By some called a metropolis. By others, a melting pot. A doorway to the Caribbean. A rendezvous of history and present day culture. No matter how you choose to describe Miami, one thing is certain: it is a city resting on the edge of an enormous continent, a city that owes a huge part of its charm to the history, the tolerance, and the curiosity of its inhabitants.

Indians, Cubans, Americans, Scandinavians, French – the list goes on and on – all actively participate in comprising the face of a city in constant development, meanwhile ensuring that Miami is always an exciting destination.

The most obvious benefit of the city’s multicultural influences is its cuisine: Chilean, Cuban, African, Creole, Puerto Rican, and Hawaiian to name just a few – a multitude of nations are represented in restaurants spread out across the entire city, making it possible to dine out in a different world, in a new setting every single day of your vacation.

Art galleries, museums, and entertainment venues also offer a variety of cultural experiences: there is the Children’s Museum, located just off the McArthur Causeway, the Metro Zoo, the Miami Art Museum on Flagler Street – and a visit to Bayside Marketplace spices up your vacation with nightly live boardwalk performances by local bands, as well as bars that play only Salsa music, interesting shops, great restaurants and cozy cafes.

For business travelers too, the city of Miami offers an appropriate setting, with most of its hotels offering excellent amenities suitable for large conferences and smaller meetings alike. The downtown Metromover monorail system, circling the city and making stops at all major business centers, makes it possible to skip the car rental altogether when you are in Miami on business for just a few days.

Should you have booked a room in Miami that offers a view of Biscayne Bay, make sure you don’t deprive yourself of a glimpse from your hotel window of the Port of Miami. From this world-famous location, all major cruise lines send off thousands of people every day toward exotic destinations – and the image of an international harbor buzzing with excitement is absolutely fantastic.

And when you decide to grab a cab for an evening excursion to South Beach, don’t forget to look back as you travel east on the causeway, away from the city: to many people, the skyline of Miami bears great resemblance to that of New York City - and for that reason alone downtown Miami is often referred to as “Little Manhattan”.