NBC · 1984–1989shot in the Miami it shows
This is Ocean Drive in 1980, before the paint. Michael Mann banned beige; the show turned these fronts flamingo and seafoam, flew through a hole in a Brickell tower and lost an alligator off a dock. Every place here is real.
Ocean Drive, 700 block, 1980: Historic American Buildings Survey, public domain. Portraits: White House and US Navy photographs, public domain.
Rule one
Mann thought Miami looked “war-surplus beige” and ruled out earth tones and red: too hot, too humid. He wanted pastels that felt like heat. Try him.
Ocean Drive, 1980, before the paint. Offer it a colour.
Rule two
Jodie Tillen dressed the detectives against each location: peach walls meant no peach. Pick a wall, then a jacket that stands out from it.
The wall here reads pink. Pick a jacket that stands out.
1438 Washington Ave, at Española Way, Miami Beach
The City of Miami Beach says the dinner conversation between Crockett, Tubbs and Trini was filmed at 1438 Washington Avenue. The fan-event tour route lists the same building as Noogie’s apartment in “Cool Runnin’”.
Walk Española Way from Washington Avenue; the hotel wraps the corner.
1116 Ocean Dr, Miami Beach
Suites and Gianni’s restaurant in the Ocean Drive building that played Tubbs’ brother’s apartment block in the pilot, later Gianni Versace’s home. Check the site for rates.
Check suitesThe credits
The Atlantis on Brickell, from the bay. Ease the slider to fly at it.
2025 Brickell Ave, Brickell, Miami
Arquitectonica designed the Atlantis, with co-founder Bernardo Fort-Brescia leading; it opened in 1982, with a palm tree in its central opening. The building is used prominently in the opening credits of Miami Vice, which drew a peak of 22 million US viewers. Besides the credits, it is seen in the episodes “Hit List” and “Viking Bikers from Hell”.
A residents’ building with no public access. See the hole from the Brickell Avenue pavement.
Off the dock
Crockett’s alligator lived on his boat. Don Johnson remembers him slipping off the dock and the divers searching all day. Send them down.
Four ripples. Pick one and send a diver.
3251 S Miami Ave, Miami · $20 adults (reduced from $32 during restoration) · $10 ages 6–12 · under-6s free
The bayside villa the series kept coming back to. Open daily except Tuesdays, 9.30am to 4.30pm.
Plan a visit
Fair billing
The preservationists came first: the League was saving the district eight years before the pilot. The show brought the cameras, the colours and the crowds. The League credits both.
Nine credits, in order of arrival.
1001 Ocean Dr, Miami Beach
Barbara Baer Capitman and Leonard Horowitz founded the Miami Design Preservation League in 1976; the district’s buildings were preserved, renovated and repainted. The League credits the district’s lasting appeal to the preservationists and to Miami Vice together. The Welcome Center at 1001 Ocean Drive is open daily, 9am to 5pm; the League’s two-hour, mile-and-a-half walking tour starts here daily, $50 for adults.
Open daily, 9am to 5pm, except Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. The walking tours start here.
1001 Ocean Dr, Miami Beach · $50 adults (18–64) · $40 seniors · $35 ages 13–17 · under-13s free
Two hours and about a mile and a half on foot through the district the League fought to save, daily from the Art Deco Welcome Center. Not a Miami Vice tour, but it walks the Ocean Drive of the show.
Book the walk13 places to visit, from a Deco hotel on Ocean Drive to a villa on Biscayne Bay. All of them are open to look at; the Atlantis only from the street.
13 places you can visit, in South Beach, Downtown Miami and Brickell, and around the bay. South Beach is one walk; the rest is a short drive.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Look from the Ocean Drive pavement or the beach side of the street; the building is a working hotel and condominium.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Now a hotel and restaurant. The front steps are on Ocean Drive; the courtyard is for guests and diners.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working bar: go in.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Walk Española Way from Washington Avenue; the hotel wraps the corner.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Still a working post office: go in during opening hours and look up at the rotunda.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Open daily, 9am to 5pm, except Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. The walking tours start here.
1250 Ocean Dr, South Beach, Miami Beach
The City of Miami Beach film office says 1250 Ocean Drive is where the series introduces Sonny Crockett, in 1984.
Look from the Ocean Drive pavement or the beach side of the street; the building is a working hotel and condominium.
1116 Ocean Dr, South Beach, Miami Beach
In the pilot, “Brother’s Keeper”, the building was an Ocean Drive apartment block, home to Tubbs’ brother.
Now a hotel and restaurant. The front steps are on Ocean Drive; the courtyard is for guests and diners.
222 14th St, South Beach, Miami Beach
Miami’s visitor bureau says the bar appeared in Miami Vice several times, and that the cast and crew held the series’ wrap party there.
A working bar: go in.
1438 Washington Ave, at Española Way, Miami Beach
The City of Miami Beach says the dinner conversation between Crockett, Tubbs and Trini was filmed at 1438 Washington Avenue.
Walk Española Way from Washington Avenue; the hotel wraps the corner.
1300 Washington Ave, Miami Beach
The fan-event tour route lists the post office as the art museum at the start of “El Viejo”, in season three.
Still a working post office: go in during opening hours and look up at the rotunda.
1001 Ocean Dr, Miami Beach
Barbara Baer Capitman and Leonard Horowitz founded the Miami Design Preservation League in 1976; the district’s buildings were preserved, renovated and repainted.
Open daily, 9am to 5pm, except Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. The walking tours start here.
Stay
The Ocean Drive building that played Tubbs’ brother’s apartments, now suites and a restaurant.
1116 Ocean Dr, Miami Beach
Suites and Gianni’s restaurant in the Ocean Drive building that played Tubbs’ brother’s apartment block in the pilot, later Gianni Versace’s home. Check the site for rates.
Check suitesWalk it
The League’s Art Deco walk, Vizcaya’s house and gardens, or the marketplace’s tours.
1001 Ocean Dr, Miami Beach · $50 adults (18–64) · $40 seniors · $35 ages 13–17 · under-13s free
Two hours and about a mile and a half on foot through the district the League fought to save, daily from the Art Deco Welcome Center. Not a Miami Vice tour, but it walks the Ocean Drive of the show.
Book the walk3251 S Miami Ave, Miami · $20 adults (reduced from $32 during restoration) · $10 ages 6–12 · under-6s free
The bayside villa the series kept coming back to. Open daily except Tuesdays, 9.30am to 4.30pm.
Plan a visitMiami Beach
Live marketplace results for Miami Vice and Art Deco tours. Check each itinerary for Ocean Drive.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursWhat’s on
The League’s free festival takes over Ocean Drive in January. It is about the buildings, not the show.
Checking current event dates…
Take it home
A study of the series, Capitman’s Deco Delights and the 1985 soundtrack LP.
Steven Sanders
A short study of the series in Wayne State University Press’s TV Milestones books (2010).
Find the bookBarbara Baer Capitman
The League co-founder’s 1988 book of Miami Beach’s Deco buildings.
Find the bookVarious Artists · LP, 1985
The 1985 MCA soundtrack album, with Jan Hammer’s theme.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyDates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
13 of 13 places · 13 of 13 Moments
1250 Ocean Dr, South Beach, Miami Beach
The series introduces Sonny Crockett at 1250 Ocean Drive.
1116 Ocean Dr, South Beach, Miami Beach
An Ocean Drive apartment block plays home to Tubbs’ brother.
222 14th St, South Beach, Miami Beach
A South Beach bar seen several times, where the cast and crew held the wrap party.
1438 Washington Ave, at Española Way, Miami Beach
Crockett, Tubbs and Trini talk over dinner at 1438 Washington Avenue.
1300 Washington Ave, Miami Beach
The round post office plays an art museum.
1001 Ocean Dr, Miami Beach
Preservationists found the League in 1976; the show arrives in 1984 and borrows their colours.
2025 Brickell Ave, Brickell, Miami
The Atlantis and its sky hole in the opening credits.
73 W Flagler St, Downtown Miami
The courthouse in the credits and in many episodes.
600 Biscayne Blvd, Downtown Miami
The tower gives a hitman his position.
401 Biscayne Blvd, Downtown Miami
The Hard Rock Cafe at Bayside, in season five’s opener.
MacArthur Causeway, Biscayne Bay, Miami
Watson Island, in the pilot and through the run.
Crandon Blvd, Key Biscayne
A Bahamian Junkanoo parade in Crandon Park.
3251 S Miami Ave, Coconut Grove, Miami
Vizcaya’s villa, again and again.
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