Getting Around Miami: Brickell, South Beach & Beyond
Miami looks compact on a map and drives like it isn't. The city's geography — a mainland business district and an island beach community connected by a handful of causeways — means everything comes down to timing your crossings.
The causeway rule
Between Brickell/Downtown and South Beach, every route funnels onto the MacArthur or Julia Tuttle causeways. Midday, it's a 20-minute hop. Friday evening or event nights, it can triple. Locals plan around the crossings the way San Franciscans plan around the Bay Bridge.
Neighborhood quick reference
- MIA → Brickell — 15–25 minutes; the easiest airport run in any major US city
- MIA → South Beach — 20–30 minutes off-peak, more when the beach is busy
- Brickell → Wynwood — 10–15 minutes for galleries and dinner
- Miami → Palm Beach — 1.5 hours up I-95 for the day trip
Event weeks — Art Basel, Miami Grand Prix, music festival weekends — transform the whole equation. Surge pricing hits hard and street closures multiply. Those are precisely the weeks a pre-booked flat rate earns its keep.
Flat-rate rides across South Florida at koastride.com — FLL and Palm Beach included.