Vizcaya Museum and Gardens 🇺🇸

You will step into early 20th-century grandeur when you visit the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, the former winter estate of businessman James Deering located on Biscayne Bay in Miami's Coconut Grove. Spanning 50 acres, this National Historic Landmark blends Mediterranean Revival architecture with Italian Renaissance models adapted specifically for South Florida's subtropical ecoregion.

Inside the main villa, you can explore over seventy rooms packed with 15th through early 19th-century European antiques, decorative arts, and early Gilded Age technology, including Miami-Dade County's very first rotary-dial telephone system. Outside, you will wander through ten acres of formal, room-like gardens featuring a Secret Garden, Maze Garden, Theater Garden, and Fountain Garden framed by native hammock woodlands.

Admire dramatic features like coral stone sculptures, exotic Cuban Royal Palms, and the historic 1916 swimming pool grotto adorned with a rare underwater fantasy ceiling mural by artist Robert Winthrop Chanler. Whether you are marveling at imported European aesthetic traditions recreated in local Cuban limestone and Floridian coral architectural trim or simply soaking in views of the bay, Vizcaya offers a unique historical escape in Miami.

What to see at Vizcaya Museum and Gardens

• Villa with over 70 rooms featuring 15th to early 19th-century European art and antiques
• Ten acres of formal Italian Renaissance gardens including a Maze Garden and Secret Garden
• 1916 swimming pool grotto featuring an underwater fantasy ceiling mural by Robert Winthrop Chanler
• Gilded Age innovations including Miami-Dade County's first rotary-dial telephone system
• Biscayne Bay waterfront setting flanked by native tropical hammock forest

Visiting tips

You can easily reach the property by taking the Miami Metrorail directly to Vizcaya Station.

How long: 2-3 hours · Best time: Morning

How to get there & what’s nearby

Vizcaya Museum and Gardens is easy to reach on Miami’s public transport. For where to stay, the weather and full itineraries, see our Miami travel guide.