Which area should we stay in on a visit to Miami?

We tend to prefer older, historic parts of cities, and somewhere not too touristy.

You should definitely make for Miami Beach, the eight-mile-long spit of land just across Biscayne Bay from Downtown. Tourists have been coming here since the 1940s, and you can’t avoid them, but they flock here for good reason —­ the beaches are outstanding and the buzz electric, especially in the two-square-mile section called South Beach.

There is plenty to explore in the South Beach region but most visitors will pick up car hire in Florida and venture further afield.

Miami Art Deco Buildings

The biggest collection of art-deco buildings in the world is here, too ­— about 1,000 of them ­— and it’s the USA’s fulcrum of glamour. There’s a huge range of hotels — from the mammoth Fontainebleau resort  fontainebleau.com; doubles from £248, B&B and the minimalist Delano delano-hotel.com; doubles from £304, room-only to smaller boutique properties such as the Shelborne Beach Resort shelborne.com; doubles from £165, room-only) and the Ocean Surf theoceansurf.com; doubles from £64, B&B).

For more inspiration, visit the excellent miamiboutiquehotels.com.

If you really do have an aversion to the beach, though, try the Design District, inland across the Julia Tuttle Causeway. It’s in the vicinity of edgy areas such as Little Haiti and Little Havana, but is a hip neighbourhood akin to New York’s Meatpacking District or London’s Shoreditch a few years back.

Go to miamidesigndistrict.net for hundreds of galleries and bars.