Tips for visiting
Art Basel Miami Beach
and Miami Art Week
Dec 1 - 7, 2025
Your guide
to the world's biggest display
of contemporary art
HotelsTransportation
MondayTuesdayWednesdayThursdayFridaySaturdaySunday
Special exhibits are scattered throughout the city during Miami Art Week. This photo is from a past exhibit by Gagosian and Jeffrey Deitch.
Miami Art Week showcases the largest display of contemporary art you'll find in the world. In six short days you'll be able to see work from more than 700 of the world's best art galleries. This guide will help you maximize your trip.
The two biggest art fairs are Art Basel Miami Beach and Art Miami/Context. Those two account for way more than half of the total galleries represented. Plan to spend more than four hours at each.
Smaller fairs (Untitled, Scope, NADA, Red Dot/Spectrum and Aqua) can be seen in about an hour. Pinta and Ink can be seen in half an hour or so.
This year's guide will help you navigate traffic, hotels, and find your best oportunities each day.
2025 highlights
Some fairs require tickets to be purchased in advance. The one where this matters the most is Art Basel Miami Beach. You'll want to get a ticket for as early as possible in the day you want to attend. If you don't, you won't have enough time to see the whole fair. ABMB offers timed tickets at each of its entrances, so if a particular entrance doesn't have any more early tickets, you can try a different entrance.
If walking is difficult for you, DO NOT try to save with a senior or other discounted ticket at Art Basel. You'll be forced to walk a long ways to stand in long line to validate your identity. They may also want you to give them a copy of your driver's license. A few years years ago the parent company was hacked and customers' data was stolen by cyber criminals, so I wouldn't recommend giving them a copy of your driver's license just to save a few dollars on admission.
An Oscar Murillo painting at the Rubell Family Collection, 2012.
Traffic. For the most part, traffic is bad on Wednesday and gets worse every day until Sunday. If you take your own car, you'll also have trouble with parking. Take Lyft, a limo, a shuttle, a city bus - anything so you can read or talk while you're traveling from one area to another. Plan on an hour to get from Miami Beach to downtown Miami, with most of that time spent in gridlock close to the art venues. (See our transportation guide below.)
Planning ahead. Get your walking shoes ready! In three or four days (from noon to 9 p.m.) you can see most of the art fairs and the private collections you don't want to miss (Marguilles, Rubell and Espacio 23). If you have five days you can add most of the Miami art museums and some of the main art galleries.
If you don't have that long, don't let the size of Miami Art Week put you off. Start somewhere and see as much as you can.
David Rodriguez, Pausa (Hiatus), at Art Miami
Plan to spend $20 to $80 for admission to most venues. The two most expensive (Art Miami/Context and Art Basel Miami Beach) are the best value. Most art fairs have discounts for students and seniors if you ask. Many fairs require tickets to be purchased in advance.
IMPORTANT: Pick one location and see as much as you can before moving to another neighborhood. If you don't, you'll be stuck in traffic, wondering why you rejected this advice.
Expect a few things to not work out. In past years a smaller art fair was cancelled the day it was scheduled to open. Another fair closed early. A third - one of the biggest - had no electricity for hours at a time. (No lights for the paintings, no air conditioning for the guests.) This year you're bound to encounter some unexpected problems as well. The payoff is that you'll also discover some great art.
You can jump to the information you're interested in by clicking the links - or just keep scrolling through all our great tips.
Banksy artwork at Art Miami in 2015.
TRANSPORTATION AND HOTELS. Still to come in this report: tips on transportation, hotels, and an unforgettable trip to Everglades National Park if you have an extra day.
Julia and Liz Nolan from Big Brother 17 at the 2015 VIP opening of Spectrum Art Fair, Miami
Hotels and rentals. The sooner you book a room, the more choice you'll have. I recommend you choose a location in South Beach, north downtown Miami or Wynwood to cut down on commute time. But watch the reviews and ratings before you book. Prices during Miami Art Week will not necessarily reflect quality.
If you need a cheap option, there aren't many this weekend. South Beach has a growing number of hostels where you share a room with up to eight other guests. It can be as rugged as it sounds. Mid Beach sometimes has rooms with better rates. And sometimes downtown Miami lets you get a room at a discount through Priceline or a similar website. But don't stray from South Beach, Wynwood or downtown Miami or you'll pay for it in transportation time.
Transportation. The main tip on transportation is to go to a location (like South Beach, Wynwood or downtown Miami) and stay there for as long as you can. The traffic jams will affect any transportation you try, whether your own car or a limo, shuttle, cab, or bus.
Car
After making it through the traffic jams, you'll have to find parking if you bring your own car. I prefer Uber or Lyft.
Cabs
Traffic will be clogged around the art fairs, so you may be tempted to walk a couple blocks so you can hail a cab somewhere else. It won't work. Empty cabs are difficult to find outside the main art areas during Miami Art Week. But you can schedule a ride with Uber or Lyft that skips the most congested blocks.
Lyft, Uber and limos
If you schedule a ride to pick you up a block or two away from the areas where traffic is clogged you will save quite a bit of time.
Lime, Bird and other scooter and bike companies
In 2021 bikes and scooters were easy to find; since then they have been rare. If you have their aps already loaded on your phone and you are adventurous, you might find a bike or scooter to help you make short hops around Wynwood and north of downtown. Clogged traffic won't matter on a bike or scooter, and they are much faster than walking. Rent the vehicle for a day if you plan to make more than three short trips.
Bus
If you arrive by air and plan to take a city bus often, stop at the bus shelter in the airport terminal area and get a multi-day pass. Passes are very hard to find once you leave the airport. Follow the purple signs for the MIA Mover and walk to the bus pass vending machines. It'll take about ten minutes.
One thing you need to know about the Miami bus system: You have to flag the bus like you would hail a cab. Otherwise they will drive right by, even if you are at the bus stop.
Use maps.google.com and click the public transit icon to find the best option for how to get to where you want to go. But don't expect the busses to arrive on time during Miami Art Week. They won't.
Street art in Wynwood.
If you have an extra day: If you have an extra day or if you just need a break from seeing so much art, there's nothing like Everglades National Park. But forget the bus tours.
You can see ten times more if you rent a car and drive to the park. You can be at the entrance in an hour and a half. Just inside the entrance, turn left at Royal Palm. The Anhinga Trail is a short, flat boardwalk. Within two minutes you'll be looking at birds so big you won't be able to miss them.
You won't see as many gators as you would in warmer months. But if you hear the reeds cracking, it's because something big is moving through them. Listen carefully and you may be able to spot a gator.
(When you rent your car, be sure to get insurance for the vehicle. There are vultures in the parking lot that like to eat the rubber around car doors.)
To make your trip really worthwhile, drive another 45 minutes to the Flamingo Visitor Center and rent a kayak for a couple hours. You'll be able to see more wonderful birds up close. If you're already in Miami, there's no reason to miss this great adventure.
If you need a break either before or after the event, Everglades National Park is only an hour and a half away. Rent a car and skip the bus tours, which don't go to the park itself. But get car insurance. The vultures like rubber on cars.
Other pages on art that you might be interested in:
Art Basel Switzerland
ArtPrize
New York Art Galleries
Venice Biennale