty of other countries, and worth it here specifically because of what you ride past.

Costs

Miami is expensive and Harry says so repeatedly:

• A haircut and beard trim at $70 — the most he has ever paid, and normal here.
• Coconuts on the beach at $5, against about fifty cents in Bali.
• Cigars $5 to $15. They’re Dominican rather than Cuban, and no licence is needed to sell them.
• Rent is what residents complain about. Two Cubans Harry spoke to named it as the worst thing about the city — expensive and getting worse — against the best thing, which is that everyone speaks Spanish.

And the American add-ons apply here as everywhere: see in America the advertised price isn’t the price.

Harry’s tips

• Come for the water rather than the strip. The jet ski is where the city actually delivers.
• Budget for the total, not the price you’re quoted.
• Reward people working the beach. He gives $20 to a coconut seller up from Georgia who had sold eight all day, explicitly because he was working rather than begging — see reward honesty and hard work.
• Expect Spanish. Not knowing any is the limiting factor here, not money.

Source

• Miami Is Like playing GTA VI in Real Life 🇺🇸 — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-s7erKrjlo