Jungle Island, Miami
Watson Island
Miami , Florida
33132
Tel: 305 400 7000
www.jungleisland.com
Concierge.com's insider take:
Jungle Island (formerly known as Parrot Jungle) used to be an oddball charmer far south of the city, an old rambling park full of squawking, bird-filled cages. Now it's a gleaming, multimillion-dollar family attraction on its own island between downtown and South Beach. The new aviary, home to more than 200 parrots and 3,000 exotic animals such as monkeys and reptiles, has various custom-built environments. The Manu exhibit, for example, mimics a Peruvian mountaintop and has indigenous birds, and the Serpentarium is a good place to see alligators up close (don't miss the albino one). The neighboring Ichimura Miami Japan Garden, also run by the Jungle Island team, is a calm oasis of stone lanterns and boulders, wrapped in a traffic noise-dampening concrete wall and topped by a large, genial Buddha.
Open daily 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.