Art Basel Miami Beach, which started in 2002, has become one of the season’s most important social and cultural events.

A great way to see the Miami area is to reserve a boat and captain for a day charter. Visitors can discover the city's canals and adjacent seafood restaurants, the downtown skyline from a different perspective and island paradise, Key Biscayne. Seeing Stiltsville, a cluster of houses built on pilings in the middle of the ocean, makes for a fascinating day-trip. Indagare members can contact our Bookings Team for help with trip planning, including customized recommendations and itineraries.

The historic Colony Theatre has undergone a multi-year renovation to restore and update it to its former glory. Miami New Drama, the theater company that will oversee the Colony, will perform innovative plays produced exclusively for the theater.

An outstanding private art collection exhibits photography that spans the early 1900s to the present, as well as video and installation art.

An impressive glass building on Biscayne Blvd opened in late 2013 and sent the art world chatter into overdrive. There were fascinating key players-- real estate developer Jorge Perez, the Miami municipality and curator extraordinaire Thom Collins-- a multi-million dollar fundraising effort (only a fraction of which was provided by the museum's namesake) and an important contemporary art collection emphasizing Latin American works.

Across three stories the institution displays paintings by Diego Riviera, sculptures by Joseph Cornell and installations with varied success. Some rooms work so well with their holdings it seems they were designed with them in mind. Other rooms have such depressing lighting and silly layouts that it's hard to imagine the building was created with the intention of displaying artwork.

The celebrity status of the institution has drawn important exhibitions, such as the Ai Weiwei show “According to What,” which famously attracted violence and headlines (in protest to the museum not supporting enough Latin artists, a Spanish man smashed a vase that belonged to part of a $1 million installation).

The most exciting part of the museum is the building's exterior, which rises from a nondescript sector in overtown, like a temple to all things cool. The architects took inspiration from nearby Stiltsville, the grouping of houses set on pilings located in the Atlantic a few miles east of South Beach. Huge columns of growing plants hang from wooden rafters like a modern day variation of the Gardens of Babylon. Go during sunset to experience the way the building changes with the light.

Located in a converted warehouse, this collection features works by such contemporary artists as Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons and Takashi Murakami. Both venues are open to the public during the week, though you should call for the latest schedules. As with the Design District, galleries here hold an open house (and many serve free drinks) from 7 to 10 p.m. on the second Saturday of the month.

The best spas in the city can be found at the high-end resorts, like the Four Seasons Splash Spa, a 50,000-square-foot space with ten treatment rooms. Both Ritz-Carltons have nice facilities: the one in South Beach is slightly smaller and offers treatments by therapists from Paris beauty house Carita; the one in Key Biscayne also has a top-of-the-line fitness center with classes that include Pilates and Tai Chi. The excellent spa at the Mandarin Oriental has seventeen treatment rooms, some with huge windows overlooking Biscayne Bay. There’s also a cool spa at Miami Beach’s Standard Hotel (featured above) owned by André Balazs, a peaceful, chic bathhouse that borrows from Roman and Turkish traditions. You can chill out in the sultry coed hammam or outside in the playful mud lounge. Acqualina's ESPA offers holistic treatments in sixteen treatment rooms. Unlike the gilded interiors around the hotel, the spa boasts a modern Zen-like design, with dimmed lighting, dark wood flooring and a sedate Asian ambiance that feels more Bali than Bal Harbor. Treatments range from simple manicures to half-day “journeys” dedicated to balancing charkas, purifying pores and eliminating jet lag (a common complaint amongst the hotel’s large contingent of European guests).

Once the tropical home of James Deering built in 1910, Vizcaya is now a National Historic Landmark that invites visitors to engage in the culturally and historically significant estate known for its exemplary preservation.