Miami’s South Beach both warms and welcomes gay travelers.

Text and photos courtesy of Ed Walsh

"South Beach used to be somewhere where you would go if you wanted to buy drugs, or get shot or stabbed," said my group's guide on Miami Beach's Art Deco Walking Tour.

That was as recent as the late 1970s, early 1980s, she explained. Tourist tastes first began to shift in the late 1950s. Visitors preferred to stay farther north along Miami Beach where the high-rise, all-inclusive hotels were springing up. You could spend your whole vacation there and never leave the hotel grounds. The architectural art deco gems that put Miami Beach on the map in the 1920s and 1930s were abandoned or turned into low-rent apartments or retirement hotels.

Thanks in large part to gay designers including Gianni Versace and others with a similar fiscal orientation, South Beach has come full circle and then some. The art deco hotels that line South Beach's Ocean Drive are now highly prized by visitors who want to stay in the middle of it all. The once small and utilitarian art deco hotel rooms have been expanded and updated to keep up with contemporary tourist tastes.

Adding to South Beach's renaissance, zoning laws were changed, allowing for commercial development on the first floor of the hotels along Ocean Drive. That paved the way for the now landmark and gay owned News Cafe. Today, you will find some of the hottest restaurants in the city along Ocean Drive.

If you only remember two things from this article, remember these two tips: Don’t rent a car, and check your restaurant bill closely.

You don’t want to rent a car because traffic is bad and parking is worse in South Beach. You can walk to everything anyway. L.A. it ain’t.

Check your restaurant bill because many, if not most, restaurants in South Beach automatically charge a service fee of 15-22 percent. Many tourists don’t realize that and double tip. If you get bad service, you can have the tip taken off bill. Of course, for outstanding service you are free to tip more. The tipping practice started in the late ‘80s in response to the large number of foreign visitors to Miami Beach who were unaccustomed to the practice of tipping.

In South Beach, it's all about the beach, but there's much more to do and see. But let's get the beach out of the way first. South Beach's unofficial gay beach is the 12th Street Beach, opposite 12th Street and Ocean Drive. By the way, that intersection is also the location of the only gay bar on the beach, the Palace Food Bar.

The aforementioned Art Deco Walking Tour is a great way to get the lay of the land and some fascinating history of South Beach. Highlights of the tour include the Gianni Versace mansion and the history and the likely future of the property. Tours leave daily from the Art Deco Welcome Center at 1001 Ocean Dr. The 90-minute walk costs $20 and benefits the Miami Design Preservation League.

The World Erotic Art Museum, located at 1205 Washington Ave., is a must-see. The museum opened just over a year ago and is generating a lot of buzz in South Beach. It includes over 4,000 items, some as old as 200 B.C. It includes a gay and lesbian section and gives museumgoers an interesting look into how different societies view sex. Don't let the low-rent look of the museum entrance on the first floor scare you off. The museum itself is on the second floor and is as upscale in design and layout as the finer boutique art galleries in the city.

Nightlife

The expansive Twist nightclub at 1057 Washington Ave. is seven bars in one. Each bar has its own style and motif. You can bar hop in the two-story complex without ever having to leave the building. Twist includes dance floors and a stripper bar. It's open every day from 1 p.m. to 5 a.m., and there's never a cover.

The aforementioned Palace Food Bar at 1200 Ocean Dr. features a women's night, Strawberry Girls, 7 p.m. to midnight on Thursdays. And because it's so close, it's a great place to quench your thirst after the beach.

The dance bar Score, located at 727 Lincoln Rd., is open seven days a week. You can sit outside on the pedestrian-only Lincoln Rd. or dance the night away in Score's cavernous dance room. A Sunday tea dance for gay women is held once a month. For dates check out the Web site www.icandeeproductions.com.

The Créme Lounge is just upstairs from Score. Its entrance is on Lincoln Lane, on the backside of Score. It features a popular "Créme and Sugar" Thursday night party. The women take over on Saturday nights with "Siren" from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m.

The Buck 15 Lounge is next to the Créme Lounge on Lincoln Lane. Its Thursday gay night is called "The Simple Life."

The Laundry bar is across the street from Créme and Buck 15 and is both a full-service laundry and bar.

Miami Beach's newest nightclub is Friday at Funkshion. It's just four blocks from Score at 1116 Lincoln Rd. If you get there early, you can start your night with a dinner and drag show and dance late into the night in a modern, high-tech bar and lounge.

Sleeping Around

The gay-owned SoBe You is a luxury bed and breakfast located at 1018 Jefferson Ave. It used to be the gay guesthouse, the Jefferson House. If you stayed there when it was the Jefferson, you wouldn't recognize it now. The new owners, Julie Weaver and Susan Culligan, completely renovated it. SoBe You looks brand new inside, complete with flat-panel TVs and all new furnishings. The clientele of the 10-room inn is predominately gay, both women and men, and it is officially "straight-friendly." SoBe You is in a residential neighborhood but just a 10-15 minute walk from the gay heart of South Beach. Current high-season rates start at $175 and include a hot gourmet breakfast.

The upscale 88-unit gay-friendly Clinton Hotel and Spa is a good example of an art deco gem whose interior has been completely redone in comfort and style. Its outside appearance belies the modern style and class that are showcased in the hotel's interior. Rates start around $129, a bargain considering the upscale quality of the hotel. It's located at 825 Washington Ave. just two blocks from the ocean and two blocks from Twist, South Beach's mega-gay nightclub. Although they won't turn away families with kids, it's not really a kid-friendly place.

The modernized 45-room boutique Aqua Hotel has a surfer motif with minimalist-chic polished concrete floors and eclectic furnishings. It's located at 1530 Collins Ave., just steps from the beach and includes a free continental breakfast and a daily newspaper. Besides being gay-friendly, the hotel is also pet-friendly. It's just two blocks from the Lincoln Road shopping and restaurant district, home to Score, Créme, the Laundry bar and Buck 15. Rates start at $135.

The gay-owned and managed Island House at 1428 Collins Ave.is no longer a gay guesthouse, per se, but it is still very gay-friendly and a great choice if you want budget accommodations in the middle of South Beach. Rates start at $59, which includes a continental breakfast. There are plenty of local gay newspapers and club guides at the front door and the management would be happy to guide you to all that is gay in South Beach.

Eating out

The aforementioned News Cafe at 800 Ocean Dr. led the charge for the other restaurants along Ocean Drive in 1988, and it hasn't stopped. It's open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The only time it ever closes is for the occasional hurricane. It is a good place to see and be seen in South Beach.

The Front Porch at 1418 Ocean Dr. is an inexpensive, popular and very gay breakfast spot.

On the other side of South Beach, the gay-friendly and stunningly beautiful Touch Restaurant at 911 Lincoln Rd. is just two blocks from the Score nightclub. It's a great splurge restaurant if you want to be in the middle of the cutting edge of South Beach style.

You will find the very gay Balans restaurant just a block from Touch at 1022 Lincoln Rd. If you've been to London's gay Soho district, you've probably seen its sister restaurant by the same name.

For More Information

For a great, all-around guide to the club scene in South Beach, go to www.sobesocialclub.com. Additional travel resources can be found at the Greater Miami Convention Visitors Bureau’s www.gmcvb.com and the Miami-Dade Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce’s www.gogaymiami.com.