In the game
Several shots in the second trailer put a row of tall, thin cranes on the horizon behind the water and the towers. Together they say Vice City has a working port on its bayfront, right up against downtown, which is exactly how Miami is built.
Fans have matched the cranes to PortMiami’s gantry cranes, which stand on the port’s south side and appear in every wide view of the city from the beach. The match is on placement and silhouette: big container cranes between the downtown skyline and the ocean. We call it likely rather than strong because a container port looks like a container port, and the footage does not show anything that only PortMiami has. The port is a setting; what you do there is not something the trailer tells you.
The real place
PortMiami sits on Dodge Island, a man-made island between downtown and Miami Beach, reached by a bridge from Biscayne Boulevard and, since 2014, by a tunnel from Watson Island. It calls itself the cruise capital of the world and has the passenger numbers to back it, with terminals for Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Norwegian, MSC and Virgin along the north side. The south side is a container terminal with a line of gantry cranes tall enough to work the biggest ships afloat.
You cannot wander it. Unless you are sailing, the port is behind fences and security. But it is designed to be looked at from outside, and the outside views are good. The detail a GTA fan will recognize is the cranes lined up on the skyline with the bay in front, especially at dusk when they are lit.
Go there
Go to South Pointe Park, at the southern tip of Miami Beach. It is a free public park with a pier, a lawn and a promenade along Government Cut, the shipping channel. Every ship leaving the port passes within a few hundred feet of you, close enough to see faces on the balconies. Cruise departures cluster on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, usually between about 3 and 6 pm, so a weekend late afternoon is the show; check the day’s sailing schedule.
The bay cruises from Bayside Marketplace run along the terminals and under the cranes, which is the closest you will get to the working side. The MacArthur Causeway gives you the cranes and ships on your right the whole way across from downtown.
Eat at the south end of South Beach. Joe’s Stone Crab is two blocks from the park, and there are cafes along South Pointe Drive in the $20-40 range.
The honest warning: parking at South Pointe is limited and expensive on weekends, and the park fills for every big departure. Walk from Ocean Drive or come by the free South Beach trolley. And do not fly a drone near the port; it is a restricted area.
Nearby
- Vice Beach and its lifeguard towers: the beach starts at South Pointe Park.
- Bayside: the marketplace faces the port across the channel, and its boats pass the terminals.
- The causeway highway: the drive across gives you the cranes and cruise ships on your right.
- Boats and jet skis on the bay: the same water; stay clear of the shipping lane.
Updated September 12, 2026. Spotted an error? Tell us.