Most people visit the Magic City of Miami to enjoy the beach and sand of South Beach, long walks along the Ocean Drive, dine in fancy restaurants, dance to the sounds of the famous DJs till the early hours, and shop at the highest of high-end designer shops. However, Miami also has a colossal selection of world-class museums and art galleries, which are worthy of visiting! If you are looking for unusual things to do in Miami you have landed in the correct place. Check our list of cool and fun museums in Miami, created especially for those who fancy doing some cultural and educational stuff between sunbathing and salsa dancing in Miami.
6 Cool Museums in Miami Worth Visiting
1. Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science
Number one on our list of fun museums in Miami, for both adults and kids, is the Philip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science in Downtown Miami’s Bayfront Park. The museum exhibits centers around South Florida’s aquatic ecosystem, the power of science and physics and the human mind and body. This impressive 250,000 square-foot facility includes Gulf Stream Aquarium which can be experienced at three levels representing the ocean’s depths and the Frost Planetarium where visitors can embark on a virtual journey to a galaxy far away or take a deep dive under the ocean.
It is recommended that you schedule a whole day in the museum, as there is an abundance of things to do on the grounds of the museum and there is also a dining section, where visitors can take a lunch break from their adventure.
Admission is $29 and for children under 12 $20.
2. World Erotic Art Museum
Located in Miami Beach, the World Erotic Art Museum is one of a kind! Although it might sound unusual to hear the words Erotic and Museum in the same sentence, this museum is far from what people believe. The exhibits of the museum house 4,000 piece of erotic fine art which dates back from 300BC to the present. The art collection was established by Naomi Wilzig who dedicated her life to traveling the world and collecting art related to the topic. Amongst the artifacts, there are action-packed paintings and carvings from antiquity, human-size dominatrix Barbie Dolls, a queen-size bed carved with the Kama Sutra, and dildos of every shape and size. The museum also hosts academic events and workshops with the aim to engage the local community and its visitors to explore topics related to human sex and sexuality overall.
Only adults over 18 are allowed in the premises. Admission is $15.
3. Vizcaya Museum and Gardens
A must-visit cultural gem in the Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami is the former villa and estate of businessman James Deering, the Villa Vizcaya, which is now known as the Vizcaya Museums and Garden. The Gilded Age estate captures jaw-dropping European architecture in an alluring American context. Visitors can lure around the interiors of the estate which is layered with an accumulation of artifacts and memories in the impressive rooms designed in the Mediterranean Revival architecture style, with Baroque elements. The outdoor areas are equally fascinating, featuring an extensive Italian Renaissance Garden, a historical village, a native woodland shoreline, and a rockland hammock.
Admission is $18 for adults and $8 for children under 12.
4. The Bass
Located in Miami Beach, The Bass is Miami’s most impressive museum of contemporary art and the first solo museum exhibition in the United States of international artists, such as Erwin Wurm or Ugo Rondinone. With indoor and outdoor exhibitions the museum houses over 3,000 works of art in the form of paintings, sculptures, textiles, photographs, prints, drawings and media, dating back to the 7th century to the present. There are over five hundred European pieces of art from the 15th to the 20th century, which includes a large collection of religious objects. The famous painting of Botticelli and Ghirlandaio “The coronation of the Virgin” is amongst the museums’ gallery, which itself is a reason to visit The Bass! As well as the permanent collection, the museum also periodically hosts temporary exhibitions of contemporary art.
Admission is $15 and there are discounted rates for students, seniors and children.
5. Miami’s Children Museum
Visiting Miami with children? Pay a visit with your little ones to the Miami’s Children Museum, which offers interactive exhibits and learning materials related to arts, literacy, culture, community and communication. The museum is for sure one of the top fun museums in Miami for families, as it has also been awarded in the past as “Best Museum in Miami” by the Miami New Times and the “Best Children’s Museum” by South Florida Parenting Magazine. Families tend to enjoy this museum, as it is an “institution” where they can play, learn, imagine and create all together. Exhibits include a Health & Wellness Center, where children can try a variety of virtual sports which are both fun and good for them, a Multi-Sensory Room, an indoor playground shaped like a fairytale castle, a Pet Central where children can develop an understanding of the responsibilities involved in owning a pet and many other educational and fun interactive exhibits.
Admission is $22 for all visitors. Babies under the age of 1 enter for free.
6. Coral Castle Museum
Perhaps the most famous museum on the list, Coral Castle might also be the strangest. This sculpture garden in oolite limestone was created by and built by Edward Leedskalnin, an eccentric man who spent 28 years building the Coral Castle on his own! The Coral Castle consists of one thousand short tons of oolitic limestones- a sedimentary rock composed of tiny spherical grains of carbonate, which includes concentrations of fossil shells and corals. The stone sculptures include walls, carvings, furniture and a castle tower, which served as the quarters of the architecture. There is an accurate sundial, an obelisk, a Polar Telescope, a fountain, a table in the shape of Florida and 25 rocking chairs resembling a crescent moon, all carved in stone and displayed at the grounds of the museum, where visitors can take the coolest photos to impress their peers!
Admission is $18 for adults, $8 for children age 7 to 12 and free for kids 6 and younger.
