Walking The Gables

Guided Tours Exploring the New and the Old in the City Beautiful

Whether you’re a history enthusiast or social butterfly, the walking tours of downtown Coral Gables provide a nice weekend outing filled with fresh air and a better appreciation of our city.

Every other Saturday at 10 am (excluding the summer), a small group of residents and Gables enthusiasts congregate at Coral Gables Museum for a guided history tour of the city’s Mediterranean Revival buildings — some of which have withstood weather, time, and the wrecker’s ball since the 1920s. With old photographs of the different stops from George Merrick’s time, you can see how the city came to life almost a century ago.

If the group is small enough, you can ride the 99-year-old brass elevator at Hotel St. Michel and walk inside the lobby of Alhambra Towers to admire the original stained-glass windows from the church that once stood on the property. The tour also grants you free entrance to the museum’s exhibits.

Another walking tour, which takes place on the last Saturday of each month and brings in a larger crowd, is hosted by the Coral Gables Chamber of Commerce in partnership with AIA Miami and the Miami Center for Architecture and Design. March’s tour was led by Sarah Nesbitt-Artecona, a past chair of the Chamber and a fourth-generation Gableite. The excursion stops at mostly the same locations as the museum tour but focuses more on the architectural aspects – with some added color from the guide’s childhood memories of the City Beautiful.

For history buffs, we recommend attending the museum’s tour, which gives you a detailed look at each stop with more opportunities to ask questions. For families and those interested in casual, conversational learning, we recommend the Chamber’s. Either way, you’ll get your steps in, all while seeing Coral Gables in a new, sunny light. 

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