DK Travel : Miami : South of Coconut Grove : Places of interest

Biscayne National Underwater Park

Biscayne National Underwater Park is 95 percent water, therefore most visitors enter it by private boat. Otherwise, the Dante Fascell Visitor Center at Convoy Point is the only place in the national park you can drive to and, from there, you have several boating options. The concession offers canoe rentals, glass-bottom boat tours, snorkel trips, scuba trips, and transportation to the island for campers. There’s also a picturesque boardwalk that takes you along the shoreline out to the rock jetty beside the boat channel heading to the bay.
Charles Deering Estate

Right on Biscayne Bay, the estate contains two significant architectural works: Richmond Cottage, built in 1896 as the area’s first inn, and a large Mediterranean-Revival “Stone House,” built in 1922. You can also visit what is thought to be a Pre-Columbian burial site and a fascinating fossil pit.
Coral Castle

A castle it isn’t, but a conundrum it certainly is. From 1920 to 1940, Latvian immigrant Edward Leedskalnin built this mysterious pile as a Valentine to the girl back home, who had jilted him in 1913. No one knows how he singlehandedly quarried and transported the 1,100 tons of tough coral rock, carved all the enormous chunks into monumental shapes, and set them all into place so flawlessly. One nine-ton gate is so exquisitely balanced that it opens with the pressure of your little finger.

Coral Castle
Fairchild Tropical Garden

This dizzyingly beautiful tropical paradise was established in 1938 and serves also as a botanical research institute. Around a series of man-made lakes stands one of the largest collections of palm trees in the world (550 of the 2,500 known species), as well as countless other wonderful trees and plants. During a 40-minute tram tour, guides describe how plants are used in the manufacture of everything from Chanel No. 5 to golf balls. Allow another two hours to explore on your own.
Florida International University Art Museum

The museum specializes in Latin American and 20thcentury American art and presents six to eight major exhibitions each year. The Martin Z. Margulies Sculpture Park displays 69 works in a variety of media distributed throughout the 26.5 acres of the FIU campus – a wonderfully rich and important representation of modern work. It is recognized nationally as one of the world’s great collections of sculpture and the largest on a university campus. It includes major pieces by Dubuffet, Miro, Nevelson, Calder, Noguchi, and Serra.
Fruit & Spice Park

This 30-acre (12-ha) tropical botanical park is devoted to exotic plants, such as citrus fruits, grapes, bananas, herbs, spices, nuts, and bamboo. It forms a unique attraction in the United States – after all, South Florida’s tropical climate is found nowhere else in the US. The astonishing number of varieties on display include a selection of poisonous species and hundreds of bamboo and banana varieties. A wonderful store enables you to stock up your cupboards with many unusual fruit products.
Gold Coast Railroad Museum

The museum was started in 1957, by a group of Miamians who were trying to save threatened pieces of Florida history. Some of the earliest items in the collection are the “Ferdinand Magellan,” a private railroad car built for President Franklin Roosevelt; the FEC engine that pulled a rescue train out from Marathon after the 1935 hurricane; and the 113 locomotive built in 1913. The Edwin Link is a smallgauge children’s railroad.
Miami Metrozoo

The zoo works a great deal with endangered species. Zookeepers give talks at feeding times.
Monkey Jungle

This endearing attraction is still run by the family that founded it in 1933 to study the behavior of primates. Many of the smaller monkeys roam wild while you walk through caged walkways; the gorillas, orangutans, spider monkeys, and gibbons are kept in conventional cages. There are regular demonstrations of the capabilities of macaques, chimpanzees, and other human cousins.
Wings Over Miami

This military and classic aircraft museum acts as a tribute to early inventors, veterans, and aviators, some of whom set world records with the planes on display here. Exhibits include early biplanes and an all-plywood DeHavilland.