Little Havana and Calle Ocho
Cuban coffee at the counter, the domino games of Máximo Gómez Park and the cigar rollers.
Duration
2 hrs – 3 hrs
Best time
Late afternoon
Open
Every day
Entry price
Free
The district filled up after 1959, when the Cuban exile arrived in Miami. Calle Ocho is its artery, and coffee is ordered at the outside counter of a ventanita: a colada comes in a cup with little plastic thimbles, because it is shared between several people.
Máximo Gómez Park, known as Domino Park, is reserved for the over-fifty-fives and the games have been daily since the 1970s. You watch from the railing; you do not sit down at a table.
Getting there
Bus 8 from downtown Miami along Calle Ocho. The heart of the district lies between 12th and 17th avenues.
Rules on site
Domino Park is for the over-fifty-fives: watch from the railing and ask before photographing the players. On the last Friday of the month, Viernes Culturales closes the street and fills it.
Other places in Miami
- South Beach and Ocean DrivePastel art deco fronts facing the Atlantic, with the sand right behind.
- Wynwood Walls and its districtA former warehouse district covered in monumental murals.
- Everglades National ParkA million and a half hectares of wetland, with alligators a boardwalk away.
Key Biscayne and Bill BaggsAn 1825 lighthouse, pines, and a beach with no towers behind it.