Winging It: Miami
DO: Art Basel Miami, 5-8 DecemberYou probably already know loads about Miami. It’s where oddball R&B exile Craig David now resides, it hosts a giant musi
You probably already know loads about Miami. It’s where oddball R&B exile Craig David now resides, it hosts a giant music conference every spring, and the sun always shines. But it’s also host to Art Basel Miami Beach - winter’s most dazzling art conference, with ambitious artworks on the beaches and dotted among the Art Deco architecture. It’s a chance for this good-time Floridian city to show the world it does sophistication as well as vice. artbasel.com
When one goes to an art festival, one stays in an art hotel. The James is a boutique bolthole with a huge dollop of Art Deco style and, er, a banging nightclub in the basement. Like any self-respecting hotel, it’s right on supercool South Beach if you’d rather just slink off and work on your tan. jameshotels.com/miami
As you’d expect from the Sodom and Gomarrah of the US East Coast, Miami mixes a bloody good cocktail. South Beach is the place to snarf the best ones: head to recently-opened Broken Shaker, whose interior was inspired by a 60s Cuban pharmacy. Judging by the potency of some of the ‘tails, there’s medicinal stuff in them. thefreehand.com
