Select: Miami & Aruba

Turquoise waters, boundless shores, round-the-clock fun: this is Miami, a city where design, arts, and visionary architecture have more than one moment in the sun. Occupying the southernmost three miles of Miami Beach is gorgeous South Beach, with its hundreds of dazzling pastel-coloured 1920s and 1930s Art Deco buildings. By night, Ocean Drive becomes one of the liveliest stretches in Miami. If this is too much for you, head a block west of the beach to Collins Avenue or to Washington Avenue, with fashion shops and cool coffee bars. For more shops, restaurants and cafés, head for the Lincoln Road Mall (between Alton Rd and Washington Ave), a pedestrianized zone where you can stroll and graze. North of downtown the Design District, hemmed in by 36th and 41st streets between Miami Avenue and Biscayne Boulevard, is also worth a visit, crammed with hip restaurants. Miami does Cuban food best, and it’s not limited to the traditional haunts in Little Havana. You’ll also want to try Cuban coffee. Cuban cooking is complemented by sushi bars and American home-style diners, as well as Haitian, Italian and new Floridian restaurants, among a handful of other ethnic cuisines. Coral Gables, South Beach and the Design District are best for upmarket cafés and restaurants. Seafood is abundant. Stone­crab claws (served Oct–May), are another South Florida speciality.

This small island, far from the hurricane zone, enjoys an ideal climate all year round, with magnificent beaches, shallow turquoise sea, and a tranquil and relaxed atmosphere. Its small size (Aruba is 30 km long and 10 km wide) invites you to put down your cold Balashi beer and leave the resort beach for at least a day to discover what it has to offer. From Eagle Beach and Palm Beach, take a rental car or the cheap and friendly Arubus (the local bus with singing drivers!) and bring your mask and fins as you head north to the peaceful Malmok Beach, where you can walk in the water to a small reef full of fish; continue to Arashi Beach, ideal for bodysurfing. The road then passes a series of dunes and climbs to the top of a hill with a lighthouse, the California Lighthouse, from 1910. Buy a coconut from the local vendors and enjoy the 360° view. Continue along the spectacular eastern coast where the stormy waves of the Atlantic crash onto the rugged shores. Here you will find Arikok National Park, which protects the wild coast and the desert interior dotted with candelabra cacti. You will need a 4x4 to reach the Natural (Conchi) Pool, a volcanic depression filled with seawater by the waves. After rounding the southern tip of the island, you can cool off with a swim at Baby Beach, a quiet cove after San Nicolas, before returning to your beach.