Florida adventure: Take Brightline train for a Miami getaway

Last updated on August 6th, 2025 at 03:16 pm

Traffic and parking are a challenge in downtown Miami, so I decided to plan a summer getaway to Miami using the Florida’s best form of public transit – the comfortable high-speed Brightline train.

Miami makes a great summer destination because there are top-notch museums where you can spend cool afternoons; there are a lot of hotels (some luxury) that offer discounts during the summer; and in cooler mornings and evenings, you can walk miles along scenic breezy walkways along Biscayne Bay and the Miami River.

My takeaway: Brightline is a pricey but comfortable and carefree way to travel, and downtown Miami is a fun place to explore, even in the steamy summer.

We admired the skyline along the Baywalk in downtown Miami. (Photo: Bonnie Gross)

Travel by Brightline

There are several other excellent destinations you can reach by Brightline, but Miami was especially appealing because few places in Florida offer such convenient transportation once you get off the train; we repeatedly used Miami’s Metromover, a free elevated downtown people mover/light rail. (More on that below.)

I had taken Brightline a few times for day trips. This time I was planning a three day/two night trip, but this took only a bit more planning.

Brightline train at the Miami station. (Photo: Bonnie Gross)

Fares on Brightline vary a lot – from day to day and even within the same day. My advice: to find affordable fares, check various days and times when planning.

We found one mid-afternoon weekday train from Fort Lauderdale to Miami was $15 per person; the rest that day were $25, up to $36. We returned on a Saturday, when all fares were $15. For most days coming up in the next few weeks, the lowest fare is $19 between Fort Lauderdale and Miami. There are also promotional fares to watch for. For example, I noticed all fares on July 4^th were $17.76.

We parked our car at the convenient Brightline station in downtown Fort Lauderdale. It’s $12 a day if you book online with your ticket; a great deal, and the price is the same if you take the Brightline from downtown Miami and park there.

Brightline stations are like new, beautiful airport terminals, with lots of comfortable seating, plugs aplenty for charging and good food options. You walk through airport-like security, but without any ID requirement.

You’ll have assigned seats (check your ticket). Seats are comfortable with good leg room and the cars are very quiet with a smoother ride than any other train or subway I’ve taken in the US. You can order food or beverages, including alcohol, and it is delivered to your seat. Our ride was only 40 minutes long, so we didn’t need to do that.

One thing to know is that Brightline does experience occasional delays. We were notified our Miami-bound train would be an hour late, but when we arrived, we were able to get on an earlier train, which had also been delayed and so now fit our needs.

When we arrived in Miami, our hotel was four blocks away, an easy walk with a rolling suitcase for me and a backpack for my husband.

Our hotel pool deck had a view of Biscayne Bay and the cruise ship turning basin. It's also visible from all along the Baywalk with particularly good views from the area of the Perez Art Museum. (Photo: David Blasco) — Our hotel pool deck had a view of Biscayne Bay and the cruise ship turning basin.Cruise ships are visible from all along the Baywalk with particularly good views from the area around the Perez Art Museum. (Photo: David Blasco)

Hotels in downtown Miami

We booked the Elser Hotel across from the Bayside shopping and entertainment area for a rate that ended up being $250 a night with the resort fee and taxes.

We loved it. We didn’t need the full kitchen, but our 21^st story room had floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Biscayne Bay and the ferris wheel at Bayside. The hotel had an expansive 10^th floor pool and hot tub with bayfront views.

(Note: If you stay here, be sure to get instructions on how the programmable secure elevators work. You can’t just walk in, scan your key card and push a button.)

View over Bayside shopping and dining complex and its ferris wheel from the balcony of our 21st story room at the Elser Hotel. (Photo: Bonnie Gross)

We booked this hotel for its location, but since the Metromover can take you all over downtown and there is a Metromover station directly across the street from the Brightline station, you can consider booking hotels anywhere near a Metromover stop – and that’s pretty much anywhere downtown.

There are a lot of good deals – Courtyard by Marriott Downtown, the Hyatt Regency Miami, InterContinental Miami and the Kimpton EPIC all for under $200 a night (most likely plus some fees). We don’t generally stay in luxury four-star hotels, so it was fun to do that for a summer getaway.

Baywalk along the Miami River. (Photo: Bonnie Gross)

Exploring downtown Miami

Everywhere you go in downtown Miami you walk past huge cranes and sidewalks closed around construction sites. There are giant arches being built along I-395 and every available downtown space seems to have a condo high-rise under construction. Miami looks as busy building itself as it must have been during the boom in the 1920s.

As a result of all these downtown residences, what was once an old dangerous-feeling and empty downtown is vibrant with sparkling new buildings and beautiful young people (who apparently order those $20 martinis we saw on menus.)

My husband worked for the Miami Herald for 30-plus years (long gone from its bayside site) and we remember the old downtown. The change is nothing short of miraculous.

Construction is everywhere in downtown Miami. These huge arches are part of an I-395 project in the heart of downtown. This is the view from the Frost Museum, which has outstanding vantage points for seeing downtown Miami. (Photo: Bonnie Gross)

Despite this intense development, large swaths of downtown have stunning public spaces along Biscayne Bay.

Remarkably, in 1979, the City of Miami passed an ordinance requiring new buildings to be set back 50 feet from the water’s edge and requiring owners to build and maintain a 25-foot public pedestrian promenade along either Biscayne Bay or the Miami River.

As a result, I can think of no comparable place in Florida where you can walk along a big scenic waterfront for so many miles. On our visit, we enjoyed walking in the morning and evenings, when we were delighted that it didn’t seem impossibly hot.

Baywalk south of the Miami River is a beautiful walk with views of Brickell Key Island, which you see on the right of this photo. (Photo: Bonnie Gross) — Baywalk south of the Miami River is a beautiful walk in the evening with views of Brickell Key Island, which is on the right of this photo. (Photo: Bonnie Gross)

Best places to walk

Called Baywalk, this pedestrian walk way stretches from the mouth of the Miami River, north through Bayfront Park, Bayside Marketplace, and up to Maurice A. Ferré Park.

It’s a wide, paved walkway lined with palm trees, benches, and open lawns, with views of Biscayne Bay, the Miami skyline, and passing cruise ships. It’s almost two miles long.

On the south side of the Miami River, the Brickell Key Loop starts at Brickell Point (near the W Miami Hotel), crosses the Brickell Key Bridge, and circles the entire Brickell Key island. It’s a 1.5-mile loop with skyline views, shaded paths, and a large lawn at Brickell Key Park. It’s about 1.5 miles around the island. There’s a lovely Baywalk from the Miami River heading south here, including past the interesting Miami Circle archealogical site.

The Miami Riverwalk Trail runs along the northern bank of the Miami River, stretching from Bayfront Park to just west of the Southwest 2nd Street Bridge.

The Oculus, the huge window into the massive Gulf Stream Aquarium at the Frost Museum of Science. (Photo: Bonnie Gross) — The Oculus, the huge window into the massive Gulf Stream Aquarium at the Frost Museum of Science. It’s a stunning view and I recommend you sit on a bench or the floor and take your time appreciating it. (Photo: Bonnie Gross)

Three great museums for summer afternoons

A big motivation for my trip was to visit the Phillip & Patricia Frost Museum of Science, located in the museum complex along the Baywalk.

I thought it might be primarily a children’s museum. But while kids will love it, it is designed to delight visitors of all ages.

The aquarium is remarkable, and I loved how the museum is designed to give you so many perspectives on the huge Gulf Stream Aquarium, a 500,000-gallon, cone-shaped aquarium that spans three levels

The Gulf Stream Aquarium at Frost Museum gives visitors many different ways to view the sealife -- from above, below and through many windows around the sides. (Photo: Bonnie Gross) — The Gulf Stream Aquarium at Frost Museum gives visitors many different ways to view the sealife — from above, below and through many windows around the sides. (Photo: Bonnie Gross)

I liked the way we experienced it, which was to start at the top and look down into the giant tank, then to go to the next lower level and look into the tanks from various vantage points. There were thrilling views of sharks, and an aviary where we loved watching four roseate spoonbills in a recreated mangrove forest.

The bottom level has the pièce de résistance, the Oculus, a huge circular window that allows you to look up into the aquarium. It’s 31 feet wide with a 13.5-inch-thick acrylic lens that provides incredible clarity looking up at the fish swimming overhead.

Children lie on their backs, squealing in delight as sharks and devil rays swim by. Adults grab the few chairs and lean back to gaze, equally thrilled, though not as noisy.

Every ticket to the museum includes a planetarium show, and there are several to choose from. We thought the one we saw, Spark: The Universe in Us, was terrific, although too complex for young children.

It’s a steep ticket price ($30 to $35 for adults, depending on the day), but we spent almost four hours there and thought it was worth it.

Hydrospatial City by Gyula Kosice at the Perez Art Museum Miami is utopian space architecture. The contemporary art in this museum may not be your jam, but there's enough variety that you might find something you like. For me, it was this exhibit, which spanned several rooms. (Photo: Bonnie Gross) — Hydrospatial City by Gyula Kosice at the Perez Art Museum Miami is utopian space architecture. The contemporary art in this museum may not be your jam, but there’s enough variety that you might find something you like. For me, it was this exhibit, which spanned several rooms. (Photo: Bonnie Gross)

The Perez Art Museum Miami is next door to the Frost Museum and is surrounded by beautiful gardens and sculptures.

The Perez is a contemporary art museum. Art lovers will find something interesting here, as I have every time I’ve visited. On this visit, I was impressed how much it is enriched by art from the Caribbean, Latin America and indigenous people.

Even if you don’t pay to enter this museum, the building itself and the grounds are worth visiting. And do have lunch at the café, Verde, which we did. It has a spectacular view of Biscayne Bay and excellent food. (It’s open for dinner on Thursdays.) The gift shop is wonderful too.

Admission is $18 adults.

The Dogs and Cats Walkway runs along the south side the Frost Museum of Science (seen in the background) and the Perez Art Museum. Surrounded by colorful plantings, 52 oversized aluminum sculptures (26 dogs and 26 cats) painted by local artists march along the pathway making people smile. (Photo: Bonnie Gross)

History Miami Museum, 101 West Flagler St., is not huge, but if you enjoy history, it has fascinating artifacts and exhibits, including a restored Miami trolley from the 1920s, boats and rafts used by Cuban and Haitian refugees, and a collection of Pan American Airways memorabilia.

Admission for adults is $15.

verde PAMM miami Summer adventure: Taking a Brightline train for a Miami getaway — Verde at the Perez Art Museum has a stunning view from the shaded patio overlooking Biscayne Bay and the I-395 bridge. It’s open for lunch and Thursday nights for dinner. (Photo: Bonnie Gross)

Dining in Miami

There are many choices of restaurants; it’s one of the great pleasures of a Miami getaway. Yelp and TripAdvisor will help you narrow it down.

We liked Crazy About You, 155 Brickell Bay Drive in The Mark building, which we reached via Metromover. We sat outside at a table overlooking Biscayne Bay. The food was great and it was surprisingly affordable. (It has a nice happy hour.)

For lunch, we loved Verde at the Perez Art Museum, and we also stopped for $5 empanadas at Miam café. ($5 empanadas are pretty common and they are a great light lunch.)

metromover miami Summer adventure: Taking a Brightline train for a Miami getaway — Metromover is free and runs so frequently that you can use it for even short hops. The map on the left of this photo shows you the three routes. It’s a very easy system to use and it’s a great way to get an overview of downtown Miami too. (Photo: Bonnie Gross)

Getting around: We loved Metromover

Metromover is a free elevated light rail that goes to all the places we wanted to go downtown. There were always people on the car with us, which made it feel safe. Most people stand, like on an elevator, but there are a few seats. Our trips were five or 10 minutes long and the trains ran every few minutes.

Metromover has three overlapping routes and the maps are easy to interpret. When we got on heading in the wrong direction, we got off at the next stop and took a train in the opposite direction in minutes.

It operates until 10 p.m. at the moment. (Normally it is until midnight, but apparently there is maintenance.) Be aware: One Saturday a month it is closed until 2 p.m.; we happened to visit that Saturday and ended up walking a bit extra.

The historic Freedom Tower was built in 1924 and is part of Miami Dade College. It's currently being renovated. It was once home to the Miami News newspaper but is best known as the processing center for hundreds of thousands of Cuban refugees from 1962 to 1974. This is the view from the pool deck at Hotel Elser, where we stayed. (Photo: Bonnie Gross) — The historic Freedom Tower was built in 1924 and is part of Miami Dade College. It’s currently being renovated. It was once home to the Miami News newspaper but is best known as the processing center for hundreds of thousands of Cuban refugees from 1962 to 1974. This is the view from the pool deck at Hotel Elser, where we stayed. (Photo: Bonnie Gross)

Plan a nighttime show or activity

Miami has several venues offering evening entertainment.

The Kaseya Center Arena, home to the Miami Heat, is at the heart of downtown. Heat games start in October. Until then, there are concerts and events, including Cirque du Soleil in August and Lady Gaga in a series of concerts in September.
The Arsht Center is quiet in the summer, but its Broadway series starts in October with The Wiz.
Here’s one you might not think about: The planetarium at the Frost Science Museum has laser light and music shows with a variety of music once a month.