Often lumped in with the Miami on the mainland, Miami Beach is actually a city in its own right, located on an island and accessible by a number of causeways. Formerly a retirement spot known for low-cost condos, it's transformed into a favorite hangout of celebrities, models, and Latin American expats. It also has a thriving gay scene.

The most carefully preserved part of Miami Beach is South Beach—ironic, since much of that neighborhood is up for sale, while the Collins/Ocean thoroughfares seem to be all bikini boutiques and cafés. However, SoBe is the best surviving example of the Art Deco period, a National Register Historic District with 800 designated buildings. Lately, South Beach has been undergoing a transformation, with new hotels and restaurants sprucing up a strip that turned pretty seedy in the late '90s. Just a few blocks north, Miami Beach proper unveils itself in a gleam of skyscrapers and Bentleys and porcelain veneers. Behold the new W Hotel with über-sceney Mr. Chow, the stylish Mondrian Hotel, the reopened Eden Roc, and the work in progress that is the New World Symphony Frank Gehry Campus. Miami Beach is famous for its events; the two biggest annual ones, South Beach Wine & Food Festival and Art Basel Miami Beach, have actually extended beyond the beach into Miami proper, where they continue to catalyze a food/wine/art/fine-living renaissance.