All Aboard Brightline For An Orlando-to-Miami Travel Adventure

Designed by Bigtime Design Studios, the new Brightline Orlando Station boasts, bold, modern architecture. Photo by Emily Jourdan

A Bright Future for Orlando-to-Miami Travel

MY HUSBAND HAS ALWAYS LOVED TRAINS, so when he heard Brightline was offering service to Miami, he wanted to book a day trip. His goal: Get off the train in Miami, grab lunch and return home the same day.

With 16 departures to and from Miami daily, that’s doable. But why not go all in? We now had an excuse to become reacquainted with a city we hadn’t visited in decades, partly because of the drive there and back. Let’s be real. Who wants to drive to and from Miami? No one I know. But who wants to ride comfortably in a high-speed train that frees you up to take in the scenery, grab a nap or fit in some work? Need to stretch your legs? Walk around. Need a bathroom break? Take a short walk down the aisle. Need a snack or drink? The cart is coming your way.

Passengers booking Premium tickets have access to the Premium Lounge, complimentary snacks and beverages, priority boarding, and more. Photo by Emily Jourdan

Getting Your Trip on Track

Start by booking your Brightline trip. Smart, or business-class, fares begin at $79 one way per person. Premium, or first-class, fares begin at $149 per person. To compare the experiences, we booked Premium seats on the way to Miami and Smart seats on the way home. Premium tickets include access to the station’s Premium Lounge, where you can enjoy free breakfast, lunch or dinner items, along with free beverages.

Two alcoholic beverages are included. Premium tickets also include a free checked bag and free food on the train, where frequent feedings ensure a hobbit would be in his element. Passengers with Smart tickets have access to their own lounge at the station. Food, beverages and checked baggage—$25 per bag— are all at an additional cost. The leather-covered seats are slightly narrower, and you may find yourself sharing a four-person table with strangers if you don’t choose a two-seat row. That said, we were just as comfortable in our Smart coach as we were in our Premium coach, though less pampered. Both coaches offered plenty of leg room, and trays and tables easily accommodate laptops. Each seat also provides device-charging stations. Plus, all cars generally offer plenty of overhead storage for luggage and include a standing rack for larger bags. It’s also important to note each coach offers level boarding and is fully ADA-compliant, with wide aisles and accessible seating and bathrooms, which are also touch-free. Accessibility is a win for families with strollers and wheelchair-bound passengers.

Our trains were on schedule, each trip taking roughly 3 ½ hours with brief stops in West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale and Aventura. But what you may not save in time, you’re saving in sanity and, possibly, safety. And don’t forget, you can make good use of your travel time, unlike when you’re driving.

©YOTEL MIAMI

Miami Nice

From the Miami station, we took an Uber to our hotel, Yotel Miami, where our 28th-floor room overlooked Biscayne Bay. We opted for a Yotel Pad, a hybrid of an Airbnb and a traditional hotel room, for the extra space. Pads come with fully equipped kitchens, minus linens, and paper and cleaning products. Each pad also has a stackable washer and dryer. Yotel Miami is ideally situated for cruise passengers, sports fans or concertgoers, with its quick access to Port Miami, Kaseya Arena and Brickell City Centre. It’s also across from a Metromover station. For those who choose to rent cars during their stay—and think hard on that one with all the one-way streets, traffic and construction—parking and valet are available.

Technology is a way of life at Yotel Miami, which overlooks Biscayne Bay. ©YOTEL MIAMI

The big feature of this hotel is its tech. Check-in and check-out are done on one of two terminals inside the lobby. Elevators and doors operate via keycard scans. Do you need a towel or a toothbrush? One of the hotel’s robots, Julio and Juliette, will deliver the item to your door. Yotel Miami’s amenities include two restaurants and two bars, and a pool and fitness deck. Breakfast packages are available. Guests also can chill out daily on complimentary beach chairs. Totes are $15 each, and towels are $25 each. Feel free to bring your pet, who will feel as pampered as you do.

Courtesy of The Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science.

Join the Culture Club

My husband and I both work in the arts, so we love to check out museums wherever we go. Our first stop was Superblue Miami, an other-worldly and largely digital experience. Watch your heartbeat pulse among 3,000 lights, interact with supersized virtual flora, and walk through “clouds” of bubbles.

Superblue is an over-the-top digital experience with 3,000 lights. ©Superblue

The Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science was less than a 15-minute walk from our hotel and well worth the visit. Leave yourself a couple of hours, plus time for a planetarium show, and stroll through the whimsical sculpture garden outside. Hands-on exhibits will keep the kids entertained while providing enough meat to keep geeks of all ages engaged.

An aerial view of the Wynwood Walls. ©Nika Kramer

Miami’s up-and-coming Wynwood neighborhood is home to two must-see venues, Wynwood Walls and Paradox Museum Miami. Wynwood Walls boasts 35,000 square feet of walls filled with street art, a community hallmark, along with sculptures. Set aside a couple of hours to take it all in.

Paradox Museum Miami contains a host of reality-twisting, brain-teasing illusions that will have you rediscovering your childhood sense of wonder. Prepare to push your sense of perception out of its comfort zone in the best way possible, and take advantage of the amazing photo ops.

The fare at Wynwood’s Aztec-inspired Bakan is cooked over a wood-fired grill. ©Bakan

Eat to the Beat

With its ubiquitous pulsating dance music, Miami is not always the place for a quiet meal. But it is the place for an excellent one, as we found out at every venue we visited. Every venue was able to accommodate my severe food sensitivities without compromising taste or quality.

While in Wynwood, we dined at Bakan, an indoor-outdoor restaurant with an Aztec flair. Seafood and meat are cooked over a wood-fired grill. We shared crispy blue tortillas served with a mild red salsa and a verde with a nice back heat (my fave). Go for the spicy lemonade—any flavor. My husband ordered the short rib tacos: blue corn tortillas loaded with molé-bathed beef and served alongside crunchy pickled vegetables. I ordered the pollo con chorizo enchiladas, the various textures and flavors ensuring every bite was sumptuous.

Treat yourself to a night of indulgence at Mila Miami, where food is edible art and the Miami vibe is on full display. We went all in on the $155-per-person tasting menu, a five-course feast that included hirami crudo, potato millefeuille served with aioli, madai crudo, spicy hamachi maki, nigiri and sashimi, miso black cod (my husband’s favorite), broccolini in tahini and a mouthwatering mushroom hot pot. Then came dessert: avocado chocolate mousse, gianduja panna cotta and various house-made sorbets. Delight in every bite. I did.

My husband loves Asian food, so he was excited to try Hutong Miami, another high-energy venue. He ordered the hot-and-sour soup, while I enjoyed the peppery lobster-crab soup. The vegetable-filled spring rolls were crispy and light, and al dente okra was modified without sauce to be gluten-free. The Kung Po prawns, spicy and tender in a cashew-laden garlic-chili sauce, proved to be a safe and succulent choice for me, while my husband enjoyed the prime rib tenderloin in green tiger chile. We ended the night on a high: yuzu sorbet for my husband and guanaja chocolate mousse with sour plum sorbet for me. Yes, please!

©SoBe Vegan

Our final lunch—and biggest surprise—was at SoBe Vegan, within an easy walk from the Art Deco District. The food was delicious enough to make a vegan of my Southern boy. Since our trip, the Miami location has closed, leaving only a Fort Lauderdale location open. All I can say, Miami, is that you snoozed and lost. If your trip takes you from Miami to Fort Lauderdale, pay SoBe Vegan a visit, and get the waffles. I also recommend the Shroom tenders, served with a pineapple barbecue sauce.

Dinner at Branja, featuring the culinary prowess of 2016 MasterChef Israel winner Tom Aviv, was the perfect way to close out our trip. We started with mocktails: a citrusy Spicy Ritual for my husband and a za’atar-lime Purple Rain for me. Highlights included the cured salmon, prepared carpaccio-style with sour cream and horseradish, and the Fishwarma, a scrumptious fish melange with tahini labneh and mango amba. Save room for the Tuktuk beef kebab, coated in tamarind and cooked on a lemongrass skewer. Steak frites, a sliced New York strip served with crispy potatoes, was more familiar to my husband’s Southern palate. To finish, we shared a light and lemony vanilla cream served with basil oil and meringues.

Our experiences gave me renewed appreciation for Miami. Thanks to Brightline, a return trip is in easy reach.

LIVE YOUR BEST BRIGHTLINE LIFE

• When you book your trip in the Brightline app or online, be sure to book a free Uber ride to any venue within 5 miles of the Miami station.
• You can also book a Mears cab or a larger vehicle through the site or app at the time of booking.
• Leave your car at home and take an Uber, which will drop you off at the entry to the station.
• If you choose to park at the airport, avoid paying $24 in the Terminal C garage by taking advantage of a discounted rate—less than $10 a day—through Brightline at WallyPark MCO. A free shuttle will drop you at the station entrance.
• In terms of safety, Brightline security compares with what you’ll find in the airport. In terms of time, there’s no comparison.
• You can arrive in the station 45 minutes to an hour before your trip with time to spare. Brightline partners with all the South Florida sports teams, so fans can easily make a day trip of seeing a game. Free shuttles run between the nearest station and each stadium. The last train returns to Orlando at 2 a.m.