Orlando to Miami

Miami is a city rather than a beach resort, and holding on to that is the difference between a good day and a hard one. It has traffic, parking charges, one way systems and neighbourhoods that change character in the space of two blocks. Arrive expecting Clearwater with better weather and you will spend the afternoon irritated. Arrive expecting a proper city and it is one of the best days of the fortnight.

Distance rules out the day trip for most people. At 235 miles and about 3 hours 50 in clear conditions, a return in one day means nearly 8 hours behind the wheel and a villa driveway at close to midnight. Two nights is the sensible minimum and three is better, because South Beach, the Everglades and the Keys all sit within an hour of each other once you are down there.

Easy and dull is a fair description of the drive itself, which is not the worst combination with children in the back. Florida's Turnpike runs almost the whole way as a straight, well surfaced, lightly policed toll road through flat cattle country with service plazas at intervals. There is very little to look at until the Fort Lauderdale conurbation begins, which is why most people treat the outbound leg as transit and save the sightseeing for the way home.

Cashless tolling is the practical catch, and it wants settling at the rental desk rather than at the first gantry. The Turnpike no longer takes cash at most points. Without a transponder in the car, cameras photograph the plate and the bill reaches your hire company, which passes it on with an administration fee attached to each crossing. Agreeing a toll package before you drive away is much cheaper than sorting it out afterwards.

South Beach is the postcard, and it is not the whole city. Several of the better things down here sit inland, and Wynwood, Little Havana and Coconut Grove are all a short drive from the sand and give a truer picture of Miami than Ocean Drive does at eleven in the morning.

Winter is the season here and it is genuinely different from Orlando's. December through April brings dry air, low humidity and daytime temperatures around 25 degrees, which is the weather Miami sells itself on. It is also when hotel rates are at their highest and South Beach is at its busiest.

Summer swaps the crowds for heat. June to September is humid, storm prone and much cheaper, with South Beach hotel rates that can fall by half. Afternoon thunderstorms are near daily and usually short. Anyone travelling with small children should have something indoors ready for two till four.

What time you pull off the drive decides the entire journey. Leave at 7am and you are in Miami before lunch on clear roads. Leave at 9 and you meet the Fort Lauderdale and Miami approach in the middle of the day, which is tolerable. Leave at 2pm and you arrive on I-95 at rush hour, which is not. South Florida traffic between 4 and 7pm is the worst in the state.

Coming home reverses that rule exactly. Set off from Miami before 3pm or after 7pm and the Turnpike is quick. In between, you spend 45 minutes escaping the metropolitan area before the road opens up.

Special weeks are worth checking before booking. Art Basel in early December, the Miami Grand Prix in early May and spring break through March all fill hotels and raise rates sharply. The Grand Prix in particular affects the whole northern half of the city.

Fort Lauderdale sits 30 miles short of Miami and makes a good half stop in either direction. Las Olas Boulevard runs from the downtown out to a wide beach front, parking is far easier than anything you will find in Miami, and the water taxi along the canals is a cheap and pleasant hour.

About an hour out of Orlando the service plaza at Yeehaw Junction is your last easy stop before a long empty stretch. Fuel, food and toilets, and a sensible place to break the outbound leg with children in the car.

The Florida Keys begin an hour south of Miami and will turn a two night trip into a week if you let them. Key Largo is the closest and has the glass bottom boats and the coral reef state park. Key West is a further three hours down the Overseas Highway, which is a drive worth making once in a lifetime.

Everglades National Park proper has its main entrance near Homestead, an hour south west of the city. It is a different proposition from the airboat operators on the Tamiami Trail: quieter, more serious, with boardwalks, ranger walks and far better birdlife.

Palm Beach and Delray Beach sit on the return leg if you come back up the coast road rather than the Turnpike. It adds about an hour and swaps flat cattle country for a string of beach towns, which is a much better way to spend a drive home than staring at a straight toll road.

Coral Gables and Coconut Grove, both inside the city, are the neighbourhoods to walk if the beach has palled by day two. Banyan lined streets, the 1920s Venetian Pool carved out of a coral quarry, and a marina district with restaurants that locals actually use.

Sort the tolls out before anything else on this trip. The Turnpike costs roughly 20 dollars each way for a standard car and is cashless along most of its length. Hire companies rent transponders by the day, usually with a weekly cap, and that is far cheaper than the per crossing administration fee they charge for camera billed tolls. Settle it at the desk before you drive away.

Parking in South Beach is expensive and tightly enforced. Municipal garages are the sensible option at roughly 20 to 30 dollars a day, street meters are app based and time limited, and the residential permit zones are towed aggressively. Hotel valet in this part of the city commonly runs to 40 dollars a night and is rarely optional at the beachfront properties.

Resort fees are close to universal in Miami hotels and none of it is in the price you were quoted online. Between 25 and 45 dollars a night is normal, it covers wifi and towels you may never use, and it lands at checkout. Ask about it when you book so the total is not a surprise on your last morning.

Ocean Drive restaurants have a reputation that is largely deserved. Automatic service charges of 18 to 20 per cent appear on the bill, drinks prices are high, and touts work the pavement. Reading the bill before you pay is ordinary sense here, and the food two streets inland is better and half the price.

Neighbourhood boundaries change quickly in Miami and it pays to know where you are. The tourist areas are as safe as anywhere in Florida in daylight, some adjacent districts are not places to wander after dark, and a satnav will happily route you through either. Ordinary city caution covers it.

Speed enforcement on the Turnpike is real and the fines are substantial. The limit is 70 for most of the length, traffic moves at about that, and hire cars carry number plates that make them easy to pick out. Cruise control is the friend of anyone driving this road for four hours.