Florida / Miami
10 Guests
No Name Harbor
Nixon Sandbar
Boca Chita Key
Elliott Key
Stiltsville
Explore Wynwood Walls and the surrounding galleries
Tour Vizcaya Museum and Gardens by water
Walk the Art Deco Historic District on Ocean Drive
Shop the Miami Design District
Watch the domino games and live music on Calle Ocho
Vizcaya Museum and Gardens
Wynwood Walls
Perez Art Museum Miami
Freedom Tower
Bayside Marketplace
December through April is Miami’s dry season, with lower humidity, cooler evenings, and the peak of the social calendar, including Art Basel in early December and the Miami International Boat Show in February. Summer brings heat, daily storm cells, and hurricane season risk from June through November, though it’s also the quietest and most affordable stretch for booking dockage in Biscayne Bay.
Miami International Airport (MIA) is the main gateway, about eight miles from the Downtown and Brickell waterfront, with private aviation also handled at nearby Miami-Opa Locka Executive and Fort Lauderdale Executive airports. Guests boarding directly can often arrange a private transfer straight from the tarmac to the marina, since most charter yachts dock within twenty minutes of MIA.
No Name Harbor, inside Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park on Key Biscayne, is the most sheltered spot close to the city, popular for a lunch stop before continuing south. Boca Chita Key and Elliott Key, both inside Biscayne National Park roughly two hours south by water, offer quieter overnight anchorages with clearer water, away from the weekend crowds that gather at sandbars like Nixon Beach.
Two to three days covers the city itself: South Beach, Wynwood, Vizcaya, and a sandbar afternoon on Biscayne Bay. Many charters use Miami as a start or end point for a longer Bahamas run, since Bimini is roughly 50 nautical miles east across the Gulf Stream, or extend south along the Florida Keys toward Key West for a week-long itinerary.
Art Basel Miami Beach, held in early December since it launched in 2002, and the Miami International Boat Show, usually held in February at the Miami Beach Convention Center with in-water displays nearby, are the two events that most reshape the city’s waterway traffic and marina availability. Guests who want to be part of either should book dockage months ahead, since both draw international crowds and fill nearby slips well before the event opens.