007 Travel story: Florida (USA) 2019: Welcome to Miami Beach

007 Travel story: Florida (USA) 2019: Welcome to Miami Beach

April 29, 2020 0 By 007 Travelers

007 Travelers on the road again, searching for 007 filming locations of “Goldfinger” (1964) in Miami, “Licence to Kill” (1989) in Key West, “Moonraker” (1979) in Port St. Lucie and Bond book locations of “Goldfinger (1959), “Licence to Kill” (1989), “Nobody Lives Forever” (1986) and “The Moneypenny Diaries: Guardian Angel” (2005).

With our ESTA documents approved, we started our trip from Helsinki Airport on 4th of July 2019.

Traveling period: 4th July – 16th of July 2019

Airline: Lufthansa

Route: Helsinki – Frankfurt – Miami

Duration: Helsinki – Frankfurt 2h 40 min, Frankfurt – Miami 10h 5 min, total flight time 12h 45 mins.

Price: 4066 EUR (2 adults and 1 child, 12 y, that means 3 adults according to Lufthansa)

4-5 July 2019:

4 July 2019:

We started our journey from Helsinki and our first flight was to Frankfurt, (officially Frankfurt am Main), Germany. In Frankfurt we had three hours of waiting time before our second flight took off. Destination Miami and flight time 10 hours… But time flew, and so did Lufthansa and its services were really nice. Movies, wine, food and some sleep and almost before we noticed we were in the USA.

After landing at Miami International Airport we found our ride: the airport shuttle service which was a free transportation to our hotel. Complimentary airport shuttle bus runs automatically every 30 minutes starting at 5am until 12:30am. Miami Airport is also a Bond book location from “Goldfinger“, and is also in film “Casino Royale” (2006), even though airport scenes were filmed at the Prague Airport in Czech Republic, but we will get back to Miami Airport as well as Frankfurt Airport in Germany on our last day of this trip, so stay tuned for those.

If you would like to read our 007 Travel story of Czech Republic you can do it here

It was a long day, but we were really happy to be in the United States again. This was the fourth of July and the whole country celebrated the Independence day.

Accommodation: Hotel Red Roof Inn PLUS + Miami Airport (3401 Northwest Le Jeune Rd.)

Room type: Double room with 2 double beds.

Price: 81 EUR (92,08 USD) via Booking.com

Includes: Free Wi-Fi. Continental breakfast and outdoor swimming pool as well as a complimentary airport shuttle to and from the airport every 30 minutes (offered daily 5AM–12:30AM) as well as a one-way shuttle to the Port of Miami.

We got our room, which was number 216 on the second floor, and the air-conditioning was really good.

Our room at Hotel Red Roof Inn PLUS + Miami Airport

We unpacked our luggage and headed to a nice pool, where you can watch airplanes take off from Miami International. This was going to be a wonderful vacation and we were really waiting for the coming days!

5 July 2019:

Breakfast cereal

After the breakfast our first Bond location was quite near the Miami airport. We asked our taxi driver to drive us the following address: 3338 NW North River Drive. There in “Goldfinger” (1964) Oddjob (Harold Sakata) crashed Lincoln Continental car and Mr. Solo’s (Martin Benson) body in this “Atlantic Iron & Metal Company”‘s yard.

What has changed the most is the colour of the brick wall. It was black and white in 1964, but is now more colourful being yellow. The railroad track is still there same place as before!

Looking for Mr. Solo…
Railroad tracks are still where they used to be
Photo © EON, United Artists, Danjaq, LLC
Photo © EON, United Artists, Danjaq, LLC
Neighborhood where “Atlantic Iron & Metal Company” is

After this it was time for Miami Beach, where our next day’s hotel was located.

Our nice Cuban taxi driver Elisa drove us to our Miami Beach Hotel: The Hotel of South Beach, which is located at 801 Collins Avenue. It was just a block away from the famous Ocean Drive, where we saw a plenty of beautiful cars.

Picture from “Goldfinger” (1964)
Photo © EON, United Artists, Danjaq, LLC

Accomodation: The Hotel of South Beach

Room Type: City deluxe

Price: 606,51 USD / 3 nights via Booking.com. Includes: Free Wi-Fi

A view from our hotel room window
Hotel’s lobby

Our hotel room was not ready yet when we arrived, but the staff of the hotel was very friendly and gave us some tips what we could do during the afternoon.

We had our plans already made and we headed to a bus stop just one block away, where we were able to hop on to Hop-On, Hop-Off bus (Big Bus Tour) and we toured around the red line, which took us towards northern part of Miami Beach and then to Miami Downtown side. The day was beautiful in Miami Beach side, but we got some rain showers when entering Miami Downtown.

We hopped off at the end of the line at Bayfront Park and picked up our tour tickets.

Now we needed some refreshments and we found Hard Rock Cafe Miami at Biscayne Boulevard (Bayside Marketplace), so we enjoyed some soft drinks and milkshakes in the bar.

Then we took the “Millionaire’s Row Boat Cruise” tour, which was also very relaxing, because the day was getting really hot.

The boat of Carmen Electra and the house of latino pop star Ricky Martin
The famous gangster Al Capone used to live here
The exterior of Al Capone’s Cabana pool. It is comprised of three buildings: a 3,700-square-foot villa, a two-bedroom gatehouse and a waterfront cabana set against a 100-foot private beach

This house belongs to Will Smith
The former home of basketball star Shaquille O´Neal

Phillip Frost (“Mr. Viagra”) owns the biggest mansion in Miami’s Millionaires’ Row.
The house of Gloria Estefan

In “Thunderball” (1965) after Bond (Sean Connery) is rescued by Felix Leiter (Rik Van Nutter), 007 tells Felix “Warn them, the target is Miami”, meaning Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Anthony Dawson) with his men are going to detonate the atomic bomb in Miami. Subsequent shot when men with parachutes are jumping out of airplanes are shot in Biscayne Bay area and Miami can be seen in the background.

Miami Skyline
Shot from “Thunderball” (1965)
Photo © EON, United Artists, Danjaq, LLC

Now it was time get back to the hotel, have a dinner at the hotel’s restaurant and visit hotel’s pool and relax after a hot day.

Next day we will visit, for example, the legendary Bond hotel Fontainebleau Miami Beach Hotel and some Bond book related locations. You can move to next day here

See more 007 TRAVEL STORIES here