Marvellous Miami
Next and last stop was Miami. We stayed at Abae Hotel: https://abaehotel.com/ This hotel had an amazing location, a few blocks from South Beach but with its own lovely local area too. I have to say, I fell in love a bit with Miami – the people, the food and the ambiance excelled. Miami is a lot friendlier than I realised and we spent a fabulous four days sightseeing, shopping, experiencing the gay pride festival and eating! On day three we hired a car and drove to the Florida Keys, something I highly recommend if you have a few days in Miami. We hired a mustang which was amazing, as we drove down the long bridges with the top down! We made it as far as Duck Key before we returned home, but stopped for lunch in Islamorada and tried the famous Key Lime Colada at Lorelei Restaurant & Cabana Bar, highly recommended if you are not the designated driver!
Pros: The hotel was really well located with gorgeous places for breakfast nearby and only blocks from South Beach and beyond. There was even a Budget car rental place round the corner. Miami is great and we could have spent loads longer exploring and venturing on day trips. People are wonderful and it's a great place for a city break or a longer holiday. It’s a great city to walk around and we loved exploring. The beach is lovely too so can combine with a beach stay. Cons: Miami and the USA in general is expensive. However, everything we ate was great quality and so many lovely restaurants and bars in the city. The airport staff are very different to the lovely people of Miami. Get a direct flight home and book a protected package with TC as otherwise you will be queueing for ever if anything goes wrong with the weather or flights. I am here to make things like this easier for you!
The only downside of the holiday was the flight home. I chose to save a few pounds and booked an indirect flight from Miami via Raleigh-Durham, I like to learn from my own mistakes and would choose the direct flight for clients instead! The Miami to Raleigh-Durham flight was delayed which meant we missed our connection. After 5 hours of the flight trying to take off, we actually ended up not leaving Miami at all. Luckily as I booked this as a Travel Counsellors package, our duty office intervened and rebooked us on new flights the next day (via Barcelona this time, not Raleigh-Durham!) and booked us into a hotel for the night.
Other travellers on our flight were not so lucky and ended up having to wait two days to return home, as flights were so busy due to school holidays and storms. Reassuring to know the Travel Counsellors process worked so well – other passengers booked with well-known online companies could not get through to anyone and were stuck at the mercy of the AA staff!
We made it back home and back to work with some great memories and a fast-fading tan!