The one PortMiami transfer whose price is published as a formula
This crossing is priced by formula rather than by quote. The Miami-Dade County meter reads $13.80 at three miles, $20.40 at five miles and $27.00 at seven. A van or SUV adds 30 percent to each of those. No county page publishes the distance from any Miami Beach address.
A Miami Beach to PortMiami taxi fare runs on Miami-Dade County Resolution R-700-22, which charges $2.95 for the first sixth of a mile. Every other charge on this crossing behaves the same way: the county publishes the rate and leaves the reader to supply the distance. The table below reads each mode against what its own issuer prints, checked in September 2026.
| How you leave Miami Beach for the ship | What the issuer publishes | What it comes to by the issuer’s own numbers | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Metered taxicab, standard sedan | Resolution R-700-22 rates, all flat fares eliminated (Miami-Dade County) | $13.80 at three miles, $20.40 at five, $27.00 at seven | Two adults who want the price settled before the door closes |
| Metered taxicab, SUV or van | 30 percent surcharge above the meter rate, decal displayed inside the vehicle (Miami-Dade County) | $17.94 at three miles, $26.52 at five, $35.10 at seven | A party whose cruise luggage will not fit a sedan trunk |
| Ride app pickup, Uber or Lyft | Designated pick-up and drop-off zones at the terminals (Miami-Dade County) | n/a, no issuer publishes a fare or an estimate | One traveler accepting the price shown at the moment of the request |
| Metrobus, then Metromover, then the Coral Way Trolley | Metrobus $2.25, bus-to-rail transfer free, Metromover free, trolley free (Miami-Dade County) | $2.25 per adult, $4.50 for two, capped at $5.65 a day each | A pair with one bag each and a weekday morning to spend |
| Hotel shuttle from a Miami Beach property | n/a, no Miami-Dade County page names a hotel shuttle to the terminals | n/a, set by the property and not by any issuer here | A guest who has the offer confirmed in writing by the hotel |
| Own car left in a PortMiami garage | $25 or $35 per vehicle, per space, per day by garage, plus 6 percent sales tax (Miami-Dade County) | $212.00 or $296.80 for the eight days a seven night sailing bills | A driver who needs the car in Miami before the sailing |
Column three is where this crossing separates itself. Only two of the six modes carry a number the county sets and prints; the other four carry a place to stand, a property policy or a price that appears when you open an app. The taxicab is the only one of the six whose total a traveler can work out in advance without asking anybody.
Resolution R-700-22 prices a Miami-Dade cab in sixths of a mile
The Board of County Commissioners adopted Resolution R-700-22 on July 19, 2022, and Miami-Dade County still publishes it as the current maximum taxicab rate. The meter charges $2.95 for the first sixth of a mile, $0.85 for each additional sixth until one mile, and $0.55 for each sixth after that, plus $0.40 per minute, or $24.00 per hour, in wait charges.
Run those three lines together and the first mile costs $7.20. Every mile after the first costs six increments of $0.55, which is $3.30. That pair of numbers, $7.20 and $3.30, is the whole fare engine for a ride from a Miami Beach address to a cruise terminal, and Miami-Dade County publishes both without ever multiplying them out.
One line in the same resolution removes the alternative. All flat fare rates are eliminated, and the county states that the meter rate now applies to all trips, including cabs running under the Airport Regional Taxicab Service, the Blue Cabs program. A fixed price offered at a Miami Beach curb is therefore not a county rate, whatever the number is. Which of the ten lettered doors your meter has to reach is the other half of the arithmetic, set out in the reference on the street addresses Miami-Dade County publishes for each PortMiami terminal.
What the Miami-Dade meter reads on a Miami Beach crossing, mile by mile
Rates are published; trips are not. The table below runs R-700-22 across the distances a Miami Beach address plausibly produces. Each row assumes the meter billing distance the whole way with no wait time added, and rounds up to the sixth of a mile the meter has entered.
| Distance from your Miami Beach address to the terminal | Sixth-mile increments billed | Standard taxicab meter, Resolution R-700-22 | SUV or van, meter plus the 30 percent surcharge |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 miles | 12 increments | $10.50 | $13.65 |
| 3 miles | 18 increments | $13.80 | $17.94 |
| 4 miles | 24 increments | $17.10 | $22.23 |
| 5 miles | 30 increments | $20.40 | $26.52 |
| 6 miles | 36 increments | $23.70 | $30.81 |
| 7 miles | 42 increments | $27.00 | $35.10 |
| 7.1 miles, the county’s published Miami International Airport figure | 43 increments | $27.55 | $35.82 |
The last row is the only distance to PortMiami that Miami-Dade County publishes at all. Its cruise FAQ puts Miami International Airport at 7.1 miles from the terminals and Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International at 25.7 miles, and it prints nothing for Miami Beach, South Beach or Collins Avenue. Anyone crossing the bay supplies the distance themselves and then reads the fare off the county’s own rate, which is the arithmetic worked in reverse on the seven mile run in from Miami International Airport.
Wait time is the variable that moves the total. At $0.40 per minute against $3.30 per running mile, 8 minutes and 15 seconds of stopped traffic adds exactly what one more mile of movement adds. A causeway backup on a Saturday morning is priced, in county cents, at one mile per eight and a quarter minutes.
The $15 minimum is written for the ride back to Miami Beach, not the ride out
One clause of Resolution R-700-22 sets a minimum fare of $15 for trips originated at Miami International Airport or the Port of Miami, regardless of what the meter reading shows, and adds that a meter reading above $15.00 is the number to be paid. Read the two prepositions and the asymmetry appears: the floor attaches to the origin, and Miami Beach is not one of the two origins named.
So the outbound trip has no floor. A three mile run from South Beach to Cruise Terminal E bills $13.80 and stops there, while the same three miles leaving the port on debarkation morning bills $15.00. The floor expires for a standard sedan at 3 and one third miles, where the meter reads $14.90; the very next increment, at 3.5 miles, reads $15.45 and the minimum stops mattering.
For a larger vehicle the floor expires sooner. A van whose meter reads $11.60 at 2 and one third miles reaches $15.08 once the 30 percent is applied, so the surcharge crosses the county’s floor a full mile earlier than a sedan does. County text sets the minimum against “the meter reading” and does not say whether the surcharge sits inside or outside that comparison, which is a gap worth raising with the driver at the start of the return leg rather than at the end of it.
A 30 percent surcharge lands on exactly the vehicle a cruise party books
Resolution R-700-22 establishes a 30 percent surcharge above the taxicab meter rate for larger vehicles, naming sport utility vehicles and vans, and requires those Miami-Dade cabs to display a surcharge decal inside the vehicle. Two adults with two large suitcases and two carry-ons are the passengers who end up in one.
The gap is not trivial at cruise distances. At five miles the surcharge turns $20.40 into $26.52, a difference of $6.12 in one direction and $12.24 across an embarkation and a debarkation. At seven miles it turns $27.00 into $35.10. The surcharge is a percentage of a growing base, so it costs more precisely on the longer Miami Beach addresses, the ones furthest north.
The same paragraph of county text carries two exemptions. The surcharge does not apply to wheelchair accessible vehicles providing taxicab service to wheelchair users, and the county separately states there is no additional charge for wheelchair transportation, service animals, baggage, infant and toddler car seats, or additional passengers. Luggage rides free by rule on this crossing. The vehicle it rides in does not.
Metered legs against eight billed days in a PortMiami garage
Take five miles as a worked example, since the county supplies no distance, and hold the premises steady: two adults, a seven night sailing, September 2026 rates, a Northside terminal. Two metered legs come to $40.80 in a sedan and $53.04 in an SUV, before any wait time or toll.
Parking the same party’s car answers with a different order of magnitude. Miami-Dade County charges $25 per vehicle, per space, per day at Garages C, D, F, G and Surface Lot E, and $35 at Garages AA and B, and its Terminal Tariff No. 010 bills the day a vehicle enters plus each succeeding day, so seven nights bills eight days. With the 6 percent state sales tax the tariff names, that is $212.00 or $296.80, against $40.80 for the pair of taxi legs. The garage rate that arrives with your terminal letter decides which of those two numbers applies.
The taxicab wins for a party staying on Miami Beach, on a margin of $171.20 at the cheaper garage, and the criterion is simple: a car parked at PortMiami is billed for seven nights of standing still. Two adults with light bags and a flexible morning have a cheaper answer still, at $4.50 for the pair. A group of six traveling together has neither, because a single metered cab carries eight passengers at most and two cabs double the meter, not the surcharge.
This is not the calculation for everyone. A traveler who needs the car in Miami during the sailing week, or who is driving in from Broward or Palm Beach and only sleeping on the beach, is paying for storage rather than for transport, and the garage rate is the right number to compare. The same goes for a party arriving at 5 a.m. on a Sunday, when the free chain is not running and a vehicle is the only option on the list.
The free chain out of Miami Beach ends on a trolley the county schedules in a data feed
Four Miami-Dade Transit routes cross the MacArthur Causeway between Miami Beach and downtown Miami, and the county’s own published transit feed names them: Route 100 to Downtown Miami via the beach, Route 101 from Mount Sinai Hospital via Alton Road, Route 14 to the Omni terminal and Route 20 to the airport Metrorail station. All four call at MacArthur Cy and Fountain Street and at MacArthur Cy and Watson Island.
Their spans are not equal, and the feed is where that shows. Route 100 carries 129 weekday trips past the Fountain Street stop toward downtown, first at 5:19 a.m., last at 4:44 a.m. the following morning, with a median gap of 9 minutes and hourly service through the night. Route 101 appears on the weekday calendar only, with no Saturday or Sunday trips at that stop at all. A Sunday sailing removes one of the four routes before the traveler reaches the bay.
The last leg belongs to the City of Miami. County directions send riders from Government Center onto Metromover to Freedom Tower Station, which runs from about 5:36 a.m. to about 10:10 p.m. in the feed, and then onto the free Coral Way Trolley across the PortMiami Bridge. That trolley is the only route of any kind that stops on port property. Its inbound trips reach the N Cruise Blvd stop from 7:23 a.m. to 11:16 p.m. on weekdays and Saturdays, at gaps of about 20 minutes, and only from 8:53 a.m. to 8:16 p.m. on Sundays.
One discrepancy is worth carrying to the curb. The county’s directions page describes three trolley stops on the port, while its transit feed carries four, adding a stop named Atlantic Way to the three the page lists. Two adults riding the whole chain pay $4.50, since Metrobus is $2.25, the bus-to-rail transfer is free and both Metromover and the trolley are free, and the county caps a day of Metrobus and Metrorail at $5.65 per rider.
Details of the Miami Beach crossing that sit in county documents rather than on the port page
- Taxicabs picking up in Miami-Dade County must carry and use a SunPass where the toll is fixed, and where a SunPass Only or SunPass Express toll is not fixed the chauffeur has to ask the passenger which lane to take.
- The Venetian Causeway is tolled and the MacArthur is not. Miami-Dade County operates toll plazas on the Rickenbacker and Venetian causeways only, charging two axle vehicles $3.25 by SunPass and $6.50 by Toll-By-Plate since October 1, 2025, with a $2.50 monthly invoice fee on Toll-By-Plate and no cash accepted.
- Miami International Airport adds a $2.00 airport origination fee to the same meter rates. No equivalent fee attaches to a Miami Beach pickup, and the airport does not say whether its $2.00 sits inside or outside the $15 minimum.
- The Port of Miami Tunnel carries no toll, runs 4,200 feet at a 35 mph limit with cruise traffic in the left lane and freight in the right, and admits vehicles up to 15 feet 0 inches tall.
- PortMiami states that taxicabs are available at all cruise terminals on cruise days, which is what makes the metered return leg a plan rather than a hope, and directs rideshare users to designated pick-up and drop-off zones without naming a door.
- Leaving the car at home is the cheaper half of this crossing. Garage rates run $25 or $35 per space per day depending on the terminal letter, which comes to $212.00 or $296.80 across the eight days a seven night sailing bills, against $40.80 for two metered five mile legs.
- Complaints have a published address. The county’s Public Transportation Regulatory Division sits at 601 NW 1st Court, 18th floor, on 305-679-7873, and routes an overcharge demanding a refund to the For-Hire Transportation Complaint Form rather than the general taxi form.
- No county page publishes a hotel shuttle between a Miami Beach property and the terminals. Any such service is the property’s own policy, which is worth confirming in writing before it replaces a fare you could otherwise have calculated. Where a room sits relative to your letter is covered in the survey of what the county publishes about proximity to each PortMiami terminal.
Where a Miami Beach to PortMiami budget breaks
Carrying a remembered flat rate is the first failure. Resolution R-700-22, adopted in 2022, eliminated all flat fare rates and extended the meter to every trip, including the Blue Cabs, so a fixed number quoted for this crossing does not come from Miami-Dade County. The price is $7.20 for the first mile and $3.30 for every mile after it, and it climbs with the causeway backup.
Reading the $15 minimum as a ceiling is the second. It is a floor, it applies only to trips originating at Miami International Airport or the Port of Miami, and it therefore lands on the debarkation morning ride and not on the ride to the ship. Travelers who budget $15 each way are wrong twice in opposite directions, since a sedan meter reads $14.90 at 3 and one third miles and $15.45 at the next increment.
Ignoring the vehicle class is the third, and it hits the largest parties hardest. The 30 percent surcharge is legal only in a cab displaying the county decal, and at five miles it is the difference between $20.40 and $26.52, or $12.24 across an embarkation and a debarkation. Anyone loading four cruise cases is choosing the surcharged vehicle by default.
Picking the Venetian Causeway without knowing it is tolled is the fourth. The crossing is pleasant and it adds $3.25 by SunPass or $6.50 by Toll-By-Plate to a meter that would otherwise be the whole bill, on a route the MacArthur covers without a plaza.
Typing “Port of Miami” into a phone instead of a terminal address is the fifth. Miami-Dade County publishes ten separate addresses, nine of them on the Northside and Cruise Terminal J alone at 1120 Caribbean Way on the Southside, so a wrong letter is a second crossing of the same bridge with the meter still running at $3.30 a mile.
The month behind every figure on this Miami Beach crossing
The figures in this guide were verified in September 2026 against the sources named in each section. Read strictly, the 6% reaches what the tariff prices. Item 710 prints $25.00 as its only long term rate and says the tariff’s rates exclude sales tax; the $35 line lives on the county’s parking page, so a total built on $35 plus 6% adds a tariff clause to a rate the tariff does not carry. Parking rates usually change in January, shuttle fares and cruise line transfer prices change by season, and ship schedules change weekly; check the issuer’s page before you travel. No provider paid for placement here, and none can pay to appear. Where a booking link earns Lot and Gate a commission it is marked as sponsored and flagged in this line, and as of September 2026 no affiliate link is live anywhere on this site.
Six questions about crossing from Miami Beach to a cruise terminal
The answers below use the same September 2026 readings as the tables above, taken from Miami-Dade County and from Miami International Airport.
No fare for this trip appears on any Miami-Dade County page, and no distance either. What the county publishes is the meter: $2.95 for the first sixth of a mile, $0.85 per sixth to one mile, $0.55 per sixth after. That is $13.80 at three miles, $20.40 at five and $27.00 at seven.
No. That $15 minimum belongs to trips originated at Miami International Airport or the Port of Miami, in Miami-Dade County’s wording, so it lands on the ride back to Miami Beach on debarkation morning rather than the ride out. A three mile outbound trip bills $13.80.
A 30 percent surcharge above the meter rate applies to sport utility vehicles and vans in Miami-Dade County, and those cabs must display a surcharge decal inside the vehicle. At five miles it turns $20.40 into $26.52. Wheelchair accessible taxicabs carrying wheelchair users are exempt.
Yes, on four Miami-Dade Transit routes across the MacArthur Causeway, then Metromover to Freedom Tower Station, then the free Coral Way Trolley over the PortMiami Bridge. Metrobus costs $2.25, the bus-to-rail transfer is free and the trolley is free, so two adults pay $4.50.
No Miami-Dade County page names one. Hotel shuttles are property policy rather than published transport, so the offer, the hours and the luggage limit have to be confirmed with the hotel in writing. What Miami-Dade County publishes instead is the taxi meter and the transit fares.
Only on the Venetian Causeway. Toll plazas operated by Miami-Dade County sit on the Rickenbacker and Venetian causeways alone, charging two axle vehicles $3.25 by SunPass and $6.50 by Toll-By-Plate since October 1, 2025. The MacArthur Causeway and the Port of Miami Tunnel carry no toll.
A price that is knowable to the cent and a distance that is not
Miami-Dade’s rate resolution covers the hardest half of this problem and skips the easy one. It fixes the fare engine by resolution, down to $7.20 for the first mile, $0.55 per sixth of a mile after it and $0.40 per minute of standing still. It publishes 7.1 miles to its own airport. It then declines to say how far the port sits from a beach three miles away. The traveler supplies one number and the county supplies the other four.
A distance is measurable from any address. A rate that nobody publishes cannot be reconstructed at all.