Miami Outdoor Activities

X-treme Rock Climbing offers a vertical maze of more than 14,000 square feet of climbing. USA Climbing–certified route setters mark basic paths for beginners, along with challenging roofs and overhangs for more experienced scalers. The routes change often, lending a layer of surprise to each return visit. Skilled instructors also teach students to master indoor and outdoor rock-climbing techniques, which they can use to blaze new paths at parks or reach top-shelf cereal boxes in grocery stores. In addition to climbing, X-treme Rock Climbing helps patrons achieve physical-fitness goals with yoga classes, a fitness center, and an onsite pro shop.

Ever since football became too rambunctious for the limited confines of mess halls, it has been performed in stadiums. During this year's Pro Bowl weekend, celebrate the only sport legally allowed in football stadiums with today's Groupon. For $7, you get a single-day entry to the South Florida FanFest at the Miami Beach Convention Center—tickets normally cost $15 at the door. The exhibition, a 200,000-square-foot sports-memorabilia and card show, is the largest of its kind in Florida and is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on January 29–31. There is no purchase limit, so pick up a few to attend all three days. Gift a few to your old high-school football teammates to relive the glory days of the Bash Brothers.

Even before you climb inside, the GoCar is clearly a car with a personality. The petite, three-wheeled two-seater has a hood that slightly resembles an eager-to-please smiley face, and an open top that seems custom-made for letting the breeze ruffle your hair. Then the real fun begins: built with the company's own software and a compassion for the voiceless robots of America, a talking GPS system guides two-seater GoCars through the city streets of San Francisco, San Diego, Miami, Barcelona, Madrid, and Lisbon with cheerful, info-rich narration. Second only to having a knowledgeable local jog alongside your minivan, tours zip along at drivers' own pace and accommodate as many pit stops as time allows.

Since 1986, Brian Lutz has taught a panoply of tennis players how to improve their game and savor the sport's social aspect. Over time, he honed his teaching techniques and eventually devised his own tennis curriculum. In 2003, that curriculum inspired him to launch TennisTip, a program where experienced instructors help adults and teens improve their tennis game through self-discovery and fundamental skills.

TennisTip instructors work to provide hands-off guidance and gentle inspiration, letting students discover their best game through strategic practice. Combined with tennis-specific cardio exercises and an emphasis on social bonding, the regimen seeks to form independent, effective, and affable players out of every student. Since first starting up in the Big Apple, TennisTip has expanded to a second location, where pros instill students with courtside skills amid the warm Miami sun and attentive pelican ball boys.

The Marlins take the field at Marlins Park: an eco-friendly, 37,000-seat facility equipped with a retractable roof, plexiglass fish tanks behind home plate, and a vibrant sculpture in left-center field that kicks into motion for Marlins home runs. Born in 1993, the Florida Marlins quickly established themselves as contenders in the National League, taking home World Series titles in 1997 and 2003. And today, after some light rebranding to go along with the new ballpark, the rechristened Miami Marlins aim to continue traditions new and old, expanding their list of Hall of Famers.

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In the 1950s, Bayside Marketplace’s Pier 5 was a hub of activity, bustling with fishermen, cooks, and gossiping locals. Nowadays, though, the pier is a hub for a more modern demographic: jet skiers. As the home base of Miami Jet Ski Rental, the pier hosts a fleet of 2009 Yamaha VX Deluxe jet skis and a team of CPR- and First Aid-certified staffers. Aboard their rental vessels, adventurers can zoom through Biscayne Bay or take to the Atlantic Ocean, catching glimpses of wildlife such as dolphins, manatees, and librarians.