While I’m not making the trek to Miami this year, I’ve made a few online friends that I hope will keep me posted on how they were able to do it on their own. I did made the trek last year, so here’s a little bit of that breakdown:
Travel:
- Departure: Sunday, March 29th 2009 (LAX to Ft. Lauderdale)
- Return: Thursday, April 2nd, 2009
- Priceline: Purchased on Saturday, March 28th, 2009
- Cost: $322.38
Accommodations:
- A friend’s couch
- Cost $: N/A: I posted a request on Facebook, asking any of my friends if they knew anyone in Miami and viola, a friend of a friend was happy to host me at her home. Turns out she was an avid tennis fan as well. I repaid her hospitality by staying away all day! And I bought her a ticket to one of the night sessions. It was well worth the trade off.
Local Travel:
- Tri rail from Ft. Lauderdale to Miami, $3.00 ($6.00 round trip)
- Bus ride to tourney via Mimi-Dade County Transit, $2.00 each way.
- There was also a Metrobus shuttle service from the Brickell Metrorail station to the Tennis Center at Key Biscayne. Cost: $1.00
Tickets: (w/ USTA member discount)
- Day session tickets from $26 – $32.00
- Evening session tickets $27 – 29.00
I like to hold off on purchasing evening session tickets until I see the order of play. A day session ticket will get you hours of tennis on the side courts during the early part of the week at a Masters tourney. My preference is Sunday to Wednesday, as you’ll get plenty of seeds meeting each other and plenty of matches to keep you occupied. By Thursday, most of the singles actions are being moved to the main stadium with doubles actions occupying some of the side courts. Then I’m happy to watch the action at home!
Food:
- Miami’s tourney has some of the best food I’ve encountered on tour with local restaurants as the main vendors. I was all over Latin Cafe with its Cuban food and averaged about $10.00/ meal.
- They do have Starbucks on site but it came at a pretty penny with $7.00 for a latte.
- I like to bring my own snacks and frozen drinks to keep me going throughout the day, but I can’t really abide making my lunch and all that jazz.
Overall Budget – approximately $500.00