Miami Airport to South Beach, Downtown and the Cruise Port: What Each Option Costs
The bus to South Beach costs 2.25 dollars. The taxi flat rates every guide quotes were abolished in 2022. Verified 2026 fares, the Intermodal Center transfer and the weekend catch.
Sammie O
The bus from Miami airport to South Beach costs 2.25 dollars and takes 25 minutes to Lincoln Road. A taxi runs on the meter with a 15 dollar minimum. The flat rates that every older guide quotes were abolished in July 2022 and have not come back. This page sets out what every option costs, checked against Miami International Airport, Miami-Dade County and the SFRTA in September 2026.
What each option costs
| Destination | Public transport | Taxi | Uber or Lyft |
|---|---|---|---|
| Downtown Miami | 2.25 dollars, Metrorail | About 40 dollars, metered | From about 25 dollars |
| Brickell | 2.25 dollars, Metrorail | Metered | Metered by app |
| South Beach | 2.25 dollars, Route 150 | Metered | About 34 dollars |
| PortMiami | 2.25 dollars, three legs | Metered, 15 dollar minimum | Metered by app |
The one fact that governs everything
No train, no bus and no rental car leaves from the terminal. They all leave from the Miami Intermodal Center at 3797 NW 21st Street, a separate complex reached only by the MIA Mover.
The Mover is free. It runs from the third level of the terminal, between the Dolphin and Flamingo garages, to the fourth level of the Rental Car Center, in about three to four minutes. The county built the Intermodal Center at a cost of just over 2 billion dollars precisely to move all of this off the terminal kerb.
Only taxis, Uber and Lyft, private cars and cruise line shuttles pick up at the terminal itself.
The Mover’s operating hours and frequency are not published by the airport or the county. The Rental Car Center’s own site says 24 hours and every few minutes. We could not corroborate that officially.
This transfer is why the tourism board quotes 45 minutes from the airport to downtown while the train itself takes 15. Both numbers are real. They measure different things.
Fares, and the increase that did not happen
Metrobus and Metrorail are 2.25 dollars. Metromover is free. A one day pass is 5.65 and a seven day pass is 29.25.
A rise to 2.75 was in the mayor’s proposed budget in August 2025. It was scrapped at the final budget vote that September. Fares stayed at 2.25.
Do not buy an EASY Card. It carries a 2 dollar purchase fee. Tap a contactless Visa, Mastercard or Amex, or a phone wallet, straight at the faregate or farebox. It costs the same 2.25, and after the third tap in a day the fare caps at 5.65 with unlimited rides after that. Tap in and out with the same device.
Metrorail to Downtown and Brickell
The Orange Line runs from the Intermodal Center into the city. Scheduled running times from the airport station are 4 minutes to Earlington Heights, 15 to Government Center, 17 to Brickell, 23 to Coconut Grove and 34 to Dadeland South. Those come from schedule data rather than a county publication, because the county does not publish station to station times.
The system runs from 5am to midnight, seven days a week.
Two things to watch.
First, the weekend. On Saturdays and Sundays there is no through Orange Line train from the airport to downtown. The airport service terminates at Earlington Heights and you change there to a Green Line train. That is the county’s own statement.
Second, the frequency figures disagree. The county says the weekend airport service runs every 15 minutes. The airport’s own site says every 30 minutes on weekdays and more often at weekends, which is the opposite way round from the county and from the schedule data. We would plan on 15 minutes and treat the airport page as unreliable here.
For the last mile into Brickell and the Omni district, Metromover is free and runs every 90 seconds at rush hour. It closes at 10pm, two hours before Metrorail, which severs the free connection for late arrivals.
South Beach by bus
There is no rail to Miami Beach and there never has been. Route 150, the Airport Flyer, and Route J are the only public transit links.
Route 150 costs 2.25 dollars, runs seven days a week and uses 40 foot buses fitted with luggage racks. It was slated for elimination in the 2023 network redesign, then kept with frequency cut from every 20 minutes to every 30.
Scheduled times eastbound are 25 minutes from the Airport Station to Washington Avenue and Lincoln Road, and 45 to 47 minutes to Washington Avenue and South Pointe Drive.
The timetable gives first and last departures from the Airport Station of 5:18am and 11:18pm on weekdays. The airport’s page says 6am to 11:40pm. Use the timetable.
Worth noticing in that timetable. The scheduled run to Lincoln Road is 25 minutes at 10:10am and 25 minutes at 4:38pm. The schedule is not padded for the peak. That is the strongest argument for the bus over a car on a weekday evening.
Taxis, and the flat rates that no longer exist
This is the most commonly wrong item in circulating Miami guides.
Miami-Dade County eliminated the airport taxi flat rate zones by resolution in July 2022, effective on the 19th of that month. The county’s own page states that the meter rate applies to all trips. The mayor’s rate memorandum of June 2025 confirms the elimination stands and proposes no reinstatement.
So there is no flat rate to Downtown, no flat rate to South Beach and no flat rate to Coral Gables.
| Charge | Amount |
|---|---|
| Flag drop, first sixth of a mile | 2.95 dollars |
| Each additional sixth of a mile, up to one mile | 85 cents |
| Each sixth of a mile after one mile | 55 cents |
| Waiting time | 40 cents a minute |
| Minimum fare from the airport or the port | 15.00 dollars |
| SUV or van | 30 percent above the meter |
There is no extra charge for luggage, additional passengers, car seats, service animals or wheelchair transport.
One inconsistency. The airport’s page adds a 2 dollar airport origination fee. The county’s taxi rates page does not list it. We could not establish its legal basis.
The tourism board puts a typical downtown taxi at around 40 dollars over 15 to 20 minutes. That is an estimate, not a tariff.
Uber and Lyft
Unlike most large US airports, Miami lets rideshare pick up at the kerb, on both levels. There is no remote lot and no Mover ride needed.
The airport’s own operating directive sets pickup on the Departure Level at doors 7 to 33, and on the Arrival Level in the bus loop between doors 1 and 23 and the public lane between doors 1 and 33. Drop off is anywhere on the Departure Level. The per trip fee is 2 dollars on pickup and nothing on drop off.
Uber publishes an average of 34 dollars for the airport to Miami Beach over 25 minutes and 12 miles. The tourism board says downtown starts at about 25. Neither is a fixed price.
The cruise port
PortMiami is at 1015 North America Way. Most cruise lines run their own shuttle from the airport, and pre-arranged cruise transport leaves from concourses D and J.
The public transport route is three legs and costs 2.25 dollars in total. MIA Mover to the Intermodal Center, Metrorail Orange Line to Government Center, Metromover to Freedom Tower, then the free Coral Way Trolley, which stops on both the north and south sides of the port. Metromover and the trolley are free, so the whole trip is one Metrorail fare.
The constraint is that 10pm Metromover closure. A late arrival loses this chain entirely.
By taxi the meter runs with the same 15 dollar minimum, in both directions.
Tri-Rail, and what it is not
Tri-Rail is a commuter railroad running north into Broward and Palm Beach counties. From the airport it goes away from Miami. It is not a city metro.
Fares are zonal, from 2.50 dollars for one zone to 8.75 for six. A weekend and holiday pass is 5 dollars for unlimited travel across all zones on the day of sale, which makes the zone question moot at weekends.
The exception is the Downtown Miami Link to MiamiCentral, running since January 2024. That does give a second rail route from the airport to downtown, but on a commuter timetable with hourly headways at weekends rather than a shuttle frequency.
We could not verify the zone number for individual stations. The zone map is published only as an image, so the airport to Fort Lauderdale fare is somewhere between 3.75 and 5.00 and we will not pick one.
If you are looking for Amtrak at the Intermodal Center, it is not there. Platforms were built, but Amtrak notified officials in December 2024 that it would not relocate, and it still uses Miami Station in Hialeah.
Flying into Fort Lauderdale instead
Broward County publishes taxi estimates of 72 dollars from Fort Lauderdale to Miami airport and 80 to South Beach. Those are the airport’s own estimates rather than a tariff.
The transit route is three legs. A free shuttle from the terminals to the Fort Lauderdale airport Tri-Rail station at Dania Beach, then Tri-Rail south to Miami Airport station or MiamiCentral, then the MIA Mover or Metrorail. Tri-Rail runs hourly at weekends, so plan around it.
Brightline also runs an airport connector shuttle at both airports, at 12 dollars a guest plus a 3 dollar fuel surcharge, from 8am to 7pm, picking up twice an hour.
The causeways
Three road crossings link mainland Miami to Miami Beach. The MacArthur Causeway, the Julia Tuttle Causeway and the Venetian Causeway, which is tolled and not used by airport traffic. Every taxi, Uber and Route 150 bus to South Beach uses one of them. There is no rail crossing and no alternative. That is the structural chokepoint.
One correction. Guides warning about Julia Tuttle construction are premature. The bridge rehabilitation project is still in design and construction is scheduled to start in June 2027. It is not affecting travel in 2026.
What we could not confirm
MIA Mover operating hours and frequency. No official source publishes them.
Whether the Orange Line runs every 15 or every 30 minutes on weekdays. The county and the airport contradict each other.
Tri-Rail zone numbers by station, so the exact airport to Fort Lauderdale fare.
The legal basis for the 2 dollar taxi airport origination fee, which appears on the airport page but not the county’s.
Rush hour road journey times. Neither the state transport department nor the county nor the airport publishes them. Every specific figure in circulation traces to blogs and car services rather than a measuring authority, so we will not print one.
Current construction status of the MacArthur Causeway. The state project page returned an error.
Sources
- Miami International Airport, public transportation
- Miami International Airport, taxis and ride apps
- Miami-Dade County, taxicab passenger information
- Miami-Dade County, Metrorail
- Miami-Dade County, Metromover
- Miami-Dade County, Route 150 timetable
- PortMiami, directions and transportation
- Broward County, Fort Lauderdale airport ground transportation
Sammie O publishes Germ Trips, a travel guide covering hotels, restaurants, airport transfers and chauffeur services. The guides aim for practical detail and a clear recommendation rather than an undifferentiated list. Where a town has no good option, the guides say so and point to the nearest one that does. Guides are AI drafted. A small number have been checked against official listings, and those say so on the page.
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