In the game
Halfway through the second trailer, a speedboat cuts across flat, pale water toward a cluster of wooden houses on pilings in the middle of the bay, no land in sight, painted in faded pastels with wide porches and tin roofs. It is a two-second shot and it landed instantly with anyone who knows Miami.
The match to Stiltsville is a clear one. No other group of houses stands in open water off the Florida coast, and the shapes in the trailer, especially the raised walkways and the big square houses, follow the surviving real ones. Rockstar has drawn on Miami’s oddities before, and this is the oddest.
Whether you can dock, go inside, or do anything there is not something the footage shows. Treat it as scenery until Rockstar says otherwise.
The real place
Stiltsville began in the 1930s, when a man known as Crawfish Eddie built a shack on the flats a mile south of Key Biscayne and sold bait, beer and chowder to passing boats. Through the 1940s and 1950s it grew into a loose colony of clubs and weekend houses, some famous for gambling and parties, all just far enough from shore to be hard to police. At its height there were 27 buildings. Hurricanes took most, Andrew in 1992 above all, and seven remain.
The houses are now inside Biscayne National Park, looked after by a trust with the park service. From the water they look exactly like the trailer: silvered wood, pale paint, porches, a horizon of nothing. The detail a GTA fan will recognize is that horizon; the houses really do stand alone, the skyline a faint line to the north.
Go there
You need a boat. The cleanest way is a guided trip with Biscayne National Park’s official partner, usually $60-120 per person for a half day that takes in Stiltsville and sometimes the Boca Chita lighthouse. Trips leave from the park’s visitor center at Convoy Point in Homestead, about 45 minutes south of downtown, and sometimes from marinas closer in. Book ahead; they sell out in winter.
Private boat and jet ski rentals from Crandon Marina on Key Biscayne can also get you there; it is a short run. You may not tie up or go aboard without the trust’s permission.
If you are not boating, drive to Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park at the tip of Key Biscayne. From the beach by the lighthouse, on a clear day, the houses are small shapes on the water to the south. Bring binoculars; it is a mile.
Eat on Key Biscayne on the way back; the village has cafes in the $15-30 range, and the Rusty Pelican on Virginia Key has the famous skyline view.
The honest warning: this is open water and weather rules it. Tours cancel, the shallows are unforgiving in a rental boat, and there is no shade out there. Check the forecast and go early.
Nearby
- Boats and jet skis on the bay: the same bay; combine a rental with a run south.
- The abandoned graffiti stadium: on Virginia Key, on the road to Key Biscayne.
- The port cranes on the skyline: the cranes are the northern edge of the same water.
Updated September 12, 2026. Spotted an error? Tell us.