traveling with baby: Miami

We went to Miami in Jan 2009 when our baby was 15 months old. We flew there from NYC (see flying with baby blog). We decided to go to Miami because we suspect that we'd be going on kiddy vacations like to disneyland soon enough. On this trip we did made a few arrangements to suit our budget and our baby. 

In Miami we rented a condo on Ocean Drive. It's the only way to have a kitchen without breaking the bank, and boy did we need a kitchen! Our baby was going through a big growth spurt at the time and was eating crazy portions every two hours. With the kitchen we could prepare nutritious meals and snacks without spending too much. There were no nearby supermarkets as such but mini-markets could be found a couple of blocks away from Ocean Dr on Washington. These mini-markets had pretty much everything we needed - fresh and frozen fruit and vegetables, pasta, sauces, wine (not for baby obviously but an essential nevertheless, lol). I think they also had diapers and and baby food but we brought them with us so we didn't look. 

To stay at a rental on Ocean Drive was magnificent, mostly because we could walk to the majority of touristic places and great restaurants. A block from us, right in front of Ocean Drive there's also a kids playground and of course the beach. There are a few kid-friendly theme parks in Miami like the Seaquarium and Parrot Island. I think they're a lot of fun especially for older kids, but personally I think their prices are extortionate. We also went to the metro zoo, it's a 45 minute drive from South Beach, but it was worth the trip. Firstly the entrance fee wasn't so steep and it's huge. It's so huge that we couldn't cover it by foot (I'm sure we could but it would be so long that our baby would be asleep most of the time). For getting around the zoo we rented a safari cycle, which provided at least half the fun. We saw animals that our baby recognized like elephants, tigers, and giraffes, it was great. Neither me nor my husband had been to the zoo since we were small so we were really pleasantly surprised at how well the animals looked and how much space they had. The only complaint we had as parents was that the cafeteria food was not very healthy, but I don't think that bothered our baby much!

One note I must make about traveling to Miami if you are going to take a taxi cab, bring the car seat. It's illegal for a baby /child to ride a taxi in Miami without a car seat unlike many other cities in the US. Apparently some taxis will take you without the car seat but they would hike up the price because if they get caught they'd have to pay a hefty fine. Personally I think they should make it the law in all cities. It's not convenient but it's the safest way.