By Rochelle Broder-Singer, Contributing writer, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center
For tourists, Miami truly lives up to its nickname, “The Magic City.” If you join us in May for the 2025 NACCDO-PAMN annual conference in Miami, you’ll find sandy beaches and beautiful, warm Atlantic Ocean water. And you’ll enjoy delicious food at some of the world’s best restaurants.
But you’ll also find so much more in this area, anchored by one of the youngest major cities in the U.S. The city of Miami Beach is home to the first 20th-century neighborhood listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Art Deco Historic District. Downtown Miami hosts one of the nation’s newest fine arts museums, the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), while the nearby Wynwood neighborhood has the largest street-arm museum in the world.
Here are six ways to make the most of Miami:
- See the best of South Beach: Marvel at the buildings of the Art Deco Historic District (the world’s largest collection of this distinctive architecture) from land and sea on a Duck Tour, or book a walking tour with the Miami Design Preservation League. Enjoy an old-school Florida experience with a meal at Joe’s Stone Crab. Founded in 1913, it remains a local institution. If waiting for a table in the formal restaurant doesn’t appeal, get all the signature dishes from Joe’s Take Away. Although stone crab season ends on May 1, Joe’s makes what many consider the best fried chicken in Miami, and its hash browns are legendary. Walk the trails at South Pointe Park while enjoying views of downtown Miami, the cruise port and the water.
- Wow your senses with world-renowned graffiti and some of Miami’s best restaurants in the Wynwood Arts District: Whether you call it street art or graffiti, this world-famous neighborhood is filled with outdoor murals by top international and local artists. Don’t miss Wynwood Walls, the largest street art museum in the world (consider buying your ticket in advance). During the weekend, the Smorgasburg open-air food and artisan market is always an adventure.
- Peek at Miami’s Haitian culture in Little Haiti: In the heart of the area’s Haitian community, the Little Haiti Cultural Complex includes an art gallery and Caribbean Marketplace for a taste of the neighborhood’s Afro-Caribbean heritage. Restaurants, Haitian botanic shops, and indie book and record stores dot the area. The Haitian Heritage Museum shares the story of Haitian Americans through art, historical artifacts, sounds and videos.
- Tour the Gilded Age mansion and grounds of Vizcaya Museum & Gardens: In 1914, International Harvester owner James Deering commissioned the best architects, designers and artists of the day to build this 70-room mansion with palatial gardens. For many, Vizcaya is known as Deering’s “fantasy,” as it has stained-glass windows, frescos, hidden moats and secret doors.
- Explore Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden’s 83 acres: Soak in tropical and South Florida-native plants, trees and fruits at this botanic garden, museum, laboratory and conservation research facility. Named after legendary international plant explorer David Fairchild, who collected many of the specimens still growing in the garden, it’s been a green oasis since 1938.
- Understand what fine art means in Miami at the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM): – International art of the 20th and 21st centuries, with a focus on Miami’s diverse population and position as the crossroads of the Americas, fills this landmark building, which opened in 2013. Its restaurant, Verde, has a fabulous view of Biscayne Bay and the city of Miami Beach.
Registration is now open for the 34th annual NACCDO-PAMN Conference, which will take place May 19–22, with all sessions at the InterContinental Miami in downtown Miami.