I second Vizcaya. It should take about 2 hours, to explore the house and the lovely garden.

I live in FLL and just adding my 2 cents for whatever they are worth....I despise I-95 at any time, but it is still the quickest way to SB. I am not fan of South Beach, last time we were there on a Sat afternoon, there must have been 80-100 homeless people hanging around the beach and public bathrooms. There were a LOT of unsavory types of people walking around also. I saw NO police around. We will take visitors there, but will not go back on our own. It does not have the cache it used to have IMHO.

I agree with Cimbrone, at Vizcaya, the house takes about an hour or so if you do the tour and wander around on your own and the gardens are quite large. You could spend as much time as you like.

If you're looking for a trendy place for lunch, you might try the terrace of the Blue Door at the Delano hotel.
http://www.delano-hotel.com/vr3.html

If you live in Miami or the Greater Miami area the traffic is not all that bad. If you do not live there then the traffic will be horrendus. Its all perspective. I lived in Miami for years and when I go back to visit I don't like the traffic one little bit.

Redrock -

I used to live in the New York area, and when I was in school, I drove a truck in Manhattan during the summers, so I know about traffic.

Thanks for the advice.

I lived outside of Guadalajara if you want to see traffic drive there especially around Minerva Circle where 7 or 8 aves , converge into the circle.

Miami is a breeze.

bobrad-- I am sure you would recognize some of the Miami drivers, or at least their lack of driving skills.

Sssteve, I'm sure Cimbrone was joking. GoTravel and BoBrad are correct--I-95 always seems to have a problem. I take it six days a week, outside of the official rush hours (usually midday) and it's usually five lanes of cars sitting with their brake lights on, waiting to get to Miami. People will say that only happens "when there's an accident." Guess what? There is ALWAYS an accident. In the last six days, I have driven past 14 accidents on I-95. That's an average of two a day. And I'm not even counting the ones on I-595, which I also need to take. Count on I-95 not to move and you won't be disappointed.

A1A won't be any faster than I-95 but at least it will be a semi-scenic route.

Several years ago when we lived in South Florida we were on 95 and it had just started to sprinkle. A car about 50 yards in front of us spun around three times never getting out the lane they were in. Straightened out and never even slowed. We watched a wreck never happen. The gods of interstate 95 were with us that day.

Maybe one of you Florida experts can help me figure something out. I've been checking web maps and driving routes for when I will be in Florida and I have a question (my mother is 95 and hasn't driven much lately so I can't ask her). What is highway 91 ? I have noticed it on various web based maps of southern Florida going through Ft. Lauderdale and meeting up with 95 to the south. It looks like a major highway on the maps, but I don't remember any road like it from the last time I visited (maybe 10 years ago).

Can anybody enlighten me?

sssteve I-91 starts in New Haven , Ct. and ends up close to the Canadian boarder. Could you possibly mean US Route 1 or by its other name Federal Hwy ?

That is the Florida Turnpike. SR-91 is the state designated number for it.

ps. Florida's Turnpike is also called the 'Ronald Reagan Turnpike".

RedRoack - you are absolutely right. 91 is the Florida Turnpike. Where I was looking on the web map, it showed "91". When I scrolled farther north, the turnpike designation showed up.