Where (and when) to take your Miami bar crawls

This Downtown gem has a kick-ass happy hour. A deal for half off the entire menu (4–8pm) brings in packs of chattering workers, but great drinks and an effortlessly cool atmosphere keep them around. Step outside the neighborhood pub as the sun sets to appreciate the golden hour standing in one of Miami’s most historic blocks.

You know it. You love it. You crave one of its hand-crafted punches. The venerated cocktail bar is a stellar choice at this time of year, when the heat ebbs away and the stress of the week proves itself no match for the Shaker’s Zen tropical courtyard. Order anything from the seasonal menu (it’s all great) and don’t be startled when you emit an involuntary moan of pleasure at the first sip. It happens to the best of us.

A Wynwood mainstay, this bar has only gotten better with age. Around 9pm, you’ll find some happy-hour stragglers mixed in with barhoppers and in-the-know locals grabbing Miami’s most underrated slice at Gramps’ backyard pizza stand. With killer music across all genres and surprisingly solid cocktails—its Moscow Mule is the best in town—it’s a great locale to revel in the laid-back spirit of Wynwood.

Just before the clock strikes 12, this award-winning bar is typically reaching a crescendo. The Miami Beach cocktail spot is one of the best high-volume bars in the country, so, even with a crowd (a very fun one, at that), the Sweet Liberty experts can keep those excellent cocktails coming as quickly as needed—and for as long as you want. This place has the perfect vibe to send you into the rest of the night with a smile.

With midnight in the rearview mirror, nightclubs tend to enter the “So, where should we go now?” conversation. And if you’ve gotta dance, you may as well do it big. The Fontainebleau’s star child has ruled the Miami scene for a decade, and it remains the most over-the-top, clubby club in Miami Beach, with plenty of VIPs, celebs and superstar musicians popping in for surprise sets.

Three in the morning is the misfit hour: too early to go home, too late to hit up most drinkeries. Luckily, you won’t meet a kookier band of oddballs than those inside one of Miami’s oldest dive bars—and the undisputed best. Inside, find neon signs from the 1980s, cheap, cold beer, and a pink, snake-shaped bar that has propped up the elbows of countless Miami celebs, criminals and everyone in between.

All roads lead to E11EVEN. Things just start getting good at the ultraclub—open 24 hours a day, seven days a week—around 5am. Nude dancers twirl on poles, dollar bills cascade like snowflakes, and you can witness just about every Miami stereotype being fulfilled in every direction. It’s weird and scary and amazing—and everyone should experience this adult playground at least once.