Aventura Mall is a huge mall north of Miami Beach. It has huge indoor courtyards and a European emporium style outdoor courtyard where you can window shop or relax at the cafes or restaurants. There is also a 24 screen movie theater.

Aventura Mall has large popular high-end anchor stores including Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, Burdines, JCPenney, Lord&Taylor, Sears, but has over 250 additional specialty shops that I tend to enjoy more. You can even get your car washed. They have a food court, plus several full-service restaurants (some are popular chain restaurants) in a very nice courtyard that have extended hours of operation.

Actually, my family is the real judge of the quality of shopping. I just enjoy staying cool and enjoying the art exhibits, architecture and fountains...and Aventura Mall is full of all of these things. Some the specialty shops are popular chains like FAO Schwarz, Gap, Crate and Barrel, Banana Republic, Restoration Hardware, and much, much more.

Aventura Mall is very friendly to the elderly or to those with disabilities. They have a shuttle that you can ride to the mall entrances from the parameter of the parking lot. Inside, they have these carts that shuttle people around (like you see in airports...and they make the same annoying beeping sound). The Mall caters to kids too...they have a playland for kids that took me forever to get our young daughter out of...good thing there was a Starbucks (coffee shop) nearby.

Aventura Mall is located at the northeast corner of Biscayne Boulevard (US 1) and 196th Street just a few miles north of Miami Beach across the causeway. To get there from Miami Beach take one of the causeways (there is no 196th Street causeway, so take 192nd Street causeway or one further south), and turn right to go north on US-1 (which is also called Biscayne Boulevard), and Aventura Mall will be on the right. They are open 10am to 9:30pm Monday through Saturday, and 12pm-8pm on Sunday.