MIA to Mid-Beach & Fontainebleau

Mid-Beach is where Miami Beach goes big. North of Twenty-Third Street the boutique grid gives way to the grand resort era: the Fontainebleau at 4441 Collins, Morris Lapidus's curved 1954 masterpiece and still the busiest resort in town; the Eden Roc right next door; and the Faena District around Thirty-Second Street, where the cathedral-red lobby and the gilded mammoth skeleton in the garden have become sights in their own right.

Here is the thing arriving guests rarely know: Mid-Beach has its own fast lane from the airport. Instead of the MacArthur Causeway and the full length of Collins, the smart route runs I-95 north to the Julia Tuttle Causeway, landing on the beach at Forty-First Street - practically the Fontainebleau's front yard. About thirteen miles, twenty-five to thirty-five minutes, and it skips South Beach traffic entirely.

The resorts themselves are small cities. The Fontainebleau's driveway alone handles conventions, concert crowds at LIV and a lobby that has been a film set more than once; check-in at the wrong tower adds fifteen minutes of marble hiking. Our drivers deliver to the correct entrance - Chateau, Tresor or Sorrento at the Fontainebleau, the porte-cochere at Faena - because we have made every one of those mistakes so you do not have to.

Fares from MIA start at $89 fixed, everything included: flight tracking, meet and greet, tolls, parking, waiting time. Add the boardwalk that runs the whole coastline here and a $75 local hop down to South Beach for dinner, and Mid-Beach makes a strong case as the best of both Miamis - resort quiet at night, neon twenty minutes south when you want it.

What to expect on this ride

• About 13 miles via I-95 and the Julia Tuttle Causeway
• 25-35 minutes - often quicker than South Beach itself
• Correct tower and entrance drop-off at the big resorts
• Fixed fare from $89 with all tolls and parking included
• Miami Beach Boardwalk on the doorstep for morning walks

Names to drop on arrival