Española way

Española Way is a charming Mediterranean-style pedestrian promenade tucked into the heart of South Beach. Opened around 1925 during Miami's land boom, it was conceived by developers N.B.T. Roney and William Whitman, who hired architect Robert A. Taylor to stage a theatrical "Historic Spanish Village." Taylor modeled the street after seaside towns in Spain and the south of France, dressing it in pastel stucco facades, clay-tile roofs, wrought-iron balconies and intimate courtyards.

Originally imagined as a bohemian artists' colony in the spirit of Greenwich Village or Montmartre, Española Way quickly became a fashionable promenade lined with tea rooms, salons and little hotels. Designated a historic district by the City of Miami Beach in 1986 and converted to a pedestrian-only thoroughfare in 2017, today the lantern-lit lane is packed with sidewalk cafes, tapas bars, restaurants and boutiques, often with live music spilling onto the cobblestones.

Visitor tip: come in the evening when the string lights glow and the restaurants set their tables outdoors for a romantic, European-feeling dinner just a block from the beach. It is one of South Beach's most photogenic food and dining destinations.