We ate breakfast at Palm Avenue Deli in Sarasota before hitting the road back to Miami.

Google said it would take just over three hours, but nearly 200 miles on the I-95 South (part of it is called Alligator Alley), and some annoying roadworks that brought the traffic to a standstill, made it more like four hours.

We got into Miami just before 2pm and dropped the car off. A quick Uber transported us to the Betsy Ross Hotel where we were able to check in early. The hotel is made up of the original Betsy hotel on Ocean Drive, and the Carlton hotel, which is directly behind it on Collins Avenue. Our room was in the Carlton hotel part of the establishment, which is accessible via a bridge from one building to the other. This bridge is called the Betsy Orb, seen from the outside as a giant white egg shaped structure. Inside it are art works mainly of the orb itself. At night it comes alive as it changes colour constantly. I was a little bit excited to discover that our room looked onto the orb itself, we had an up close view of it from our window!

https://www.thebetsyhotel.com/?utm_source=google-gbp&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=gbp

We needed something to eat so headed on to Ocean Drive and found an eatery called Il Bolognese. As you can easily work out, this is an Italian restaurant, selling pizza and pasta. It is part of the art deco style hotel, Winter Haven. We hit a table at the front so it was great for people watching. I had the best sourdough pizza ever, it was delicious.

https://ilbologneserestaurant.com

Once we’d eaten, we decided to go for a walk on the beach. We walked along the promenade where there were some photos of the ten women superstars who’d performed at Miami Beach. This display was in honour of Women’s History Month and included Tina Turner, Diana Ross and Aretha Franklin. Further along towards the beach, I wasn’t quite sure what was going on but most of the beach entry points were closed off. We accessed the beach where a Miami Police patrol car was. We thought maybe there had been an incident but I think it was to do with crowd control as a venue was set up on the beach.

I noticed there was a large crowd of males hanging around near a rainbow painted lifeguard hut. Some were posing for photos near the hut and others were just hanging out with partners, friends etc.

We headed south along the beach before exiting near Ocean and 11th, and could hear the crowds at Palace Bar and Restaurant. This is advertised as the premier LGBTQ+ bar and restaurant of Miami. Drag queens perform here every day, weaving in and out of the audience whilst singing and collecting dollar bills!

We stayed and watched from the sidewalk before heading off to Española Way and a bit more people watching in a bar.

We enjoyed our afternoon just mooching about before heading back towards Collins Avenue. I wanted to take some pictures of the Betsy Orb. Here’s one of me stood beneath it, so you can get an idea of how big it is.

We then went to the lobby bar in the Betsy Hotel and got talking to two men from Tennessee. One of them asked if we went to London much as they were asking for recommendations of where to go. I wrote down a few names of bars and restaurants that we go to, he was very appreciative.

It was then time to leave the bar and get ready for our meal, which was also booked at the Betsy. The service here was brilliant as we would have expected. It was a lovely atmosphere and made even better by a jazz pianist playing nearby.

We spent a couple of hours there before checking out some of the photography in the hotel. There were many shots of the Rolling Stones, as well as my favourite Beatle, George Harrison.

After this, we decided on hitting Ocean Drive again, for our last evening. Evenings in Ocean Drive are always buzzing, it doesn’t matter whether it’s a weekday or the weekend. Friday night was no exception to this. The atmosphere was absolutely the best.

The hotels look brilliant on an evening. Their art deco style is highlighted by the signage which is all lit up. I took a few snaps as we walked along.

I have always been drawn to the Palace, for the sheer flamboyance of the venue itself and its colourful characters. It was decided that we’d go for a drink there, just to capture some of the entertainment. We were able to get a drink at the bar which gave us a pretty good view of what was going on. People were clacking their fans in unison (something that can be heard some distance away from the venue). Drag queens interacted with the audience while topless barmen served expensive drinks. The drag queen we saw had a great pair of boobs to be proud of! I just love the Palace, it’s a great spot for people watching and I’m glad we went.

https://palacesouthbeach.com

We eventually worked our way back to the hotel and had a final drink at the bar before heading to bed. It’s going to be a long journey back to the UK on Saturday afternoon.