While the party rages on upstairs at Space, Floyd, the separate downstairs lounge, carries on like a chic Prohibition-era speakeasy. On weeknights, the 150-capacity venue in the former Libertine space hosts the occasional jazz band beneath its art deco chandeliers. During the weekend, it’s an intimate nightclub where DJs like Ben UFO and The Blessed Madonna spin forward-thinking electronic music for those who prefer classic cocktails to vodka Red Bulls.

The futurist beachside amphitheater first opened in 1961, designed by MiMo (Miami modern) architect Norman Giller as a place for roller-skating and ballroom dancing. The historic North Beach site was renovated in 2009, including a serious sound system upgrade. Today the beloved bandshell’s expertly curated programming has the scope to take in Latin stars like Cuco, new age legends like Laraaji, and live electronic music from Floating Points and Cut Copy, all within view of the water.

The low-key dance club, hidden in plain sight on an unassuming corner of the Little Haiti neighborhood, feels worlds away from the excesses of Miami’s bottle service circuit. Word of the welcoming (if mysterious) underground space has spread among the city’s ravers, beach goths, and fellow denizens of the night, who come for hard techno, darkwave, and industrial sets that usually last ’til 5 a.m. It’s also one of the city’s rare 18-and-up venues.

Make it past the picky door folks at this famously swanky club inside the Fontainebleau Miami Beach hotel and you’ll convince your TikTok feed that you’re a baller. Since opening in 2008, LIV has epitomized balls-to-the-wall Miami megaclub hedonism, where celebs rack up college tuition numbers on champagne and lasers flash along to pounding beats, which come courtesy of EDM A-listers (Tiësto, Zedd) or Floridian rap royalty (Rick Ross, DJ Khaled).

A night at Space is a rite of passage for dance-music heads worldwide. Since opening in 2000, the megaclub has become famous for its herculean raves, which occasionally run into the next afternoon on the upstairs terrace. The ceiling’s clear, so you can watch the sunrise while you dance to marathon sets from the biggest names in house and techno—Peggy Gou, Disclosure, and Carl Cox, to name a few.

The mother of all South Beach gay clubs, Twist has kept the party going since 1993, a feat that’s practically unheard of in a city with this much nightlife turnover. Down the road from the diner where Will Smith shot “Miami,” the sprawling club blasts old-school house and Latin bangers between its three dance floors, where you’ll get down with go-go dancers, drag queens, and perma-shirtless bartenders.

This South Beach spot is less “models and bottles,” more “Burning Man on the beach.” Opened in 2013 by Megan and Behrouz Nazari, veterans of the West Coast house scene, the 150-capacity club stays packed, dark, and bedazzled, with golden-cassette-lined walls, a shark-shaped disco ball, and couches you won’t be needing. Expect trippy house and techno from a mix of newcomers and big names, among them Richie Hawtin, Felix da Housecat, and DJ Behrouz himself.

The Japanese-style listening lounge, which opened in Wynwood in 2021, is the first of its kind in Miami: a dimly lit, 50-seat audiophile’s dream, with a custom analog sound system that puts pounding club speakers to shame and a selection of 10,000 vinyl records played by resident and guest DJs. The records come from the personal collection of veteran DJ Rich Medina, Dante’s music director and master of ceremonies, who occasionally hops on the mic to contextualize a favorite track.

Local lore has it that this downtown basement space once housed Al Capone’s bootlegging operations during Prohibition. As of spring 2023, it’s the latest incarnation of Miami’s sound room trend, with a top-notch speaker system, an unobtrusive DJ booth, and the mood-lit vibe of a ’70s disco parlor. Programming caters to cool kids with old souls, with an emphasis on soulful house and disco: recent guest DJs include James Murphy, Eli Escobar, and Jellybean Benitez.

The beloved tropical dive opened in 2012 in Wynwood, Miami’s arts district, just before the area took off as a nightlife destination. Today its graffiti-scrawled stage is a go-to for touring indie and punk bands and rough-edged electronic music. (Recent headliners include Black Midi, Soccer Mommy, and Machine Girl.) With mismatched furniture, bocce ball courts, late-night pizza slices, and a giant outdoor tiki bar, it’s basically a hipster Margaritaville.