---
type: Place
title: Miami
description: The Magic City — a US city that reads as South American, built by a railway and three waves of migration, with Art Deco kept deliberately and rents everyone complains about.
tags: [miami, florida, united-states, beaches, cuban-diaspora, jet-ski, south-beach]
coordinates: {lat: 25.7742, lng: -80.1936}
timestamp: 2026-08-05T12:00:00Z
---

# Miami

Harry's favourite city of his [United States](/countries/united-states.md) 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](/places/las-vegas.md).

## 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](/places/bali.md).
- 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](/tips/american-prices-arent-final.md).

## 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](/tips/reward-honesty-and-hard-work.md).
- Expect Spanish. Not knowing any is the limiting factor here, not money.

## Source

- [Miami Is Like playing GTA VI in Real Life 🇺🇸](/videos/q-s7erKrjlo.md) —
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-s7erKrjlo