On a budget, skip Sunny Isles Beach — the spend outweighs the payoff.
Free beach
A wide, calm, less-crowded beach backed by a wall of gleaming new condo towers — nicknamed 'Little Moscow' for its Russian and Latin-American resort-strip character, with that crowd's restaurants and hotels. The fit is specific: gentle, shallow water and a quiet stretch of sand make it a relaxed family or resort-guest beach, distinctly different from Haulover's natural/locals feel or Bal Harbour's luxury-shopping draw. The catch is there's essentially nothing to do beyond the beach, and you need a car — it rewards stayers far more than day-trippers.