Healthy Travel Guide: Miami

We toured Miami to find the best, most nutritious restaurants the city has to offer. Here's a unique guide to good eating and great exercise for hungry travelers.

How we did the math:
This series is meant as a fun guide to experiencing a city through the Cooking Light lens. All calculations are rough estimates and should be seen as a starting point for your own adventure.

Calorie burns were estimated using this calculator. The approximations are based on how vigorous the activity level is for a 150-pound woman—for example, a stroll around a farmers’ market was calculated at a lower burn than when we tell you to pick up the pace.

We estimated steps at an average of 2,000 steps per mile walked.

All calorie calculations for the meal selections we recommend were rough estimates based on inputting similar dishes and ingredients into this calculator.

Coconut Grove may be one of the oldest areas of Miami, but it has many young athletic residents. You'll find them with their bike helmets slung over chairs at Green Street Café. Ask for a bowl of the toasty granola with cranberries, cashews, and raisins with local honey.

Now you're ready to join the Grovites on the shores of David T. Kennedy Park, where a steady parade of runners, bikers, and strollers line the 29-acre waterfront.

After all that activity, stop for lunch at Harry’s Pizzeria, a recent addition by Miami's James Beard Award-winning chef Michael Schwartz. Savor the pie topped with caramelized onions, potato, cave-aged Gruyère, and arugula.

Burn: 398 calories
Eat: 968 calories

Take a scenic drive to South Beach, home to sherbet-colored Art Deco buildings and gorgeous beaches. It's time to view Miami from the perch of a paddleboard, which you can rent at Miami Beach Paddleboard. Plan at least one hour to tour the mansions and mangroves along the calm waters with the Miami skyline as your backdrop.

Once you've toweled off, walk two blocks south to CVI.CHE 105 for Peruvian seafood. Sample their classic ceviche: tender pieces of corvina fish marinated in lime juice with garlic, onion, cilantro, and hearty chunks of sweet potato.

Burn: 525 calories
Eat: 346 calories

View the city's artistic side in Wynwood. Stunning murals have transformed the warehouse district into a vibrant canvas of street art, galleries, and restaurants. Grab a quick bite at the neighborhood's kosher bakery, Zak the Baker (closed Saturdays). The roasted beet toast with a sprinkling of feta and za'atar spices is a stellar snack.

Burn: 41 calories
Eat: 508 calories

Head downtown to the Arts & Entertainment District. At Fooq's, try the Persian chicken, organic chicken thighs braised with local peaches and served in a golden sauce frangrant with turmeric, cinnamon, cardamom, dill, and tarragon. It's served over toasty brown rice spiked with tiny cubes of dried apricot.

Eat: 611 calories

When it opened its doors in the mid-1930s, Ball & Chain was the Little Havana club where jazz legends like Billie Holiday and Chet Baker crooned for socialites.

Shuttered for decades, this gem reopened recently with live music and Cuban cocktails reminiscent of the good old days. Order a drink, and then go ahead and have some tapas, too. You'll dance it off on the club's patio, which hosts a lively crowd into the wee hours. Nibble the crispy Mariquitas de Maduros, sweet plantains served with garlic sauce. They go best with a minty iced mojito. The drink is, like Miami, a classic.

Burn: 281 calories
Eat: 513 calories