Destinations / Florida
Miami
MIAThe most expensive weekend on this list and the only one that looks exactly like the photos.
Get what everyone owes, paste it in the group chat.
The verdict
Miami earns its price when you use the water. A captained boat out of Miami Beach Marina with eight guys, a sandbar stop at Haulover, and dinner in Wynwood is the single best day you can buy on this site. The city is genuinely beautiful, winter is 78 and dry, and the group photo will be unbearable in the best way.
It is wrong if your budget is real. Miami will charge $28 for a cocktail without blinking, clubs run tables at $3,000 minimum, and South Beach restaurants add an 18 percent service charge and then leave the tip line blank. If any guy in the group is quietly stretching to afford the trip, book San Diego and get the same weather for two thirds of the money.
Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you book through them, Brocation earns a commission at no extra cost to you. How this works
Where to stay
A Mid-Beach house with a pool
North of 40th, quieter, and you get a pool and a kitchen for less than four South Beach rooms.
Book itThe Standard, Belle Isle
On the water between South Beach and downtown, with the best hotel bay deck in the city.
Book itThe Betsy, Ocean Drive
Actually good hotel on a strip full of bad ones, and you walk to everything on South Beach.
Book itCheck the rental is actually legal
Miami Beach bans short term rentals in all single family homes. Under six months and one day is not permitted, and the rule reaches many multi family buildings too, depending on the zoning district. Places get listed anyway.
A legal Miami Beach rental has to show two numbers in the listing itself, a city Business Tax Receipt number and a Resort Tax certificate number. If a listing does not display both, that is your answer.
The city also runs a public lookup called Practice Safe Renting, which tells you whether a specific address is authorised. It takes a minute, and it is worth doing before eight guys send deposits on a house.
Two things before you write off a listing you like. Not every place that looks like a house is zoned single family, and an address in Miami proper rather than Miami Beach follows different rules entirely. So check the address rather than assuming either way.
Get the Miami blueprint
Worth timing the trip around
The things that come back every year and change the price of the weekend. Pick your dates around one of these on purpose.
Art Basel Miami Beach
The art is beside the point. The whole city runs at maximum for a week and every hotel knows it. Best weather of the year, worst prices.
Miami Grand Prix
Race weekend at Hard Rock Stadium, and every pool deck in the city turns into a party. Book the boat day for Sunday when everyone else is at the track.
Miami Open tennis
Two weeks in Miami Gardens, grounds passes are cheap early in the draw, and it pairs with sandbar weather that has not turned humid yet.
On the water
Prices checked September 2026
This is why you are here. Do not book Miami and spend the weekend on land. One full boat day, ideally Saturday, with a captain who knows the sandbar schedule.
Captained 40 foot center console out of Miami Beach Marina
Eight guys, eight hours, Haulover sandbar and a run past Star Island. Budget $200 a head with fuel and tip.
Book itOffshore charter for mahi and sailfish
Gulf Stream is three miles out, so you are fishing twenty minutes after leaving the dock.
about $1,400 a boat of 6 · 4 to 5 hours · 6 a boat, book 3 to 4 weeks out
Book itBiscayne Bay jet ski hour
Cheap, stupid, and the correct way to fill the two hours before the boat.
about $150 a ski, 2 can ride · 1 hour · walk up till sunset
Book itWhat else to do
Prices checked September 2026
Wynwood Walls and the brewery block
Two hours of murals, then Veza Sur and Wynwood Brewing across the street.
about $12 a head for the Walls · half day · Walls online, bars walk up
Book itDomino Park and a Little Havana food walk
Calle Ocho, cortaditos, and a cigar rolled while you watch. Better than any club night.
park free, walk about $70 a head · 2.5 hours · book 2 weeks out, 14 cap
Book itMiami Heat game at Kaseya Center
Downtown on the water, and tickets are cheaper than a South Beach dinner.
from about $50 a head upper deck · about 3 hours · season runs Oct to Apr
Book itCrandon Golf at Key Biscayne
Municipal rate, ocean holes, iguanas everywhere. The only Miami golf worth the tee time.
$120 to $179 a head with cart · about 4.5 hours · 3 tee times, book 3 weeks out
Book itDinner at Mandolin or Zuma
Book one real dinner at 9pm. Miami eats late and the table for eight has to be booked weeks out.
Book itEverglades airboat run
Forty five minutes west, ninety minutes on the water, and completely different from everything else on the trip.
Book itMiami Open or F1 grandstand day
Seasonal, expensive, and the reason to time the trip in March or May.
F1 grandstand $535 to $700 a head · full day · fixed dates, book 6 months out
Book itTours and activities in Miami sell out for groups, so book the ones you care about before you fly.
Browse Miami on ViatorGetting around
Skip the rental unless you are staying in a house. South Beach parking is $40 a night and every garage is full by 9pm. MIA to South Beach is 25 minutes and $50 in traffic. Rideshares between Wynwood, downtown and the beach run $15 to $30 a trip, so budget more than you think.
The one thing people screw up
The boat gets booked for Sunday because Saturday looked expensive, and then an east wind puts three foot chop in Government Cut and the captain cancels with no refund window left. Book the boat for the first full day of the trip so you have a rain date, and check the captain's cancellation terms for weather rather than assuming.
Cost per head, 3 nights, no flights
Per head, based on eight guys on a three night trip. It is a range because a trip is a range.
| Category | Per head |
|---|---|
| Lodging | $400 to $750 |
| Activities | $350 to $800 |
| Food and drink | $400 to $900 |
| Transport | $120 to $220 |
| Total | $1,120 to $2,273 |
Planning Miami?
We are building a trip builder that picks the hotel, the tee time and the table for you. Get told when it is live.
If not Miami
San Diego
Beach, real golf and a walkable downtown, in the same weekend.
Las Vegas
The default answer, and the default answer is usually right.
Still not sure it is Miami?
Answer four questions and the trip builder picks for you. Launching soon.
Three more that work
Same trip, different city. These three are the closest matches.