The Ultimate Guide to Miami’s Best Clubs

For those who go to clubs for the music, your beach no-brainer is Do Not Sit on the Furniture. You’re not likely to see any A-list DJs or bottle rats here, but you will find underground house beats designed to keep people dancing until code enforcement makes you head home. The name is no joke, too—while you’ll see plenty of inviting couches and chairs scattered throughout the space, but sit for too long and you’ll be not-so-kindly cajoled to stand up and get down. Think of it like your parents’ “special” living room, but filled with way cooler people.

Hyde Beach cemented its place as a world-class day club years ago. But this year, it's stepped up its night game too, bringing in the likes of Sofi Tucker, Laidback Luke, Duke Dumont, and Thomas Gold for big-room nighttime soirees. It’s a big-club experience in a poolside setting—an altogether unusual combination that somehow works perfectly.
 

No, it’s not a Miami club in the models-and-bottles, untz-untz sense of the word. But in the tried and true local sense, it’s undeniably Miami. For Latin music and folks from all over Latin America, El Patio is your spot, where salsa, reggaeton, meringue, and more reggaeton rule the moonlit hours. Just understand that while El Patio is Latin, it’s not underground, so don’t expect a 2021 remake of the salsa scene from From Justin to Kelly.

Seeing big time DJs in small spaces is typically reserved for the offshoot parties during Miami Music Week. But hit Treehouse on the right weekend, and you may likely find superstar electronic artists spinning for adoring fans who show up for the music rather than the ‘Gram. The sounds are definitely trance-heavy, which might seem odd for an intimate space—but it makes sense once you spend an evening there, where DJs who typically do their thing far above the crowds get a little more dance floor exposure.

Sometimes Oasis is an outdoor food hall, sometimes it’s a cocktail bar, and sometimes it’s a live music venue. But it is very much also a club, where on any given weekend you can kick your Friday off with an up-and-coming Latin artist, catch a Saturday night headliner like Above & Beyond, then finish off the Sunday Funday with a hip-hop act like City Girls or Travis Scott. It's truly a space for all genres, with the added bonus of late-night eats served right onsite.

You know you’ve lived in Miami for a while when you start spelling out the number 11 with two l’s—or worse, numbers. Such is the culturally iconic status of this downtown mega club, that’s once again back to its never-closing ways. It combines all the bad decision making of an after-hours club with a breezy rooftop, big-name DJs, top hip-hop acts, and a stage with a pole that lowers into the ground, all resulting in Miamians' favorite place to do things they’d rather forget. Some might call it a strip club, some might call it a club with topless dancers, private shows in VIP rooms, and a tip rail. We just call it a place so great that time loses all meaning, and you inevitably end up leaving after the sun comes up.

The club who’s name actually is the Roman numeral for 54 has become about as close to the legendary studio as Miami’s seen since Chris Paciello was running Liquid. And since “getting a table at LIV” is basically Miami for “my weekend’s gonna be way cooler than yours,” the two-story megaclub in the Fontainebleau is definitely a top contender.

Any Miamian worth his bath salts has at least a dozen stories that start with, “And so then we decided to hit up the Space patio," none of which can be repeated here. The after-after-after-hours club is Miami’s greatest freak show and, depending on when you're there exactly, is the kind of spot everyone will swear is the greatest place in the history of civilization... and then say exactly the opposite the next morning.

Story seems to have finally broken the Opium curse on 2nd and Collins and opened up a club that lasts longer than a hockey season. And by closing in the former open-air space, and leaving plenty of room for dancing and VIP tables, Story’s become mentioned in the same breath as LIV for celeb spotting, tourist splurging, and (supposed) model mating calls.

In a city where every third restaurant is named after its address, it should come as no surprise that a place seemingly named by a kid has become one of the hottest clubs in town. The downstairs of the Edition is collectively known as “Basement,” and the multi-faceted parties thrown in the spaces down there are equally as self-explanatory. The ice rink is called “Skate,” the bowling alley is “Bowl,” and the open-spaced nightclub at the end that plays 20th-century dance hits? That’s Disco. But simple names do the trick, since this place is jam-packed with both tourists and locals, straight from Thursday-Sunday.