Miami. Four private airfields, three causeways, and a car that knows which one to take.

Miami-Opa locka Executive sits about thirteen miles north of downtown and carries most of South Florida's private traffic. Its runway is long enough for effectively the whole business fleet including VIP airliners, the tower works around the clock, and it has a cluster of private terminals rather than one, so an aircraft can usually be handled even in a busy week. From there it is roughly half an hour to South Beach or Brickell in normal conditions, and considerably more when the causeways are loaded. See Opa-locka and the Miami private terminals.

Miami International handles private arrivals too and is the right choice when the trip continues on a scheduled long haul, but it is not quicker for most addresses. Fort Lauderdale Executive is the field to use for Las Olas, the boatyards and anything at Port Everglades, and Palm Beach serves the whole northern stretch from Boca Raton upwards. If the trip involves a yacht, tell us which marina before we choose the airport: it often changes the answer.

Miami Beach is an island, and there are only three ways onto it from the mainland. The MacArthur Causeway carries the main flow from downtown and is the one that suffers from roadworks and cruise ship days at the port. The Venetian is the quiet, slow alternative on a chain of small islands, with a drawbridge that opens on a schedule and is sometimes locked down during major events. The Julia Tuttle runs further north and is usually the best bet for mid beach and Bal Harbour. A driver who only knows one of them will take you the wrong way at exactly the wrong moment.

On the mainland, the pattern is the opposite of most cities: the peaks are long rather than sharp, the expressways are tolled, and afternoon rain in the summer months can take an hour off your day without warning. We build that into the plan rather than discovering it. If a yacht is involved, the useful detail for us is the marina and the gate, because crew access and guest access are frequently not the same entrance.

Miami's season runs roughly from late November to April, and within it there are weeks that behave differently from the rest. Art Basel Miami Beach in early December is the biggest: the hotels, the aircraft parking, the good cars and the causeways all reach capacity at once, and the people who travel well have booked months rather than weeks ahead. The Miami Grand Prix puts a Formula One weekend at Hard Rock Stadium out in Miami Gardens, eighteen miles north of South Beach, which is a very different set of roads. The autumn Fort Lauderdale boat show and the spring show at Palm Beach fill the coast road for days either side.

Summer is quieter, hotter and wetter, and it is the easiest time to move around the city. Hurricane season runs through the late summer and autumn, and while it rarely changes a specific trip, it is a reason to keep an alternative field and a flexible departure in the plan rather than a fixed one.