DESTINATION · MIAMI
Miami, and the fee at the desk
Two cities separated by a bay: a Latin American capital on the mainland and a strip of Art Deco hotels on a sandbar. Book the second without reading the small print and the room costs a third more than the rate you agreed.
- Airport
- MIA · USA
- On sale
- 9 of 12 months
- Airport spread
- £264 across 10 UK airports
Today's best fare
London Miami
£489 £545 −10%
Measured on a live search, refreshed hourly. Prices move — confirm on Kiwi.com.
Departure airports
£264 apart, depending where you take off
Every UK airport searched separately for this destination, cheapest first, as a return fare for one person with taxes in. Manchester to Miami and London to Miami are not the same route and we do not price them as one. Each figure is a fare of one stop at most — the same limit as the price at the top of this page — and each is that airport's own cheapest week, so the dates change from row to row. Every link opens on the dates its price was found on.
10 of 10 airports have a fare to Miami within one stop today. The rest either need two connections and most of a day to get there — which we will not print a price for — or did not answer the last search. London covers Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton, City and Southend in one search.
The year, month by month
When Miami is worth the airfare
Average daytime high for each month. The greyed months are ones we refuse to advertise — not because they are cheap, but because the place cannot deliver what the page promises.
- Jan 24°
- Feb 25° today's fare
- Mar 26°
- Apr 28°
- May 30°
- Jun 31°
- Jul 32°
- Aug 32° not sold
- Sep 31° not sold
- Oct 29° not sold
- Nov 27°
- Dec 25°
9 of 12 months on sale. The reason is below, not in the numbers.
Miami is the only major city in the continental United States with a true tropical climate, which means it does not have four seasons — it has a warm dry half and a hot wet half. In the wet half the humidity builds through the day and discharges as a thunderstorm most afternoons, reliably enough to plan around rather than to fear. What does need planning around is the Atlantic hurricane season, which is what takes this destination off our board for a stretch each year.
A direct hit is uncommon in any given year, but the disruption does not require one. A storm several hundred miles offshore closes the airport, cancels flights in blocks and shuts the beaches, and a travel insurance policy that excludes weather disruption leaves you paying for the days you lose. That is a different risk from rain, and it is the reason this page treats the season as a closure rather than a discount.
The dry half is close to perfect and the whole eastern seaboard knows it — this is when the snowbirds arrive from the north and rates climb accordingly. For a British calendar the value sits at the edges: the weeks after the American Thanksgiving rush and before Christmas, and the stretch in late spring after the American spring break has cleared and before the humidity takes hold. Both are warm, both are quiet, and both are a fraction of the peak.
Ask for the resort fee before you book
Almost every Miami Beach hotel charges one nightly, on top of the advertised rate and regardless of use, plus parking. It routinely adds a third to the real cost of a stay.
The case for it
Why Miami
Miami is the only major American city founded by a woman, and it is barely older than the twentieth century — Julia Tuttle persuaded a railway south in 1896 and the place grew from there. The Art Deco district on Miami Beach dates from a single burst of building in the 1930s after a hurricane flattened what came before, and it is the largest concentration of the style anywhere: eight hundred protected buildings inside one square mile.
The other half of the city is Latin American and is the part that has changed most. More than two-thirds of the county speaks Spanish at home, Little Havana runs on Cuban coffee and dominoes, and the food across the mainland is Cuban, Colombian, Venezuelan, Haitian and Peruvian rather than American. Wynwood, a warehouse district a decade ago, is now the densest concentration of street art in the country. None of this is on Ocean Drive.
The reservations are cost and shape. Miami Beach hotels almost universally charge a resort fee — twenty to fifty dollars a night, not in the advertised rate, payable whether or not you use what it covers — and parking on top of that. And the two halves of the city are separated by a causeway, so a trip that wants both the beach and the mainland involves crossing the bay repeatedly in traffic that is among the worst in America.
On the ground
Five things worth doing
- 01
Walk the Art Deco district early
Free, and best between seven and nine when the light is low on the pastel frontages and Ocean Drive is empty. Eight hundred protected buildings between 5th and 23rd; the Miami Design Preservation League runs a guided walk from the Art Deco Welcome Center for about £25 if you want the history. The Ocean Drive restaurants are the classic tourist trap of this city — automatic gratuity, drink minimums, and a bill that arrives at double what you counted.
- 02
Take an Everglades airboat trip
An hour west, and the only place on earth where alligators and crocodiles share water. Tours run from about $29 (£23) with transport, or roughly $45 (£36) for the small-boat versions that go further from the road. The larger operators run big boats and a wildlife show; the smaller ones go quieter and see more. Ear defenders are provided and needed. Go in the cooler half of the year, when the water is lower and the animals concentrate.
- 03
See Wynwood on foot
The Walls themselves cost about $12 (£9.50) for self-guided entry, but the neighbourhood around them is free and is arguably better — a dozen streets of warehouse-scale murals that change constantly. Allow two hours and go on a weekday morning; by Friday evening it is a bar district and the art is behind crowds. Combine it with the Design District a mile north, which is free to walk and is architecture and shopfronts rather than paint.
- 04
Give a morning to Vizcaya
An industrialist's Italianate villa on Biscayne Bay from 1916, with formal gardens running down to a stone barge in the water. Entry is about $25 (£20). It is the single most photographed non-beach site in Miami and it books out on weekends, so go on a weekday and early — the gardens are the better half and they have no shade by midday. Ninety minutes to two hours covers it comfortably.
- 05
Ride the Metromover, free, for the view
An elevated automated loop through Downtown and Brickell that costs nothing at all and gives a slow moving view over the bay, the river and the towers. It is genuinely useful transport as well as a free sightseeing ride, and it connects to the Metrorail. Twenty minutes on the Brickell loop is the cheapest orientation to the mainland half of the city you will find, and it runs from early morning until midnight.
After the flight
What it costs once you land
Miami prices outside Ocean Drive, which is a category of its own. Three things inflate the total here: 7% sales tax at the till, a tipping expectation of 18 to 20%, and the nightly resort fee that hotels quote separately from the room rate.
- Beer, neighbourhood bar £6 before tax and tip; an Ocean Drive cocktail is nearer £16
- Dinner for two, mid-range £65 before tax and tip; a Cuban ventanita lunch is under £10
- MIA to South Beach £25 Uber; the Metrorail plus bus is about £2 and takes an hour
- Hotel resort fee £16–£40 per night, on top of the rate, at almost every Miami Beach hotel
- Beach chair and umbrella £30 on the hotel-run stretches; the public beach itself is free
- Cuban coffee and a pastelito £4
Checked August 2026. Sources at the foot of this page.
Before you book
Practical, for a British passport
Entry rules are for a British Citizen passport holder and come from gov.uk, read on 2026-08-07. They change; check before you fly.
- Airport
- MIA, twenty minutes west of downtown and about thirty-five from South Beach in normal traffic. It connects by an automated people-mover to a rail and bus terminal, which is the cheap way in. Fort Lauderdale (FLL) is forty-five minutes north, often cheaper to fly into, and connected to Miami by the Brightline train.
- Entry
- ESTA. USD 40 (about £32) — $10 charged on application, $30 more only if approved. Up to up to 90 days. Valid for the length of your planned stay. The fee rose from $21 to $40 on 30 September 2025, so any figure under thirty pounds you read elsewhere is out of date. An approved ESTA lasts two years or until the passport expires, whichever comes first — worth checking before you rebook, because one bought for a previous trip may still be live. Apply on esta.cbp.dhs.gov; the paid lookalike sites charge several times the fee for the same form. An ESTA is permission to fly, not permission to enter: the officer at the border decides that.
- Currency
- US dollar. Cards everywhere; cash barely needed. Sales tax of 7% is added at the till rather than shown on the shelf. Tipping at 18 to 20% is expected, and in Miami Beach in particular many restaurants add an automatic gratuity of that size and then present a tip line as well — read the bill before you sign it.
- Language
- English and Spanish equally. More than two-thirds of Miami-Dade speaks Spanish at home and in parts of the mainland it is the working language — service in English is universal but not always first. No barrier for a visitor.
- Time zone
- Five hours behind the UK. Florida changes its clocks on different dates from Britain, so for a couple of weeks each spring and autumn the gap is four hours rather than five.
- Plugs
- Type A and B, 120V. A British type-G plug does not fit and the voltage is half of home; chargers cope, hair appliances usually do not.
- Health
- The GHIC is worthless and American healthcare is the most expensive on earth — comprehensive insurance is the most important thing you buy for this trip, and pre-existing conditions must be declared or the claim will fail. Urgent care clinics handle the middle ground between a pharmacy and a five-figure emergency room bill.
- Safety
- No FCDO warning against travel. The practical risks are the sea and the road: the Atlantic here has rip currents and the flag system on the beach is worth learning, and Miami's drivers are statistically among the most aggressive in the country. Ocean Drive at night attracts the usual assortment of overcharging and distraction thefts.
A bed
Where to stay in Miami
The bay divides the city and the causeway between them is the bottleneck. Decide whether the trip is about the beach or about the city, because doing both means crossing twice a day.
South Beach
The sandbar: Art Deco frontages, the widest beach, Lincoln Road and Ocean Drive, and the largest concentration of hotel rooms. Walkable in a way the mainland is not, and the reason most people come. Expect a resort fee and paid parking on top of the rate, restaurant prices priced for visitors, and noise on the southern blocks until very late.
Stays in South Beach Opens in a new tab TOWERS AND TRANSITBrickell
The financial district south of the river, dense with new towers, and the best-connected part of the city — the free Metromover loops through it and the Metrorail runs from it. Rates and food are aimed at residents rather than tourists, which shows in both. Twenty minutes from the beach when the causeway behaves, and no beach of its own at all.
Stays in Brickell Opens in a new tab CHEAPEST BASEDowntown Miami
North of the river, and where the rates fall away — the same standard of room for meaningfully less than across the water, on the Metromover, and walking distance to Bayside and the arena. It is a business district that empties in the evening, some blocks are noticeably rougher than others, and every beach day is a bus or a ride across the bay.
Stays in Downtown Miami Opens in a new tabEvery area pinned on one map, set to the dates of the fare above. Change them for your own trip and it reloads live availability.
Open the Miami map Opens in a new tabGetting around
You can do Miami without a car more easily than most American cities, and on the beach you should. The Metromover through Downtown and Brickell is free, the Metrorail connects the airport to the mainland core, and the beach itself is walkable end to end with a cheap trolley running its length. Uber and Lyft cover the gaps for a few pounds. Parking in South Beach is expensive, scarce and enforced aggressively.
Hire a car only if the Everglades, the Keys or Fort Lauderdale are on the plan — and then consider hiring it for the days you need it rather than the whole trip, because a car sitting at a South Beach hotel costs thirty pounds a night to park. The causeways between the beach and the mainland are the choke points and they do not flow at peak times.
The Brightline train is the underrated option: it runs from a station in Downtown to Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and on to Orlando, it is fast and comfortable, and an airport connector shuttle costs about $12 with a same-day ticket. For anyone combining Miami with Orlando it is a far better proposition than the four-hour drive up the turnpike.
Food and local tips
Miami's food is Cuban first and the rest of Latin America immediately after, and the cheapest version is the best introduction. A ventanita is the walk-up window on the side of a Cuban café: a cortadito, a pastelito and a croqueta come to about four pounds and it is how the city has its mid-morning. A Cubano sandwich — roast pork, ham, cheese, pickle, mustard, pressed flat — is lunch for two people at around eight pounds in Little Havana and double that anywhere near the beach.
The rule here is simple and it applies more strongly than in most American cities: the further you get from Ocean Drive, the better and cheaper the food. Ocean Drive restaurants add automatic gratuities of eighteen to twenty per cent and then leave the tip line blank, which is how visitors routinely tip twice. Read the bill. Elsewhere, tipping at that rate on top of the 7% tax is the normal and expected arithmetic.
A cortadito at a ventanita
Espresso with sweetened condensed milk, taken standing at a hatch on Calle Ocho with a pastelito alongside. About £4 for both, and the most Miami ten minutes available for the money.
Ready for Miami?
Pick your departure airport and see what the route costs today from each of the ten we track.
See the £489 fare Opens in a new tabSame band
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Where the numbers came from
- Everglades airboat, Vizcaya and Wynwood Walls prices thewynwoodwalls.com Opens in a new tab read 2026-08-08
- Brightline fares and the airport connector shuttle gobrightline.com Opens in a new tab read 2026-08-08
- The ESTA fee increase and US entry rules cbp.gov Opens in a new tab read 2026-08-08
- Entry rules for a British Citizen passport gov.ukOpens in a new tab read 2026-08-07