Miami and its malls
 

Hi everybody,

My aunt is going to Miami for 4 nights at the end of November.

Where is it more convenient to stay in Miami in order to visit Sawgrass Mills, Dolphin Mall and Aventura Mall?

Can you recommend a decent and inexpensive hotel?

I've been to Miami before (the last time in 1999), but I can't really recommend her where to stay in order to visit those 3 malls. When my dad lived in Surfside (north Miami Beach), I remember it was easy to visit Aventura Mall by bus and Sawgrass Mills by a shuttle service booked in advance. I've been told that Dolphin Mall is in the vicinity of International Mall, but I don't know whether it's easy to visit it by bus from Miami Beach. I personally don't like Sawgrass Mills, but she wants to visit it in spite of not being in Miami. I prefer Aventura, although I have no idea whatsoever of what Dolphin Mall is like.

Thanks for your advice.

Personally, I didn't like any of these malls. I prefer going to the beach and down to Key Biscayne.
Aventura Mall was quite a ways north, if I remember right, and it was just like any other mall anywhere else.
Dolphin Mall was kind of run down.
Aventura is the nicest, but it's a good little run up to there, and it's just a typical mall.

Can't help you with where to stay, but just curious why she wants to go to so many malls when in Miami. Are there not any malls where she lives?

The three malls are quite a ways from each other. If she knows a place to stay where she can get to Sawgrass and Aventura by public transport (she won't have a car, is that it?), then she will be in as good a shape as she can. However, getting from the Beach to Dolphin Mall (in the central western suburbs of the County) will be a long ride, probably with a couple of connections. The area most convenient to Dolphin Mall is Doral and there are plenty of moderate hotels and restaurants there. Doral also would be in a convenient place to get out to Sawgrass, but it is far, and it is not convenient at all for Aventura.

Sawgrass and Aventura are two different types of malls. Sawgrass is a huge huge outlet mall. IN the past couple of years, they opened a section called the Colonnade which is very high-end outlets - Burberry, Kate Spade, David Yurman, etc. Aventura is a typical upscale shopping mall. I don't mind Dolphin Mall, but it's a little bit more down-market outlet mall, although it does have Saks, a great Marshalls, and tons of other stores.

Dolphin mall is run down? Already?? It's only a few years old!! The owners ought to get their money back from the construction outfit which built that place.

Those three malls are sooo far away from each other that there really is no place to stay that would be convenient to all three. So I recommend staying near the water in near the Dade/Broward county line, near Aventura. That way she'd at least be on the water and close to one of the malls (incidentally, my favorite of the three)

Dolphin Mall is SW.
Aventura is in the middle and closer to the beach.
Sawgrass Mills is a bit NW.

Aventura is an upscalr mall while Sawgrass is mostly an outlet mall with a much newer upscale area.

Lookup Dade and Broward county transportation on the internet. You can call them and they'll give you good bus routes.

Thanks everybody for their opinions and suggestions. I will talk to my aunt and give them the options so that she can make a decision.

Isabellasu, there are malls where my aunt and I live, but your question sounds like: "Why do you want to go to London, aren't there places to visit here in New York City?".

Thanks again everybody else.

Hollywood Beach would be a good place to stay if you're planning on visiting the Aventura and Sawgrass Mills Malls. I would skip the Dolphin Mall, because geographically it's isolated from the other two and doesn't offer anything new or unusual in shopping or dining that the other two can't provide.

Hi again,

By the way, are malls open on Thanksgiving day?

Is Downtown Miami a good area to base?

Thanks.

The malls are not open on Thanksgiving and are a friggin nightmare the day after.

No, downtown Miami is not a good place to stay. It is far from all three. As someone else said, there's really no good place to stay to visit all three. Each mall is between 25-30 miles from the others. It's much easier if you have a car.

Not to mention, Dolphin Mall and Aventura are in Miami-Dade County and Sawgrass is in Broward County, so you are talking about two different bus systems. Unless someone knows both systems like the back of their hand, they aren't going to be able to recommend one area that provides good public transportation to all three, if it even exists. For example, just to get from Aventura to the Dolphin Mall, it takes nearly two hours and three different buses. I'd schedule some kind of shuttle service.

Is she just going to shop? What else does she want to do? That might help me make some recommendations on where to stay.

But if her sole goal is to shop, I'd probably stay in Aventura, maybe the Residence Inn (haven't stayed there personally). It's a safe area with lots of restaurant options, she can walk to the mall, and even go for walks around the golf course (there's a very nice path). And she can easily get to the beach via the town's shuttle service.

Actually, if she doesn't care about the neighborhood, she could stay near the airport. Then she could take one bus to the Dolphin Mall (Metrobus Route East-West Connection). And a combination of Tri-rail (theres a Tri-rail station at the airport across from the Wyndham hotel) and one bus to each of Aventura and Sawgrass.

Here's the trip planner to get specifics:

http://sfrtp.cinrtosfl.com/hiwire?.a...mp;.s=227d14e6

The Tri-rail site lists various destinations and how to get to them:

Aventura and Dolphin:
http://www.tri-rail.com/destinations/md_county.htm

Sawgrass:
http://www.tri-rail.com/destinations/broward_county.htm

Thanks Hills27 for that great advice. My aunt is mainly interested in going shopping. I told her that she should choose between Dolphin and Sawgrass because they are way apart, but she is so stubborn. I'm still trying to make her understand.

Thanks again.

Yuck.

I would stay in Sunny Isles or Bal Harbour and hit Aventura Mall and The Shops at Bal Harbour.

Downtown would be a disaster and it is deserted and not safe at night.

If you are going with her, why don't you rent a car? It will be so much easier, and in the end, probably cheaper than a bunch of shuttles and taxis.

Tell your aunt that she will spend a lot of her quality shopping time in the car driving from one mall to the other. Instead, you may want to break up the trip and spend two nights near one of the malls in Miami where you could take in one mall and visit Biscayne Bay for more shopping and dinner one night. Then another two nights at a hotel closer to Sawgrass. Sawgrass Mills is a factory outlet mall and is large in size with lots of walking. She may not cover the mall in one day.

Biscayne Bay for shopping and dinner? Wouldn't that be soggy? ;-)

Sorry, I meant Bayside, not Biscayne Bay.