<p>Hello all. S and I are flying into Miami on a Wednesday night, staying Thursday to see the school, staying Thursday night, and then flying back to California.</p>
<p>We are staying at the Biltmore.</p>
<p>Do I need to rent a car? Can we walk from the hotel to campus? Is it common to take cabs from the Billtmore into Miami/South Beach in case we decided to have dinner there one night?</p>
<p>Should we stay local for the evenings so S can see the social life?</p>
<p>Also - is the Marine Biology school far away?</p>
<p>1)
Ok well, if ur staying at the Biltmore its really close. You can walk but its not a short walk, its quite a long walk and this time of the year, South Florida is quite hot (75-80 degrees) however Coral Gables has a ton of trees so it
might be shady enough to comfortable walk the distance.
2) I dont think u need to rent a car. Cabs are common in Miami and they should take you to all the Miami hot spots. Also once on the UM campus u can use the free Hurricane Shuttle service to take you to Coconut Grove and Sunset Place. For South Beach ur gonna need a cab and it will be really expensive. im guessing 30 bucks (I might be wrong). also from the airport Umiami has a shuttle so that would be free as well. It is more convenient to have a car but if u wanna save money, cabs and free shuttles are definately a possibility.
3) Marine Biology, I believe its in the Key Biscane Campus. its a lil island half a mile off Downtown Miami, and about 25 minutes without traffic from Coral Gables Campus. The good news is the almighty Hurricane Shuttle takes u there for free :D</p>
<p>Cabs are fine, lots of students actually use them and it will probably be cheaper than renting a car......... I think the UM shuttle service is only for students though and you need a cane ID (I could be wrong!!!)</p>
<p>(you can also take the metro to a bunch of places, but I'd just stick with the cab)</p>
<p>We stayed at The Biltmore when we visited and I would say that you would definitely need to rent a car. We did. You need a car to get to campus, The Grove, S. Beach, the airport, and anywhere else you want to go. The Biltmore is near the school but in the middle of a residential neighborhood.</p>
<p>As a parent, I agree with LilyMoon. Get a car. I've always had good luck going through Price-line and "naming my own price.". LOL Especially if your wanting to go out to RSMAS on Biscayne, and to really "see" Miami. </p>
<p>Has anyone taken the Metrorail? We're used to Manhattan subways so we were considering using the Metro from the airport to the Marriott Dadeland. We can easily get there by car or shuttle but we were curious to see what the metrorail is like. Has anyone tried it? It goes from West Palm down to Miami, I believe.</p>
<p>When I saw the video of UM from THEU.com, they talked a lil bout transportation. Mentioned that ppl do have cars. someone personally told me its 50/50. a lot of ppl use the shuttle on campus. About the monorail: well, they mentioned it, and said ppl do use it, especially to go to the Orange Bowl, however when they interviewed someone, the person said that she used it for a while but stopped cause it was sorta dangerous at night. Im sure if u go in group and stuff like that, its not that bad. Ur in the safest part of Miami. Unless u take it to Lil Haiti or somethin like that, u should be fine :D.
Ive been on it once and its pretty kool, cause unlike the subway system, u have a view here! U get to see the buildings of Downtown and for a while the beaches! :D
Jerz, Coral Gables is a wealthy lil suburb with lots of boutiques and malls around the area. its not the towering Manhattan feel. U might get that a lil but if u got to Downtown Miami, but for the most part, Miami does not have the same feel at all of Manhattan. Miami is more of a vehicle city than pedestrian city.</p>
<p>the deal with the metro is that it goes in a straight line and i dont think it will stop close to your hotel...you can try putting it in the trip planner</p>
<p>the metro is deifnitly not like the subway systems of NY and Boston. It has very limited access, but its useful to go from the university to target or places like vizcaya (which i highly recommend visiting..its gorgeous) and bayside.</p>
<p>jerzgrlmom,
We stayed at the Marriott Dadeland for our recent visit to UMiami. We took a cab from then to the airport but used the metrorail for the hotel-college-hotel trip. It was very convenient. It was a 36 hour trip; if we had had more time we would have rented a car to see more of the area.</p>
<p>I agree with the other parents that if you can rent a car for your visits you can do a lot more exploring. Public transportation from the airport can be a pain and involves system transfers as the metrorail doesn't go to the airport. You would need to take the Commuter Rail or bus to a Metrorail station. A cab or shuttle would be much, much quicker and then you could use the metrorail to get to the school as mominva suggested.</p>
<p>The CocoWalk area of Coconut Grove is a great place to take the kids for dinner. Lots of restaurants, outdoor cafes and shops line the streets and there are tons of UM kids about. Sunset Place outdoor mall is also another UM hangout. Beware, many restaurants in the Miami area add a gratuity to the bill regardless of the size of the party.</p>
<p>For those thinking ahead to move-in, the BB&B, Target and Best Buy are located at Dadeland Station about 2 miles passed UM on RT.1.</p>
<p>jerz - I've taken the Metro from Dadeland Mariott to campus, and to the Orange Bowl - very easy and convenient.<br>
My D has taken it many times from campus to Dadeland for an afternoon of shopping. She now lives off campus, but freshman year it was a lifesaver for her!
That being said, I always rent a car when visiting UM - its just nice to have the freedom.<br>
Also I now stay at the Dadeland Hampton Inn - free parking in their lot (not valet where you can't get to your car - I hate that!).</p>
<p>ctmom (but originally also a jersey girl :))</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for the info about the metro. Glad to hear some of you used it successfully. There's a stop right by the Marriott. I thought using the metro would give my son a feel for what it would be like trying to get around without a car. The Marriott provides a complimentary shuttle bus to the airport. Luckily UMiami is providing a shuttle from the hotel to campus for all the weekend events - in addition to providing the hotel room for the kids & parents...</p>
<p>I guess we can always try out the metro even if we do rent a car. Guess we'll just play it by ear. ctmom, I don't like valet parking either, I'd much rather have easy access to my car.</p>
<p>At the Biltmore they have valet parking or you can park yourself. The valet parking was a bit of a wait sometimes, so we started to just park ourselves.</p>
<p>Enjoy your visit and tell us all about it when you return. :)</p>
<p>So we had a great time. Saw an alligator in the lagoon. Went out to Rosenstiel where we bumped into a nice grad student who took S and I around some and told us that even freshmen are welcome in the labs there -although it might be lab tech work at first. The admissions people were really welcoming. S would be a candidate for the top scholarships - felt great to hear. Loved Miami, had lunch in Coconut Grove, and then went to Versailles for dinner just to show S some Cuban-American ambience, albeit in the tourist context. Got rained on really hard, then the next day was beautiful. The Biltmore has fabulous breakfasts, BTW.</p>
<p>I would say we left feeling that UMiami is a definite possibility and he will certainly apply.</p>
<p>Happy to hear that UM is making an impression! My son's best friend from UM is a grad student at Rosentiel... and he too loves everything about UM obviously. So well in fact...that he is still there. LOL</p>