perez art museum Miami

Things to Do in Miami When it Rains

By Katie Sagal

Miami is a fabulous city all year round, with warm tropical temperatures and sunny days. Of course, that doesn’t mean there’s no chance of rain here and there, especially on humid days.

If you run into a rainy day in Miami and are looking for ways to fill up your time, check out our best suggestions for top things to do in Miami when it rains. A few of our favorite rainy day activities include...

  • Pérez Art Museum
  • Vizcaya Museum and Gardens
  • Miami Children’s Museum
  • Big Bus Miami Tours
  • And more!

Hop-On Hop-Off Big Bus Miami

If you want to tour the city on wheels without the hassle of driving, then a Hop On Hop Off Big Bus tour is an excellent option. An enclosed double-decker bus keeps you dry, and the narration will guide you around the city's sights. Choose from the Beach Loop or the City Loop and pass by popular landmarks and attractions like Biscayne Bay, Jungle Island, Vizcaya Museum & Gardens, and the Wynwood District.

This is a hop-on hop-off option, so if the weather clears up (or if you’re feeling adventurous), feel free to disembark and explore at your leisure.

Vizcaya Museum and Gardens

vizcaya-museum-gardens

Vizcaya Museum and Gardens

You will want to sneak a little time outside to explore the lush tropical gardens at the historic Vizcaya estate, but the interior of this gorgeous mansion has plenty for you to explore away from bad weather. This early twentieth-century masterpiece was inspired by classical European architecture. Inside, you’ll find hundreds of works of art, from paintings and sculptures to antique furnishings. The mansion is filled to the brim with treasures that introduce visitors to the height of America's Gilded Age.

Pérez Art Museum Miami

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Pérez Art Museum Miami

Another one for art lovers, the Pérez Art Museum in Miami offers amazing collections of contemporary and modern art. The building itself is an impressive structure, offering beautiful views of Biscayne Bay and its own hanging gardens. The exhibitions highlight Miami's diverse community and pivotal geographic location at the crossroads of America.

You can take advantage of the free daily tours that are led by museum guides. These 45-minute tours cover the entire museum and will enhance your visit. There are also frequent special programs for kids and rotating exhibits, too, so there’s always something different going on at this museum.

Big Bus Miami: Night Tour

See Miami come alive in the nighttime with a 90-minute Big Bus Miami Night Tour past the most popular Miami landmarks. Your tour will start on iconic Ocean Drive in South Beach. You'll pass by all the most popular clubs and restaurants as the night is just heating up - all the neon lights will be on and flashing!

Your guide will teach you all about the city's history and culture as you zip by the Art Deco District and beyond. It's the perfect way to get to know the Magic City after dark.

Miami Children’s Museum

The hardest part about a rainy family vacation is occupying the kids. Solve that problem with a visit to the Miami Children’s Museum. It’s one of our favorite kid-centric institutions, offering dozens of interactive (and bilingual!) exhibits for children of all ages.

You'll find everything from interactive bank and supermarket exhibits to rock-climbing walls and a massive model cruise ship. The kids will love climbing through the Castle of Dreams, a two-story sandcastle, and learning about how to care for animals at the Pet Clinic. It's the perfect way to make the best of a dreary day.

Enjoy some Shopping

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Enjoy some Shopping

Another fun way to keep yourself occupied indoors is with some quality shopping time. A few popular malls in the Miami area include Dadeland Mall (with the largest Macy’s in the entire state), the eclectic Lincoln Road, and the massive Aventura Mall.

You could also check out the Shops at Midtown Miami, pictured above. If the weather clears up and you want to stroll a bit outside, then Bayside Marketplace is a must, offering shopping alongside dining and sightseeing opportunities galore.

Orlando Attractions

If you have access to a car and want to make the trip up to Orlando, then there are plenty of additional attraction options to enjoy indoors, from the iconic Kennedy Space Center to kid-favorite WonderWorks. There's even a Ripley's Believe it or Not! in Orlando.

Pick up a Go Orlando pass and make the most of a trip to this city of theme parks and wonder!

Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex

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Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex

Visit the home of many of mankind's greatest accomplishments: Kennedy Space Center. This NASA space center is the only place on Earth where you can tour launch areas, meet real astronauts, see giant rockets, and train in a spaceflight simulator.

If you time your visit well, you might even see a launch yourself. The Kennedy Space Center tour is a perfect rainy day activity. The kids will love the chance to feel like a NASA astronaut.

WonderWorks

This bizarre arena of oddities is another great place to visit if you're spending the day in Orlando. Everything inside WonderWorks will make you feel like your world has been flipped upside down.

With over 100 interactive exhibits that will have you questioning everything, it's like an amusement park for the mind. At one exhibit, you'll be blown away by 71 MPH winds in a hurricane simulator, in another you'll experience an earthquake of massive proportions, and in another you can put yourself inside a bubble and elevate. There's nowhere else like it!

Ripley's Believe it or Not! Orlando

The Ripley's Believe it or Not! Orlando building is quite literally slanted, so you know you're in for an unbelievable visit from the start. Enter the sinking building and feast your eyes on hundreds of quirky exhibits. Within the walls of the 16 unique galleries, you'll find shrunken heads, dinosaur bones, a micro-sculpture room, a tribute to Robert Wadlow (the World's Tallest Man) and plenty more. You can't find this kind of stuff anywhere else.

Theatrical Performances

Culture buffs will love the opportunity to take advantage of Miami’s diverse theater scene. You’ll find everything from classic opera or ballet to indie performances. There are many well-regarded venues in the city, like the Adrienne Arscht Center for the Performing Arts, the Olympia Theater, and the Tower Theater. Several of these venues are historical, too, so it's a chance to view beautiful architectural styles as well.

Rainy Day Recap

Looking for some fun things to do indoors? Admission to many of the below rainy day activities are available on the Go Miami pass. Choose as you go from a number of fun attractions and save on combined admission vs. paying at the gate. See all available passes, attractions & prices.

We hope you'll add a few of these rainy day attractions and landmarks to your Miami to-do list. We promise these attractions will make even the dreariest of vacation days much better. To save money and make your planning easier, consider picking up an all-inclusive Go Miami pass. It includes admission to many of the attractions on this rainy day list.

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Is Miami Expensive to Visit?
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Is Miami Expensive to Visit?

Are you heading to Miami this year but worried about the budget? Check out our guide to money in Miami, discover if it's expensive to visit the city, and check out our tips to squeeze your cents! Including: Can you go to Miami on a budget? What is the cheapest month to go to Miami? Can I enjoy Miami without a car? Is Miami Expensive to Visit? and more! What is the cheapest month to go to Miami? Miami's off-season tends to run from mid-spring to the end of summer, so if you travel at any point between April and September, you'll likely find cheaper deals on flights and accommodation. While it may seem strange that Miami's off-season is right in the middle of the northern hemisphere's typically sunniest period, Miami is built different. The summer's scorching heat keeps many away, but if you can handle it, make the most of the deals!   Is Miami Expensive to Visit? There's no beating about the bush with this one. Yes, Miami is expensive to visit. In fact, it's one of the most expensive cities on the planet. The cost of living is over 20% higher in Miami than in the rest of America, which means your hard-earned wages won't go as far. This doesn't matter so much for residents, who typically earn more than the national average to cancel this out. However, for humble visitors such as yourself, those Miami wages won't play a part. Accommodation is much the same, because Miami's housing market is 47% higher than the national average. Nearly 50%! In layperson's terms, rich people move to Miami and drive the price of housing up. Sadly, this has a knock-on effect on rented accommodation too, including many hotels. In fact, you're likely to find cheaper hotels in Vegas than Miami, if you don't know where to look. Is Miami Expensive to Visit: Accommodation As we mentioned earlier, where you stay will determine the answer to this question. If you choose a hostel that's inside or adjacent to the areas you want to visit, you can effectively squeeze your cents at the cost of luxury. If you don't mind sharing bathrooms, kitchens, and - dare we say - bedrooms with other travelers, hostels will drive your Miami budget down dramatically. On the flip side, if you want to live in the lap of luxury and won't settle for anything less than 5-star treatment, you'll pay for it. Miami is absolutely full to the brim with extravagant, expensive hotels, as well as upmarket Airbnbs, that will eat into any modest budget and then some. So, if you want to find a happy medium, what do you do? Well, you're best off deciding your budget and then doing some research! Mid-range offerings like the Eurostars Langford Hotel are reasonably priced, offer a good location near most of Miami's best bits, and still let you sleep in your own room - ace! Alternatively, you could shop around on Airbnb and try to find deals that suit your finances, but you may need to book months in advance to ensure you get something budget-friendly. Is Miami Expensive to Visit: Attractions Paying to get into each of Miami's biggest attractions on an individual basis is sure to add up. So, why not save money and see them all with Go City? Pick from our All-Inclusive Pass or our Explorer Pass - whichever suits your trip - and skip the queue and save at some of Miami's best experiences! See Miami's Seaquarium, snorkel in Fort Lauderdale, check out the white-knuckle thrills at Fun Spot America, and much, much more! So grab a Miami pass and save while you sightsee!
Dom Bewley
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Best Art Galleries in Miami

Miami is well known across the globe for its pristine beaches and exciting nightlife. Still, if you’re already a seasoned visitor to the Magic City, we won’t have to tell you already that the area has far more to offer. To get a fuller sense of the city, we think it’s pretty important to check out the local art scene – and what better way to do it than by stopping by the galleries? Holding some of the best collections and exhibitions in the state, these attractions are well worth the visit. From contemporary art and sculpture gardens to graffiti and technological exhibitions, there’s a little something for everybody here. If you’re not quite sure where to start, don’t worry! We’ve spent a lot of time in Miami and are listing all of our favorites below. No matter which place you choose, there’s no going wrong here. See the Sites The Rubell Museum undoubtedly makes the list for its private collection of world-class contemporary art. This sprawling museum complex is made up of six former industrial buildings and features forty galleries to be explored. Inside, visitors can enjoy over 7, 000 works by more than 1, 000 artists. Works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Barbara Kruger, and Cindy Sherman are all shown in the museum, so it’s hard to spotlight just a few masterpieces, but perhaps the most famous pieces are Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroee, 1967 and Damien Hirst’s Dance Naked, 1997. If you’re looking to see pieces which truly changed the history of art, this is the ticket. If you’re anything like us, then the art gallery is the perfect way to spend the day. For those who are particularly interested in contemporary art, we recommend checking out Pérez Art Museum. Formerly known as the Miami Art Museum, the establishment was relocated just downtown in 2013, and is currently the most popular establishment of its kind in the city. The institute provides a fantastic visual experience with a focus on 20th- and 21st-century work from around the globe. Though its collection is on the smaller side, it packs a lot of punch, featuring artists such as Dan Flavin, Hernan Bas and Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Great for those of all ages, we love this spot because it’s impossible to leave without having learned something new. Get Cultured Habitually waxing and waning, art has a powerful effect on the way we view the world. For those who like to keep in touch with what’s new on the scene, the David Castillo Gallery might just be your jam. With a focus on current working artists, this small yet sparky gallery is a great stop for all art lovers. Its impressive and forward-thinking collection largely features women, queer artists, and artists of color in order to present a different point of view. A total treat for postmodern art enthusiasts, this place is practically bursting open with all things unique. Inside, you’ll find everything from abstract and mixed media paintings to surreal videography and floating installations. A little out there and a lot of fun, this place most certainly knows its audience. If you're looking to quench your thirst for quirky art, this is the right choice. Another one of our favorite places to visit in the city is the Bass Museum. Located right in the heart of Miami Beach, this is a great spot for anybody with an interest in contemporary art. The institute’s program embraces all styles of work – from paintings and photography to fashion and installation, this place has it all. Walking through this beautiful and intimate space, you’ll no doubt be wowed by the bold pieces and the work behind them. Although the majority of these works are not from world-famous names, the work is well worth seeing for the innovation and creativity which they display. A fantastic cultural jewel, this popular attraction would make the perfect low-key day out. Try Something Different Miami may well be known for all of its glitz and glam, but there’s a quirky side of the city just waiting to be discovered. Located in the coolest neighborhood of Miami, Wynwood Walls is a trendy street art destination bringing all of the best creatives together from around the globe. Covering over 80,000 square feet of abandoned warehouse walls, this is one of the largest open air street art installations in the world. The brainchild of community revitalizer Tony Goldman, this unique space works to give street art credit where credit is due. From evocative political messages and ideas of resistance to fantastic humor pieces and fun pop culture references, the walls tell their own story. Whether you’re an alternative artist yourself or just looking for that perfect selfie backdrop, this is the place to be. We recommend sticking around to explore the surrounding area, which has some great eateries, bars and fashion boutiques. For those who are looking for something a little different, Artechouse Miami offers a fantastic experimental experience like no other. Standing out from all the other creative attractions in the city, the institute works to showcase the future of art through dazzling technology-driven exhibitions. As the nation’s first institute of its kind, this place truly delivers something special. Inside, visitors can enjoy trippy digital artworks from a wide range of up-and-coming artists. Prepare for bold colors, pretty patterns and captivating imagery. Most certainly, you’ll be blown away by what this place has in store. Undoubtedly unique and thoroughly hypnotic, we love this spot for bringing something new to the table. So, there you have it! Six great galleries in Miami that are sure to blow a day at the beach out of the water! Whether you’re looking to learn something new or mix it up for date night, the Magic City is brimming with awesome galleries to check out. From fun contemporary collections and quirky intimate spaces to outdoor street art exhibits, you’re sure to find something to suit your tastes. Explore the city to its full potential with GoCity’s All-Inclusive Pass or Explorer Pass. If you’d like to know more, connect with us on Instagram and Facebook. With Go City, you can see more, for less.
Sarah Harris

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