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One of the hottest action venues on South Beach – live music and dancing, Floribbean dishes, and free-flowing cocktails (see King Mango Strut).

Part of Crandon Park, this center contains a unique black mangrove reef of fossilized wood and roots along the northeast shore of Key Biscayne. Wearing suitable foot protection, you can wade in shallow waters to explore the underwater world. The nature center is named after the woman who almost single-handedly saved the Everglades from being overrun by housing developments, and it offers information and guided tours.

This zoo is an endless delight for children. At the children’s petting zoo, there are regularly scheduled “Ecology Theater” presentations, where children can touch all sorts of exotic species and learn about the local Florida environment as well. Also near the entrance is Dr. Wilde’s World, where, among other hands-on exhibits, you can explore “The Wonders of Tropical America.” Other experiences include sniff stations, animal puzzles, and a sensory game wall.

This has been a Miami institution since the 1960s, when the hit TV series Flipper was filmed here. Trained dolphins still swim in the cove where Flipper once swam, and you can join them under a trainer’s watchful eye for a fee. There are live shows throughout the day, featuring sea lions and killer whales as well as dolphins. Other areas provide viewing stations to see manatees, sharks, a mangrove of pelicans, and a coral reef aquarium.

Designed by the celebrated American architect Philip Johnson in 1982, the Mediterranean-style complex, set around a tiled plaza, incorporates the Miami Art Museum; the Historical Museum of Southern Florida); and the Main Public Library, which contains four million books.

If your kids are demanding designer duds, this is the top shop. Couturier masters such as Moschino and Versace have begun creating trendy threads for the preschool-to-adolescent market.

In 1940, a developer hyped the town’s main shopping street by naming it Miracle Mile (a mile if you walk up one side and down the other). Colorful canopies adorn shops as prim and proper as their clientele. Buildings of note are Merrick’s Colonnade Building, at 169, with its splendid rotunda; the Doc Dammers’ Saloon, with great photos of old Coral Gables; and, on nearby Salzedo Street at Aragon Avenue, the Old Police and Fire Station, 1939, with square-jawed sculpted firemen.