Miami just got a lot more interesting

The Jaguar pulls up to your corner in Wynwood. No one is behind the wheel. You get in, the door locks, and it merges onto I-95 without a word. This is not a pilot program or a waitlist experiment — it's just Tuesday in Miami now.

Waymo, Alphabet's fully autonomous ride-hailing service, opened to all Miami residents and visitors on April 15, no waitlist required. Download the app, request a ride, go. The service has been quietly building here since January, racking up roughly 100,000 rides before the full public launch. Now it's open to everyone, and the coverage area is serious: about 100 square miles of Miami-Dade, spanning Brickell, Downtown, Wynwood, Little Havana, Coral Gables, Coconut Grove, Miami Beach, and up to Bal Harbour.

The detail that sets Miami apart from every other Waymo city: highway access. Riders here can take Waymo onto I-95, the Dolphin Expressway, and the Palmetto — making it the first U.S. city where Waymo offers fully autonomous highway rides to the general public. Coral Gables to Brickell without a driver. Midtown to the Grove on the highway. It works.

Waymo isn't alone in eyeing South Florida — Amazon's Zoox is already moving toward testing here — but Waymo is operating right now, on your streets, at scale.

Six cities in America have this. Miami is one of them. The question isn't whether driverless is coming to South Florida. It's already here.

For a city that runs on networking and nightlife, it's a little surprising it took this long. Five Iron Golf opens its Florida flagship at The Plaza Coral Gables this week — 30,000 square feet across multiple levels, 12 Trackman simulators, 12 full-length bowling lanes, multiple bars, a chef-driven food program, and instructors on-site from the Jim McLean Golf School. It's the largest Five Iron location in the United States, and it's landing in a market where the hunger for exactly this kind of venue has been obvious for years.

The Coral Gables flagship is backed by a serious roster: Callaway Golf, Danny Meyer's Enlightened Hospitality Investments, and franchise operators who were named Franchisees of the Year by the International Franchise Association in 2024. The venue sits inside The Plaza at 3009 Ponce de Leon Boulevard, anchored by a Loews hotel and over 160,000 square feet of retail and dining. It's a location that works for a lunch session, an after-work happy hour that turns competitive, or a late-night that goes past midnight.

What makes this more than a simulator bar is the instruction component. Jim McLean–certified coaches are on-site, which means you can actually get better here, not just take photos in front of a screen. Women's and junior programming, Callaway custom fittings, and an indoor league — the largest in the world — round out the offering for people who want more than a one-time group outing.

The concept the founders describe is a place where serious golfers and total beginners can coexist without stepping on each other's toes — which is genuinely the harder design problem to solve, and the reason most sports-entertainment venues feel like they're built for one person and tolerated by everyone else.

Golf is already woven into Miami's professional culture. Five Iron is the first venue here that takes it seriously and makes it actually fun.

Five Iron Golf | 3009 Ponce de Leon Blvd., Coral Gables | Opening April 28

When a room full of strangers decides, simultaneously, to sing along to a ranchera ballad about heartbreak, something shifts. That's the premise behind Canta Corazón, the Mexican immersive saloon that opened in Wynwood in March at 250 NW 24th Street — and it works, because it's backed by something real.

The concept is rooted in the Fernández dynasty, one of the defining families in Mexican music. Alejandro Fernández Jr. is a partner here, and the lineage shows: the music runs from rancheras to pop to anything that makes a room feel like a shared experience rather than background noise. The hacienda-style space — terracotta walls, dramatic chandeliers, a central patio where mariachi musicians rise above the crowd — holds up to 234 guests. Women are greeted with white roses at the door. Around 9 PM, a masked luchador called El Santo hands out cowboy hats. Piñatas break. Shots arrive tucked inside cowboy boots.

It's not subtle, but subtlety isn't the point. The food is solid Northern Mexican — tacos, full plates, a serious tequila and mezcal program — but the meal is secondary to the room. This is the right call for a birthday, a bachelorette, or a Friday when you want to end the night singing with strangers. Open Thursday–Sunday, 4 PM–3 AM.

Canta Corazón | 250 NW 24th St., Wynwood | $$

Two days of psychedelic cumbia, experimental R&B, and Brazilian tropicália at the open-air Bandshell, right off the beach. The weekend peaks with Boogarins playing alongside Adrian Quesada of the Black Pumas — a collaboration built for a humid Miami dusk. Sudan Archives and Peruvian cumbia legends Los Mirlos round out a lineup that rewards people who actually pay attention to music. Ticket holders get access to the 73rd Street Beach Lounge between sets: chairs, umbrellas, ocean. Go Saturday for the full day; the Sunday set list is equally strong.

Bandshell BeachClub Saturday–Sunday, April 25–26 | 3 PM daily | Miami Beach Bandshell, 7275 Collins Ave., North Beach, Miami Beach | ~$131/day

The two biggest names in bachata finally on the same stage. Romeo Santos and Prince Royce released their joint album Better Late Than Never last November and spent months making Miami wait — this Saturday at Kaseya Center is the payoff. Expect the full album plus deep cuts from two of the most stacked catalogs in Latin music. If you've been in Miami for more than a week, you've heard both of them without realizing it. Seeing them together in a 19,600-seat room is going to hit differently. Get tickets now — 3,000 left as of this week.

Romeo Santos & Prince Royce — Mejor Tarde Que Nunca Tour Saturday, April 26 | 8 PM | Kaseya Center, 601 Biscayne Blvd., Downtown Miami | Tickets from $132 | ticketmaster.com

Broward County's best literary festival takes over the Ali Cultural Arts Center for a full day of author readings, spoken-word performances, and panels that actually have something to say. Headlining a fireside conversation is Richard Blanco — Obama's inaugural poet — alongside poet aja monet, who performed the night before at Broward County Main Library. Youth workshops and a storytelling stage round out the programming. It's free, it's grounded, and it's the kind of cultural event that makes Fort Lauderdale feel like a real city.

Our Voices: Festival of Words Saturday, April 25 | 9 AM–6 PM | Ali Cultural Arts Center, Fort Lauderdale | FREE