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This article was adapted from a post at Miami on the Cheap by Donna Gehrke-White.
Miami-Dade can be pricey but there are still loads of things to do with your kids for free or low cost. Top on the list are South Florida’s pristine – and free – beaches. You can also find plenty of other free or low-cost things to do in Miami. How about a bat hike? Riding a pony? Enjoying a tropical forest? Taking in an art exhibit? They’re all offered in Miami-Dade County. Here are five free and cheap things to do with kids in Miami.
Ocean on Watch
Tourists spend thousands of dollars to come to the Magic City but you can enjoy one of the top destinations for free: the Miami Beach Boardwalk. It is two miles of people watching and breathtaking ocean views, starting at 21st Street. You can walk from the historic Art Deco District to the famed 1950s condo canyons where Frank Sinatra once crooned at hotel nightclubs. You and the kids can venture off the boardwalk to sun bathe and frolic in the ocean.
You can swim or rent equipment to surf, kayak, kite board or snorkel. The Travel Channel has listed the Miami Beach beaches as among the 10 best in the nation. They have restrooms, showers and are staffed with lifeguards during the day.
You can also get off the boardwalk to venture south into the heart of South Beach and all its glamour. Be sure to keep your child-friendly trips to SoBe during the day. For more information, call the Tourism Hotline at 305-673-7400.
The Slow Lane with a Free Farm
Further north and far, far from the urban crowd, your family can experience life in the slow lane: A pioneer farm with horses, ponies, cows, pigs, sheep, geese, chicken and even a donkey or two. Enjoy the pioneer Bill Graham’s Farm Village at Amelia Earhart Park, 401 E. 65th St., Hialeah, which boasts a sugar cane press, an old general store, horseshoeing, cow milking and a fishing lake. The park also has one of South Florida’s top-ranked mountain biking trails and a dog park. It’s free during the week; parking is $7 on Saturdays and Sundays. The park is open from sunrise to sunset with its office open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call 305-685-8389 for information.
Free Hiking Trails – Birds or Bats?
Miami has its wild side – of the flying kind. You have a variety of choices at Greynolds Park, 17530 W. Dixie Highway in North Miami Beach. You can take owl walks or bat hikes. Or maybe bird sojourns or butterfly walks amid nearly 250 acres of mangrove forests and hardwood hammocks. The park, once a rock quarry, is now restored to its natural past. It offers nature walks for everyone as well as a bird rookery, mangrove boardwalk, historic boathouse, observation mound and a lagoon. It’s on the historic Oleta River where the Tequesta Indians once lived. The park is free and open from sunrise to sunset, seven days a week, but parking is $7 on weekends. Call 305-945-3425 during office hours of 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday; 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the weekends.
Books, Stories, Crafts, and Everything is Free
The sprawling 54,000-square-foot West Dade Regional Library, 9445 Coral Way, in Westchester is probably not listed as a must-see tourist site for families – but it should be. Parents sing its praises considering it has 200,000 books, an outdoor playground, an art gallery with ongoing exhibits, an auditorium and a huge upstairs children’s area with its own computers. The library touts that it “treats children special” and offers free story-telling and crafts programs. It’s all free. Call the library at 305-553-1134 for more information. There are more than 45 public libraries throughout Miami-Dade, with free programs for adults and kids, as well as computers, movies to check out free and more.
Picnic with Miami’s History
The Barnacle Historic State Park, 3485 Main Highway in one of Miami’s oldest neighborhoods, Coconut Grove, is a rare treat for kids. They get to stomp around one of Miami-Dade County’s oldest Biscayne Bay estates while daydreaming of water adventures. It’s right at their feet: vistas of blue bay. You can picnic on the grounds and enjoy rocking chairs on porches that overlook the bay. There are reasonably priced tours of the 1891 house, the city’s oldest home, still on its original foundation: $3 for ages 13 and up, $1 for ages 6-12. Children 5 and younger are free. Admission to the five-acre park grounds is $2 per person and you can drop that in the honors box. Call 305-442-6866 for more information.
Looking for more cheap things to do with kids?
- See what’s free and cheap this weekend in Miami.
- See the Miami on the Cheap calendar of Miami free and cheap events by day.
About Teresa Mears: Teresa Mears is a longtime South Florida journalist. She worked previously as an editor at The Miami Herald, The Tampa Bay Times and The Los Angeles Times. She has also contributed to MSN Money, The New York Times, The Boston Globe and other publications. She has publishedMiami on the Cheap, Fort Lauderdale on the Cheap, Living on the Cheap and related sites since 2009. In addition to publishing websites, she writes about personal finance for U.S. News & World Report. When she’s not working on the website, she’s polishing her singing and learning to play the guitar. She is a member of Nova Singers, the South Florida Jubilee Chorus and the Broward Folk Club.
