A week in Miami is not unlike watching an episode of, say, Access Hollywood with a little CNN thrown in for good measure. Miami: the city to which J-Lo fled when she and Ben Affleck were on the outs; where Tom Cruise took Katie Holmes to celebrate her never-ending 27th birthday; the place where the paparazzi camps out for days hoping to catch a glimpse of something or someone fabulous; the place where former President Bill Clinton kibitzes with the head of a top modeling agency at a St. Tropez-ish beach club; where Janet Reno throws a politically driven dance party at a South Beach nightclub. And that's just a small sampling of the surreal, Felliniesque world that exists way down here at the bottom of the map. Nothing in Miami is ever what it seems.

What used to be a relatively sleepy beach vacation destination has awakened from its humid slumber, upped its tempo, and finally earned its place in the Palm Pilots of cutting-edge jet-setters worldwide. But don't be fooled by the hipper-than-thou, celebrity-drenched playground known as South Beach. While the chic elite do, indeed, flock to Miami's coolest enclave, it is surprisingly accessible to the average Joe, Jane, or José. For every Phillippe Starck-designed, bank-account-busting boutique hotel on South Beach, there's a kitschy, candy-coated Art Deco one that's much less taxing on the pockets. For each Pan-Mediterranean-Asian haute cuisinerie, there's always the down-home, no-nonsense Cuban bodega offering hearty food at ridiculously cheap prices.

Beyond the whole glitzy, Entertainment-Tonight-meets-beach-blanket-bacchanalia-as-seen-on-TV, Miami has an endless number of sporting, cultural, and recreational activities to keep you entertained. Our sparkling beaches are beyond compare. Plus, there are excellent shopping and nightlife activities that include ballet, theater, and opera (as well as all the celebrity-saturated hotels, restaurants, bars, and clubs that have helped to make Miami so famous).

Forget what you've heard about South Florida being Heaven's Waiting Room. That slogan is as passé as the concept of early-bird dinners (which you can still get -- they just no longer define the region). In fact, according to some people, South Florida is heaven. So what are you waiting for?