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attraction · Miami
The Ticketed Courtyard Is Good. The Free Twenty Blocks Around It Are the Reason to Come
Review of Wynwood Walls
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Share your experienceWynwood Walls is a ticketed outdoor courtyard of commissioned murals in the middle of Wynwood, open daily from 10:30am to 6:30pm. It is well curated, the work rotates, and it is a pleasant shaded hour. It is also the clearest example in Miami of a city charging admission to something that is also free fifty metres away. The twenty blocks surrounding it are covered in commissioned murals that cost nothing, and several of them are larger and better than what is inside the fence. NW 2nd Avenue is the spine. Walk it first, for an hour, then decide whether you still want the ticket. A lot of people will, because the courtyard is dense, sheltered and easy to photograph, and because it is the only part with a guarantee that the work is current. That is a legitimate thing to pay for. Paying for it without knowing the alternative exists is not. Wynwood itself is the answer to a question most first time visitors do not know to ask, which is where Miami nightlife is enjoyable rather than exclusive. The bars and breweries here have no door policy worth the name and no bottle minimums, which is the opposite of South Beach. Going in the late afternoon for the murals and staying into the evening is the way to do it. Go on a weekday if you can. Weekend afternoons are shoulder to shoulder, and the murals do not improve with a crowd in front of them. Shade is scarce, water is not sold everywhere, and this is a walking neighbourhood in a city with a summer.
What was great
Dense, rotating, well curated work in a sheltered courtyard. The surrounding neighbourhood is free and in places better. Wynwood's bars and breweries are the most approachable nightlife in the city, and the murals and the evening join up naturally.
What nearly ruined the trip
You are paying for something that continues free on the other side of the fence, and nothing tells you that. Weekend afternoons are crowded enough to spoil the photographs. Very little shade, and Wynwood in August is a hard walk.
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