My family and I took a vacation to Miami Beach last month and I would like to tell you about the wonderful time we had on the famous Duck Tour in this gem of a city by the sea. My wife and three children are from Toronto, Canada and we were all looking extremely forward to a break from the Canadian winter. Of course when we arrived in Miami the weather was perfect. We wanted to find out about the city and its history because none of us have ever been to Miami before. On our first day there we were walking around South Beach and we came across an information booth and the attendant of the booth told us about the Duck Tour.
We signed up to do it on the very next day. We were picked up on Lincoln Road early on a beautiful balmy winter day. The vehicle that picked us up was a military surplus DUKW that has been retrofitted for tour bus purposes. They are amphibious open air vehicles that hold about 50 passengers on them. So they are quite large. We also have a Duck Tour in Toronto but we had never taken it. Most likely that will change when we get back home. The tour was very light hearted and there was a lot of joking and a lot of audience participation by my family and the other people on the tour. The tour started out by driving down the world famous Ocean Drive.
The tour guide was very informative. As we drove down the street he proceeded to tell us that South Beach was considered the historic district of Miami Beach. He also explained what it meant to be an Art Deco building, mostly explaining to us the “rule of three”. This is an art deco rule where a building has three floors, they have three windows going across, and they are painted in three different colors. When we were done with the Ocean Drive portion of the tour it was over to the Bay of Biscayne next.
This is when the tour got extremely unique. We drove from the road right into the bay itself. They call this maneuver “splashdown”. It was quite a different experience going from a bus to a boat. It is a thrillingly distinctive feeling to have and I highly recommend experiencing this for yourself at some time. The DUKW sailed us around Star Island which is where many of the rich and famous have mansions and estates. The jokes from the tour guide really started coming at a rapid fire pace during this part of the tour.
He was actually really quite funny also. On the way back there were more interesting facts to learn and landmarks to see and all and all my entire family and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We liked it so much that whenever we vacation now the first thing we are going to check on is to see if that city has a Duck Tour. Also like I said we will definitely be taking the tour in our home city.
Miami Attractions
