Stay near South Beach & the club district
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Every March, Ultra Music Festival pulls roughly 165,000 people over three days to Bayfront Park, the centre of gravity for Miami Music Week. The rest of the year South Beach carries the weight: beachfront mega-clubs, Latin heat, rooftop lounges and a 24-hour party culture that is one of the most commercially powerful in North America. Time your trip to Music Week and the whole city becomes the venue.
The party scene
LIV at the Fontainebleau and E11EVEN (open 24 hours) are the heavyweight clubs; Ocean Drive and Collins Avenue are the South Beach strip; Wynwood is the cooler, warehouse-bar alternative. Time a trip to Miami Music Week in March and the whole city becomes the venue.
When to go
The peak is the dry, warm season November - April, crowned by Ultra and Miami Music Week in late March. Summer is hot, humid and hurricane-adjacent - cheaper, quieter, still going indoors.
■ Peak season ▣ Shoulder □ Off-season
Getting there & things to do
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Stay near Copacabana & Lapa
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Rio Carnival draws on the order of 5 million people - the largest party on Earth - but the city doesn't switch off the rest of the year. Lapa's street parties run every weekend, the beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema host their own scenes, and the Sambadrome turns the parade itself into a ticketed all-nighter.
The party scene
Lapa is the year-round engine - open-air bars, samba and funk under the arches every weekend. Carnival (February/March) is the main event, when the blocos take the streets and the Sambadrome runs all night; New Year on Copacabana beach is the other giant date.
When to go
Carnival (Feb/Mar) and New Year (the Reveillon on Copacabana) are the twin peaks. Rio's summer (Dec - Mar) is hot, beach-driven and the party high season; the southern winter is milder and quieter.
■ Peak season ▣ Shoulder □ Off-season
Getting there & things to do
Affiliate disclosure: accommodation and booking links on this page are affiliate links, rewritten via Stay22. If you book through them we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Statistics shown cite their original source.