An automated elevated train circles downtown and Brickell all day with no fare, no gate and no ticket of any kind. Free trolley loops run the length of Miami Beach and, on the mainland side, through Coconut Grove, Little Havana and Wynwood. A flat-fare metro line links the airport to downtown for the price of a coffee, joined to the terminals by an automated shuttle. What none of it does is cross the bay. There is no rail link to the beach at all, and the connection is a bus, which is the single gap that turns an unusually well-served city into a week of fares nobody needed to pay.
The money in a trip here sits in the room bill rather than in the distances. Hotels commonly add a nightly resort fee and a nightly parking charge on top of the advertised rate, so the number worth comparing is the total at checkout rather than the headline, and a car costs you for every night it sits in a garage as well as every day you drive it. It is worth taking time to compare flight, room and car options for Miami at https://destination.chat before committing to dates, since the room and the length of the rental are the two decisions that actually move the budget.
The part that needs real planning is the Keys, because there is one road. The Overseas Highway is the only route in and out of the chain, largely a single lane each way, and one collision can close it in both directions for hours with no detour to take. Winter weekends back it up without any help. Key West sits at the far end, most of a morning of driving from the city without stops, which is why treating it as a day trip rarely works and why the drive deserves at least a night. Once you arrive, the old town is small and walkable and parking is scarce and dear, so the car that was necessary for the journey becomes a cost on the island. Shuttles and short flights exist for anyone who would rather not drive it.
Where you sleep decides which of the three trips you are on. South Beach concentrates the Art Deco hotels along Ocean Drive and Collins Avenue, loud after dark and covered end to end by the free trolley loops. Brickell stacks high-rise hotels behind the mouth of the Miami River, quieter in the evening and tied to downtown by the free mover. Coconut Grove keeps low-rise hotels and guesthouses on banyan-shaded streets near the Vizcaya estate and the sailing marinas. In the upper Keys, Islamorada has waterfront lodges and inns built around diving and fishing, within reach of the John Pennekamp reef park.
The car question is therefore not whether but for how many days. In South Beach and downtown a car is a liability, since traffic is heavy, hotel parking is charged nightly, and the free mover, the free trolleys and the metro already cover the ground. For the Keys it is close to necessary, because public transport down the chain is thin. Hiring for the road-trip days rather than the whole stay is often the better arrangement, and the familiar advice that a full-stay rental always beats a one-way plus a transfer is not automatic, since it turns entirely on what the hotel charges to park. From the airport the metro reaches downtown directly and an express bus runs to the beach, so a transfer is a comfort rather than a requirement. Checking transfer, car and activity options at https://destination.chat before you fly settles the airport run, the rental window and any Everglades or reef excursion together. Personally, I would keep the car to the Keys days and let the free lines handle the city.
Season swings this coast harder than most. Winter is dry, mild, busiest and dearest; summer is hot and humid with daily afternoon storms and much softer rates. Hurricane season overlaps summer and autumn, which matters more in south Florida than in most places, because the Keys have exactly one evacuation road and a flexible booking is worth more here than it looks. Visitors travelling without a visa need an electronic authorisation applied for online before departure, held on a biometric passport and bought per person; its fee roughly doubled recently and is now adjusted annually, so check the current figure rather than an old one. Approval is not admission either, since the officer at the border makes the final call. The thing to avoid is buying that authorisation from a copycat site charging a markup over the official government page.
Q: Is there a train from the airport to South Beach?
A: No. The metro runs from the airport to downtown and Brickell, and an express bus runs across to the beach. No rail line crosses the bay at all.
Q: How much of the city can you cover without paying a fare?
A: More than most visitors expect. The elevated mover around downtown and Brickell is free, and free trolley loops run through Miami Beach and several mainland neighbourhoods. The paid metro fills the gaps.
Q: How long is the drive to Key West?
A: Most of a morning without stops, on a single road with no alternative route. Allow far longer on winter weekends, and treat a crash anywhere on the Florida Keys as a delay you cannot drive around.
Q: What do visa-free visitors need before flying to the United States?
A: An electronic travel authorisation applied for online in advance, held on a biometric passport. Buy it from the official government site, since copycat pages charge a markup, and remember that approval still leaves the entry decision to the border officer.
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