5 Best Beaches Miami

Why it made the list: The famous one, a wide sweep of white sand backed by the Art Deco hotels of Ocean Drive, with the colorful lifeguard towers, a beachfront promenade, and a scene that runs all day. It's the see-and-be-seen Miami beach, busiest and buzziest, and a rite of passage.

Why it made the list: A few miles north of the South Beach crowds, Mid-Beach (around the Faena and Fontainebleau district) is calmer, chicer and less frantic, the same beautiful sand and water with room to breathe, and the beachfront boardwalk running through it. The grown-up alternative to South Beach.

Why it made the list: Further north, Bal Harbour and neighboring Surfside offer a calmer, more upscale, family-friendly stretch of beach, softer crowds, cleaner sand, and the luxury of the Bal Harbour Shops right there. The choice when you want the beach without any of the South Beach circus.

Why it made the list: Out on Key Biscayne, across the Rickenbacker Causeway (a scenic drive with skyline views), Crandon Park is a wide, palm-lined beach with unusually calm, shallow, warm water thanks to an offshore sandbar, the best family beach in Miami, and a world away from the South Beach scene.

Why it made the list: A local secret in Coral Gables, a man-made 'atoll pool' flushed by the tides of Biscayne Bay, ringed by palms and mangroves, with the downtown skyline across the water. The water is calm and warm, it's shaded and picnic-friendly, and most visitors never find it.