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American Airlines Flights from San Francisco (SFO) to Miami (MIA)
Orbitz is pleased to offer airline tickets on American Airlines, which operates 3 regularly scheduled daily non-stop flights from San Francisco (SFO) to Miami (MIA), departing between 7:00am and 9:50pm. Usually a Boeing 757 or Boeing 767-300 is flown for this route, with in-seat power sources available. Generally, a movie is offered on this route, as well as audio programming. The average travel time from San Francisco, CA to Miami, FL is 5 hours and 13 minutes.
During your Miami vacation, don't miss these great establishments and attractions:
Barnacle State Historic Site
The former home of naval architect and early settler Ralph Middleton Munroe is now a museum in the heart of Coconut Grove. It's the oldest house in Miami and it rests on its original foundation, which sits on 5 acres of hardwood and landscaped lawns. The house's quiet surroundings, wide porches, and period furnishings illustrate how Miami's first snowbird lived in the days before condo-mania and luxury hotels. Enthusiastic and knowledgeable state park employees offer a wealth of historical information to those interested in quiet, low-tech attractions like this one. Call for details on the fabulous monthly moonlight concerts during which folk, blues, or classical music is presented and picnicking is encouraged.
Miami Metrozoo
This 290-acre, sparsely landscaped complex (it was devastated by Hurricane Andrew) is quite a distance from Miami proper and the beaches -- about 45 minutes -- but worth the trip. Isolated and never really crowded, it's also completely cageless -- animals are kept at bay by cleverly designed moats. This is a fantastic spot to take younger kids (the older ones seem bored and unstimulated here); there's a wonderful petting zoo and play area, and the zoo offers several daily programs designed to educate and entertain. Mufasa and Simba (of Disney fame) were modeled on a couple of Metrozoo's lions. Other residents include two rare white Bengal tigers, a Komodo dragon, rare koala bears, a number of kangaroos, and an African meerkat. The air-conditioned Zoofari Monorail tour offers visitors a nice overview of the park. An Andean Condor exhibit opened in 2000, and the zoo is always upgrading its facilities, including the impressive aviary. Note: The distance between animal habitats can be great, so you'll be doing a lot of walking here. For this reason, there are benches and shaded gazebos strategically positioned throughout the zoo so you can rest when you need to. Also, because the zoo can be miserably hot during summer months, plan these visits in the early morning or late afternoon. Expect to spend about 3 hours here.
Fast Cats Ferry Service
Finally, a ferry that goes from Miami to Key West. It's about time. The PurrSeavearance may be a cheesy name for a luxury $7.5 million catamaran, but the trip is hardly so. The 102-foot boat can hold up to 149 passengers and will make the 4-hour cruise (driving only takes 3 hr., but with traffic it can take up to 5) four times a week starting at $69 each way. VIP tickets cost $98 and include preferential seating. Food and alcoholic beverages are available but not included in the price.
Make your reservations for discount hotel rooms in the
Miami area, including:
Fairmont Turnberry Isle Resort & Club
One of Miami's classiest resorts (along the lines of the Mandarin Oriental), this gorgeous 300-acre compound, has every possible facility for active guests, particularly golfers. You'll pay a lot to stay here -- but it's worth it. The main attractions are two Trent Jones courses, available only to members and guests of the hotel. A new seven-story Jasmine wing looks like a Mediterranean village and is surrounded by tropical gardens that are joined by covered marble walkways to the other wings. Treat yourself to a "Turnberry Retreat" at the Turnberry Spa, which recently underwent a $10 million renovation. The spa comprises three levels of deluxe pampering and includes aerobics and fitness classes, stress reduction, massage therapy, and a juice bar designed for complete rejuvenation. Impeccable service from check-in to checkout consistently brings loyal fans back to this resort for more. Its location in the well-manicured residential and shopping area of North Miami Beach known as Aventura means you'll find excellent shopping and some of the best dining in Miami right in the neighborhood. Unless you're into boating, the higher-priced resort rooms (instead of the yacht club) are where you'll want to stay; you'll be steps from the spa facilities and the renowned Veranda restaurant. The well-proportioned rooms are gorgeously tiled to match the Mediterranean-style architecture. The huge bathrooms even have a color TV mounted within reach of the whirlpool bathtubs and glass-walled showers. The only drawback to this hotel is that you'll need to take a shuttle to the beach. Celeb alert: You never know who may stay here. Paul McCartney and his new wife Heather Mills were here just before they tied the knot and allegedly had a huge enough fight that Mills threw her rock of an engagement ring out the window. A week later, Sir Paul paid for a staffer to personally fly the ring back to his estate in the U.K.Facilities: 6 restaurants; numerous bars and lounges; 2 outdoor pools; 2 golf courses; 2 tennis complexes; state-of-the-art spa; extensive watersports equipment rental; concierge; secretarial services; 24-hr. room service; babysitting.
National Hotel
With its towering ceilings, sultry furnishings, and massive gilded mirrors, the elegant 1940s-style National ought to be the backdrop for a gangster flick. At 11 stories, the main building stands taller than most of its neighbors and offers grand views of the beach and ocean below. The hotel completed a $3 million renovation project in late 2003, revealing a much needed, brilliant, luxurious refurbishment of the tower rooms and hallways. For those who want to go all out, there's also a new three-story penthouse suite. And while all the rooms in the main hotel are comfortable and plush, the best rooms are the 32 poolside cabana rooms that are ultra modern, with flatscreen TVs, European linens, and feather pillows. What the hotel really needs to invest in next is its lackluster lobby, which is somewhat reminiscent of an old age home at nap time.The National's pool, however, is the hotel's crown jewel. It's Miami's longest pool (205 ft.) and can be considered the supermodel of hotel pools, lithe and graceful and almost too sleek (rivaling even the Delano's pool) for splashing. The hotel's Tamara is an elegant and formal dining room offering French fusion fare, and the Deco Bar (or D'Bar) looks like a 1940s movie set. Live entertainment on weekends, a wine connoisseur club, and happy hours during the week add to the ambience.
Pelican Hotel
Owned by the same creative folks behind the Diesel Jeans company, the Pelican (whose brazen, albeit appropriate, motto is "A myth in its own limelight") is South Beach's only self-professed "toy-hotel," in which each of its 30 rooms and suites is decorated as outrageously as some of the area's more colorful drag queens. Each room has been designed daringly and rather wittily by Swedish interior decorator Magnus Ehrland, whose countless trips to antiques markets, combined with his wild imagination, have turned room no. 309, for instance, into the "Psychedelic(ate) Girl," room no. 201 into the "Executive Fifties" suite, and room no. 313 into the "Jesus Christ Megastar" room. But the most popular room is the tough-to-score room no. 215, or the "Best Whorehouse," which is said to have made even former Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss red with envy. As South Beach is known for poseurs of all types, this hotel fits right in.
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