Miami’s answer to Fort Lauderdale’s Sawgrass Mills, Dolphin packs the usual suspects you’d expect to find in an outlet mall—Ralph Lauren, Saks Off Fifth, Gap—in a space that’s considerably smaller and easier to navigate than most bargain hubs. There’s more to Dolphin Mall than shopping, including two movie theaters, a bowling alley, an arcade and a dozen restaurants. Plus, there’s free seasonal programming, like outdoor concerts in the summer and fake snow in the winter.
What do tourists like more than exploring South Beach, scarfing down Cuban sandwiches or basking on the best Miami beaches? Of course, it’s shopping in a Miami outlet mall. Vaguely lost-looking visitors shuffle through the perennially bottlenecked corridors of these bargain emporiums, loading up their empty suitcases with just about every sale item imaginable—from clothes to housewares to accessories. Occasionally, it’s locals who begrudgingly schlep across highways and massive parking lots and dodge swarms of sale shoppers all in the name of a good deal. Are outlet malls in Miami pleasant? If you can avoid going on a weekend, they can be. Will they save you loads of money? Always, so we visit them anyway.
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