“The summer I turned thirty!” Back in June, I spent my birthday in Miami Beach. After much debate between going to Vegas, staying home, or going to Miami, I finally landed on Miami Beach for my birthday trip. I had never been there and what better place to celebrate dirty thirty!? I have to say, it exceeded expectations! It’s a gorgeous place with a welcoming vibe and I can’t believe I waited so long to visit!
We started our trip on Saturday morning (my actual birthday) by checking into the Hotel Continental Miami Beach, a branch of Hilton’s Tapestry Collection. This particular hotel is located in Mid beach, but is a walkable distance from all the good spots. Our drive was about 3.5 hours but we left Orlando early so we made it by about 10am. The first order of business was to grab breakfast. We went to a cute little spot called Pikio Taco. I found out shortly that pretty much all the cute restaurants were attached to hotels. But you’d never know it – these weren’t your average hotel bars; it was as if they were all decorated with Instagram in mind. The city was made for tourists and I was so okay with that!
After our late breakfast, we ventured to South Beach to enjoy some shopping and a little bit of bar crawling. Another thing I noticed was that the bartenders kept offering us free shots which of course we accepted. And I hadn’t even told them it was my birthday – it just seems like a common thing!
We had lunch at La Cote located at the Fontainebleau Hotel. This was my exact vision for my birthday. Even though we were melting from the heat, it was an excellent experience. Our food and drinks were delicious and we had an ocean view while enjoying the party scene of the famous hotel. Although let the record show that a mojito was $30. Other than that, I highly recommend going to check out the hotel if you can. If you make a reservation for La Cote, they’ll let you right in and you can explore. The pool is huge, Vegas style!
We spent the evening doing presents in our hotel room and I was beyond spoiled. Then we went to dinner at The Broken Shaker. It was cute but I was bitten by one too many mosquitos to truly enjoy it. We should have sat inside, in retrospect.
The next day, we woke up and spontaneously booked another night! We did move hotels though, and on night two, we stayed at Moxy Miami South Beach. I have to say, I was impressed! It was a gorgeous hotel and our room had floor to ceiling windows. I’m a huge sucker for. We dropped our stuff then walked to the beach. Mo enjoyed some time at Muscle Beach while I relaxed by the ocean. There was a bit of a rain storm which was to be expected but we still had a couple hours in the sun.
Our hotel room wasn’t actually ready until about 4pm so we hit the hotel bar after the beach while we waited. It was called Selena and was nicer than any hotel bar I have seen. But like I said, that seemed to be the trend for Miami Beach hotel bars. Once we were able to get into the room to freshen up, we hit the town again for night two. We had Thai food for dinner then went out to a few bars. I actually wore the same shirt out because I really only packed for the one night! Luckily it was a really basic black top but still, funny. One of the main spots we explored was Espanola Way. It is a pedestrian-only street lined with restaurants and bars. We spoke to one of the bartenders who said it was named Espanola Way but may as well have been named “Italy Way,” since most of the places were Italian. It was a great street for photos and exploring though! There are a ton of little side streets that make great photo ops.
I absolutely loved Miami Beach! Everyone was so much friendlier than I anticipated and it was a pretty clean beach town. It was certainly expensive, but we were prepared for that. I’ll be back soon Miami!! xo
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Heart Eyes Sunglasses – Amazon
Gold Circle Necklace – Amazon
Black Crossbody Bag – Saint Laurent
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