Homes of the Rich and Famous in Miami: Bayride Boat Tours Review

When I was younger and on a family vacation in Miami one of the highlights was a speedboat your of the Biscayne Bay and the Miami Skyline.  Fast forward 20 years, and I now have my own family; we wanted to do something similar but a bit more baby friendly. 

Instead of doing half day tours, we decided to go for the Miami Celebrity Homes and Millionaire Mansions Tour which was operated by Bayride Boat Tours which we saw advertised on the Get Your Guide website.  I shopped around in South Beach and decided to book at a local storefront which was the same tour but included transportation to and from Biscayne Bay where we would get on the boat.  The price was a bit more, but we didn’t need to take our own Uber, so when all was said and done, the price of $40 USD a person worked out around the same as booking online through Get Your Guide and an Uber there and back.  We wouldn’t have needed an Uber back anyways, after what happened, but that story will be in my next blog post.  Anyways, we decided to go for this tour because it would only take a couple of hours; so we could have the rest of the day to relax in South Beach… so we thought, and it was a decent price (especially for Miami standards).

The shuttle would pick us up two blocks from our hotel, right beside our favorite restaurant in Miami, Munchies Latin Café.  The shuttle was late, so while we waited, what did we do?  We ate more delicious Colombian and Venezuelan empanadas and some Arepa de Queso.   After waiting around and munching on some delicious Latin food, the shuttle van picked us up and we were driven to the bay.  When we arrived, they took our photo just outside the boat, which of course we had to pay for and we departed for our celebrity homes cruise.

The tour guide was good, she was lively and entertaining and was bilingual, speaking both English and Spanish.  The tour started out with some views of the bay and Miami’s skyline.  The views were nice but would have been much more breathtaking if it was sunny and not so cloudy. We then mostly cruised past celebrity homes and mansions.  The homes and views were cool and seeing the money that people have is awe inspiring.  Some of the standout homes were Floyd Mayweather, Shakira, Shaq, Jennifer Lopez and Enrique Iglesias and the home from Scarface to name a few.   I forget all the homes we saw but they were magnificent.  The homes are spread throughout a few islands which we cruised past, including Star Island, which is actually man made.  The creativity and luxury of the homes is out of this world, and to top it off, some of the yachts parked out front or cruising around Miami are insane.

The tour was fun, and the views were cool.  To top things off, on the millionaire mansions cruise, there was a bar with, how fitting, overpriced drinks.  It was fun to sip on a beer and an overpriced cocktail while living vicariously looking at a bunch of millionaires mansion on the Miami waters.

Now the tour was good, it was fun and worth the money, but you need to be careful of the scam that is run in parallel on the boat and in compliance with Bayride Boat Tours.  When they offer out vouchers for a draw for a free vacation… be careful.  To find out more about this and how to beat the scam, tune in for my next blog.