havecarryonwilltravel

We have never have been to Maimi and being interested in design we had searched for a place to stay in the Art Deco area of South Beach. We looked at many hotels, narrowed our search to about 4 and eventually chose The Colony Hotel right on Ocean Drive.

I think it was a good choice. We are smack dab in the middle of the beach scene and are able to walk the area to view all the fascinating buildings.

The view from our room

We arrive late afternoon on Saturday and the joint is jumpin’ so to speak. We are not partying types and we walk into party central, but we are there to see what Miami has to offer and the Ocean Drive street scene is part of what South Beach is.

The Colony has leased out most of the lobby and sidewalk space in front of the building, it is now a restaurant/bar. I think this is rather unfortunate because it takes away from the “hotel experience”. You now arrive at the hotel and the front desk is a dismal counter at the back of the lobby. The front section has a few tables and a bar, none of which is in keeping with the Art Deco decor and frankly tacky. The image of a entering a grand hotel from the 1920’s is dissipated quickly.

The front desk attendant is very personable and has us checked in very quickly. We are given a room with an ocean view. This means on the front of the building and overlooking the sidewalk cafes and bars that line the east side of the drive. It is Saturday and I suspected the noise will continue late into the evening. I am right, the bars stay open until 5am, but we manage to drown out the noise by leaving the AC on. We normally would have just used the ceiling fan but with the AC going we both sleep well and the street noise is not an issue.

Our room

The room itself is small but has been remodeled lately and done appropriately in what looks to be an early 20th century style. It is very comfortable and serves our needs well.
The exterior of the building could use some work. The lighting, an integral part of being on the avenue, is not functioning properly with some lights hanging from their mounts and others like the “O” in Colony burned out on two sides.

The hotel at night

Overall it does not cost much to stay here but with a few changes the experience could be much better. The building would be much improved if a regular maintenance schedule were to be implemented. If the lobby was changed back to its original glory, a grand entrance with a place for the guests to sit and watch the comings and goings, with perhaps a more civilized street cafe it could make the traveler feel special and the hotel could command a greater fee.

As a place to stay, The Colony Hotel is fine but as a place of fantasy it does little to promote dreaming.

Downtown Miami, it’s not South Beach. Our tour extends into Miami proper today and we have to make a few adjustments to the impressions we have had in the last couple of days. First, pedestrians are not sacred. The average motorist downtown will run you down. Second, Miami is not a crowded place. The downtown area suffers as do a lot of downtown areas. There are very few people traversing the streets.

We wander the streets craning our necks to look at the buildings built in the 1920s and 1930s. Most are not Art Deco but we do happen across a few.

We are on the bus driving down Washington Ave in South Beach when the bus driver stops at a stop to pick up a fellow in a wheelchair. The driver gets out of the bus to assist the fellow onto the bus ramp and he realizes the man is in distress, possibly a heart attack. The driver phones 911. The 10 or so passengers on the bus sit, a few wondering what is going on and when the bus is going to continue. The driver comes onto the bus and tells us what is happening. Eventually the ambulance comes and the driver moves the bus forward and gets off again. A few minutes later he gets on the bus and tells us all that we will have to take another bus. As we get off the the bus Murray tells the driver “Thanks for being a good citizen and don’t worry about us passengers, we will be fine.” For Murray and me it is no problem, we are not that far from our destination. We start walking.

A couple of blocks down the avenue, we see the bus driver with his bus pulled over, he is heading to the garage. He stops us, waves down another bus, explains to the driver what happened and we hop onto the bus without paying. We are impressed with this driver and the way he dealt with the whole situation.

The anti smoking campaign that has been in place in most of the world for the last 20 or 30 years must not have reached as far south as Florida yet. I cannot believe the number of smokers here. There are at least two “cigar, cigarette, cigarillo girls” plying every block of Ocean Drive. It could be that the young people are on vacation and smoking seems to be the thing to do here. Renting a hooka and sitting at the restaurant table puffing away on a water pipe or walking along the beach walkway polluting the air with cigar smoke is common place.

There is a wide diversity of languages here. English is not the norm. Miami is a true melting pot. There are people from all over the world. During our short stay we have run into new immigrants from Central America, Cuba being well represented, from Europe Spain, France and Greece, South America, Brazil, and a fellow from Morocco in Africa. All living and working here and fitting in seamlessly.

There is also a wide diversity of restaurants in South Beach. We have eaten at restaurants serving Cuban food, Greek food, pizza, sushi and burgers.

We sit on the beach late in the afternoon and watch four cruise ships and one freighter steam by on their way to distant ports. It is similar to watching airplanes take off at an airport. Each has their own departure time and route, and off they go!

We bag two beaches on the island. Surfside Beach is not as populated as the beach in South Beach and both have beautiful white sand as far as you can see right or left and into the water until it is well over our heads.

Tomorrow we journey north and west towards home. We are both nursing blisters on our feet and I have a sore calf. Time to go home. See you on the other side.

View from our room!

We head out about 8:00 to do a self guided Art Deco walking tour. The Art Deco movement in Miami occurred between the 1920s and 1940s. The buildings have characteristic pastel colours, porthole windows and sleek curves. Murray and I are in heaven gazing at all the beautiful structures.

The Barbicon on Ocean Drive

As we walk, we notice that the traffic moves along slowly. No one seems to drive fast along the narrow streets.The vehicles range from mini vans to Corvettes to  Rolls Royces to Jaguars to Ferraris to Hondas.

We do notice that pedestrians seem to walk across the intersections and streets whenever they want. They do not necessarily wait for the walk light to change to walk and the cars stop. The vehicles yield for pedestrians here. It reminds me of a very large warm Banff. Our penchant for following the rules has us waiting patiently for the walk light to change.

Further north we start to view a few of the fancier hotels. Although art deco on the outside The Sagamore’s lobby is stark and white and it serves as a gallery for a very impressive contemporary art collection. Well worth a visit. The National Hotel has been refurbished to match its original decor, furniture and all.

Tonight we spend on Ocean Drive. I am quite sure it is the crusin’ capital of the east coast if not all of the U.S. Every type size and color of vehicle you can imagine is moving at about 2 MPH bumper to bumper in both directions. The sidewalks are packed, both sides of the street, the west side with people threading in and out of restaurant and bar tables and on the east side moving more freely the beach side walk. The people crusin’ as much or more than the vehicles on the road adjacent to them. South Beach is really an anything goes place.

The Deco buildings are lit at night with the early 20th century medium of neon. The lighting accents the building lines very well and it adds a considerable amount of atmosphere to the entire ‘scene’ along the drive. I’m not quite sure if the people on the west side of the street notice or even care.

We started the day on a very peaceful avenue at 8am and by 8pm it has transformed to party central. There are thousands of people, tourists and locals alike, out and about enjoying a wonderful evening and if tonight is anything like last night it will go on until 4am tomorrow morning and there will be some hurting people going to work.