I was a recent college graduate when I produced my first front page newspaper story—a travel piece on Acapulco for the travel section of the Baltimore Sun. I loved to travel and papers were quite open to freelance travel pieces in those days, not quite so focused as the papers later became on publishing staff writers' travel pieces as a perk so they could write their vacation off. In the many years since that first travel piece, my wanderlust has greatly subsided. But I haven't lost interest in seeing new places, and I apparently I haven't stopped reviewing and categorizing trips afterwards. Spring break this year found my college-age son spending a few days in South Beach, and he was having so much fun, I didn't like missing out. My husband and I had been trying to slip away for some warm weather all winter. So when we finally got down to it, I said, how about South Beach?

I had been to Miami in fourth grade. My memory is I convinced my parents to make that part of a Florida car trip because I was already in a lather to see the Art Deco hotels. And as a newlywed, I spent one or two nights there in a hotel on the bay several years ago on a business trip of my husband's. But I had never experienced this current South Beach, the one that makes this small strip of Florida coast an international hot spot.

Reader Alert: More accurately, this article would be entitled what to like and not like about "Hidden South Beach," because as middle-aged parents, my husband and I did not even get a glimpse of the night life that attracts people far and wide to this place. But it was, in fact, our penchant to be operating outside the nightclub schedule that made this trip especially pleasant.

Things to Like About South Beach

1. Europe at home. South Beach has the Riviera atmosphere of a Mediterranean coastal resort, yet it is right here in the good old U. S of A. Come to South Beach to find the exoticism of people from all over the world, different languages, different cultures, high-end shopping and glamorous night clubs, and the action on Ocean Drive, a beach front promenade and outdoor market on one side, outdoor restaurants and cafes lining the other side. Yet you, an American, speak the dominant language, and the dominant currency is your own, the one you carry and understand!

2. Getting there. Direct, short and relatively inexpensive flights from the Northeast to a beach that's pretty close to Caribbean in nature, wide with pleasant light sand and clear blue water that is warm and delightful to swim in.

3. Maximum exposure. For those who want more of a tan, or more of a view, topless is perfectly acceptable, as are thongs.

4. Dinner at dinner time! My favorite—if you want to eat dinner at 6:30, 7:00, 7:30, no waiting!! People on the nightlife schedule don't even think about eating until about 8:30. So if you eat at a traditional American dinner time, you browse restaurants, or arrive with no reservation, and get seated as soon as you chose.

Things Not to Like About South Beach

1. Prices. Flights can be reasonable, but once you get there, nothing much else is. Expect to pay a good 25-40% more anyhow for just about any meal you decide on. A 15% percent tip was included every place we ate (or ordered cheesecake to go), and yet you can find staff who hover as if expecting more...or is it to take advantage of the tourist who hasn't figured out a decent tip is already on there?

2. Safety. We didn't roam that far afield from our southern end of the beach location, the quieter area, and were back in our hotel early every night, this wasn't an issue for us. But one doesn't need to be an investigative reporter to notice the locked gates and grills on most of the buildings, or to hear that there are areas that aren't terribly safe.

3. Miami Airport. My husband was on top of this one; apparently a lot of people do not like flying into Miami Airport because it is old? Congested? Anyhow, he booked us into Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood which is a small, relatively new, pleasant airport. Costs a little more to get transportation to South Beach, but by all accounts, this switch is worth it.

4. Public nuisance. My least favorite—legal smoking!!! The first morning there, I was sitting at News Cafe, a pleasant eatery known for an assortment of available newspapers, waiting for the meal. A little foggy-headed as this was the first day of a much-needed vacation, I was looking out over the beach and enjoying the warm temperature of the air, when I inhaled a breath that brought in as much smoke as sticking a lit cigarette into my own mouth. I processed this slowly in shock, as my head ached and my stomach turned. In my America, this could not be! But smoking appears to be legal and common in South Beach, and as I discovered, the couple, not American, at the table very close behind me, had both just lit up cigarettes and the wind stream was perfect to give me FIRST HAND second-hand smoke. This juxtaposition didn't happen again, but after this first surprise, I was more aware and kept myself clear of the many people packing packs of cigarettes.

Now we're back in our New England spring, a season that comes in fits and starts, and slowly, with South Beach just a memory. But a pleasant one, and South Beach is now on our approved destination list, a trip we would both repeat.