Strong match
Ocean Beach → Ocean Drive
Ocean Beach: the Art Deco strip
Rockstar's Ocean Beach is a clear match for Ocean Drive: pastel Art Deco hotels, neon at dusk and a park between the strip and the sand. Here is how to walk it.
Vice City is the part of Leonida that needs the least explaining. The name goes back to the first Grand Theft Auto in 1997, both trailers are full of it, and the real city behind it has never been in doubt: Miami and Miami Beach, from the Art Deco hotels of Ocean Drive across the causeways to the downtown skyline, the port cranes and the murals of Wynwood. More of the places on this site are here than in any other region, and the matches are the best on the map. Bayside is a name Rockstar has used itself; the lifeguard towers, the Venetian Causeway toll plaza and the Stiltsville houses out on the flats are clear matches to the frame.
For a traveler that makes it the easiest region to do. Fly into Miami, base yourself in South Beach or downtown, and most of these places are a short drive, a bike ride or a boat away from each other. The dry season from November to April is the comfortable time; summer is hot, wet and cheap. Give it three days: one on the beach side, one downtown and in the neighborhoods, and one on the water, which is where the game's Vice City looks most like the real thing. The three-day Vice City itinerary on the trips page strings them together in that order.
Places
Places in Vice City
Neon, Art Deco and the causeways between them.
Strong match
Vice Beach → South Beach lifeguard towers
Vice Beach and its lifeguard towers
The candy-colored lifeguard stands in the trailer are a clear match for the real ones on South Beach. Walk the sand from South Pointe to 15th Street and you pass a dozen.
Strong match
Downtown Vice City → Brickell and Downtown Miami
The downtown skyline: Brickell and beyond
The glass towers behind every Vice City shot are Brickell and Downtown Miami. Where to see the skyline for real, from a free elevated train to the causeway viewpoints.
Named by Rockstar
Bayside → Bayside Marketplace and the downtown bayfront
Bayside: the waterfront Rockstar named
Rockstar named Bayside as a Vice City district in the Extended Look. The real bayfront is Bayside Marketplace, Bayfront Park and the boat docks at the foot of the skyline.
Strong match
Stockyard → Wynwood Walls
Stockyard: the mural district in Wynwood
Rockstar named Stockyard as Vice City's mural district. The real thing is Wynwood, a former warehouse quarter painted wall to wall, with Wynwood Walls at its heart.
Strong match
Causeway toll plaza → Venetian Causeway
Venetian Causeway: tolls, walking and cycling
Plan a Venetian Causeway visit: SunPass and toll-by-plate costs, walking and cycling tips, official bridge updates, and the toll plaza matched to GTA VI's second trailer.
Strong match
Stilt houses off Vice City → Stiltsville
Stilt houses on the bay: Stiltsville
The pastel houses on stilts that a boat races past in the second trailer are a clear match for Stiltsville, seven surviving shacks in the shallows of Biscayne Bay.
Likely match
Derelict waterfront stadium → Miami Marine Stadium
The abandoned graffiti stadium on Virginia Key
A concert in a graffiti-covered concrete grandstand on the water: fans have matched the trailer scene to Miami Marine Stadium, a 1963 landmark empty since 1992.
Likely match
Island mansions → Star Island and Palm Island
The waterfront mansion pool party
The trailer's pool party at a white mansion on the water looks like the celebrity islands off the MacArthur Causeway. You cannot get in, but a boat tour gets you close.
Likely match
Vice City port → PortMiami
The port cranes on the skyline
The cranes on the horizon in the second trailer look like PortMiami's gantry cranes. You cannot walk the port, but South Pointe Park puts you next to the ships.
Likely match
Racetrack with flamingos → Hialeah Park
Flamingos at the racetrack: Hialeah Park
A flock of flamingos in front of a grand old building: fans matched the trailer's shot to Hialeah Park, the 1920s racetrack whose flamingo colony opened Miami Vice.
Likely match
Causeway highway → MacArthur Causeway (I-395)
The causeway highway: the MacArthur
The wide highway over the water with the skyline behind, seen in both trailers, looks like the MacArthur Causeway, Miami's six-lane link between downtown and South Beach.
Strong match
The bay → Biscayne Bay
Boats and jet skis on Biscayne Bay
Jet skis, rafted-up boats and parties on the water run through both trailers. Biscayne Bay is the real thing, and you can rent a jet ski or join a sandbar crowd yourself.
Likely match
Vice City nightlife → Downtown and South Beach nightclubs
Neon nightlife and the club circuit
Neon clubs, DJs and strip clubs run through the second trailer and the Extended Look. Miami's real circuit is South Beach, Mid-Beach and the downtown club blocks.
Possible inspiration
Cuban district → Calle Ocho, Little Havana
Vice City's Cuban quarter: Little Havana
GTA: Vice City had a Little Havana in 2002; nothing in the GTA VI footage confirms one yet. Miami's real Cuban quarter along Calle Ocho is worth the trip either way.
Possible inspiration
Downtown landmark tower → Freedom Tower
The pale tower downtown: Freedom Tower
Fans keep looking for the 1925 Freedom Tower among Vice City's glass; nothing official shows it yet. The real one stands across from Bayside and is the oldest thing on the skyline.
The map
Vice City on the map
Itineraries
