Not a scooby-doo on Miami hotels, Help please

[Guest]

We are flying into and back out of Miami. We would like to visit some of the sites eg art nouveau buildings and beach but were not sure of best areas to stay. Please could you recommend a nice but budgeted hotel for our last night near to these places of interest.
Or our other plan is to just leave Orlando earlyish on flight day and just do afternoon and evening.
Flight not til 11pm ish.
But our worry would be that we would have all our luggage with us in the mini bus. Anyone parked in a secure carpark and left luggage.
Any tips advice will be greatly received.
Also peoples opinions differ on Miami and were not going with any expectations.
2 family's 4 kids between us ages 12 and 9.
Thanks

[Pussycat Doll]

We stayed at the Quarzo last year, not in the Art Deco district but a minute from the beach in Bal Harbour, easy drive straight down to the Art Deco bit.

[COL41]

We have stayed at the Savoy and Pestana, both quite reasonably priced hotels either end of South Beach. Savoy is more in the mix of it all. We got taxis to and from
Airport as didn’t want to
Drive around Miami plus some hotel parking costs were very steep. We loved South Beach and would definitely return

[BrightlyBob]

We stayed at the Miami Beach Stanton, which is part of Marriott. It’s directly on the beach literally a 1 minute walk to 5th which is the beginning of the classic Miami Beach Art Deco strip. We thought the location was great. You’re also a 3 minute walk from the sea-point where you’ll see the cruise liners cornering as they make their way into Miami harbour.

We woke every morning to look out of our window seeing a strip of yellow sand, a strip of azure blue water and a top layer of bright blue sky - every morning, wonderful...

[Melvin Pearce]

Our son booked to stay on a boat moored in South Beach Harbour, also given a secured locked garage to park the car. Said it was cheaper than a hotel, and somewhere different.

We think he found this by just googling.

Melvin and Lesley

[duchy]

Bear in mind most Miami hotels charge guests for parking too.

[Raggyavn]

Originally Posted by duchy

Bear in mind most Miami hotels charge guests for parking too.

See more...

Yes, just changed my Downtown Miami hotel to one at the airport because they wanted $35 (plus tip) to valet park my car for me (no self parking). I have also read that some hotels don't allow you to go and go for 1 charge.

[Myakka17]

I don't think I'd want to be parked in Miami with a mini van full of cases! I'd go for the overnight stay option, check out at usual time whilst keeping the cases with the hotel. You can still use the mini van for travelling around and return to the hotel later to collect your luggage. We had a road trip in Califirnia last year but were never in a city with our luggage left in the vehicle. However on days when we had the luggage with us we covered with a black sheet we'd taken with us and made sure we had blackened Windows when we selected the vehicle we wanted.

[Guest]

Thanks everyone, thats a great help.