Things to Do in Aventura, FL

Aventura Mall: A Genuine Destination, Not Just a Shopping Trip

Dedicated in April 1983 and grown to roughly 2.7 to 2.8 million square feet with more than 300 stores, Aventura Mall is widely cited as one of the five largest shopping malls in the United States and the largest conventional mall in Florida, anchored by Nordstrom, Bloomingdale's, Macy's, JCPenney, and an AMC Theatres multiplex. Its 2017 expansion added a three-level wing with more than 50 additional stores and restaurants, Florida's first Topshop Topman, a VIP lounge, a Tesla store, and Belgian artist Carsten Höller's 93-foot-tall spiral 'Aventura Slide Tower' art installation, which visitors can ride for free -- a genuinely unusual attraction for a shopping mall, and a real reason the mall functions as a destination in its own right rather than a purely functional shopping stop.

Ownership is split between Turnberry Associates (roughly two-thirds, and the property's manager) and Simon Property Group (roughly one-third) -- a real, sourced reminder that the mall remains directly tied to Aventura's founding development company rather than having passed entirely to outside ownership.

The Turnberry Golf Courses: Still Operating, Still Ranked

The Robert Trent Jones Sr.-designed Soffer and Miller golf courses, which opened in 1971 as the area's founding amenity, continue to operate today as part of the JW Marriott Miami Turnberry Resort & Spa. The Soffer Course, renovated by Raymond Floyd and reopened in December 2006, has hosted LPGA tournaments and is cited among Golfweek's and Golf Digest's top-100 US golf course rankings in recent years, alongside the Miller Course. This is a genuinely rare thing in a dense Florida high-rise corridor -- a founding-era golf resort that has remained active and highly ranked rather than being redeveloped into more towers, and it's directly tied to Aventura's origin story: founding developer Don Soffer, who died in July 2025, is buried on the grounds near the 18th hole of the course that bears his name.

Aventura Arts & Cultural Center

The city-run Aventura Arts & Cultural Center, an elegant 330-seat performance venue set on the Intracoastal, opened in 2010 and hosts performing-arts and cultural programming for audiences of varying ages. This page does not have a confirmed, current event schedule or program lineup, since programming changes regularly; check directly with the Center or a current ticketing platform for what's currently showing.

City Parks: Founders Park and Waterways Park

Founders Park offers sports fields, playgrounds, walking paths, and a splash pad, serving as Aventura's main general-purpose municipal park. Waterways Park, in the Waterways residential neighborhood, offers a smaller-scale playground and open space. Neither is a beach park in the sense this site's oceanfront markets cover -- Aventura has no ocean beach of its own -- but both represent real, city-maintained outdoor recreation infrastructure within the city limits.

Oleta River State Park: Just Outside the City, But Genuinely Close

Oleta River State Park -- Florida's largest urban park at 1,043 acres, roughly a 10-minute drive from Aventura Mall -- sits just north of Aventura's own boundaries but functions as a genuine, heavily used recreation resource for the area, offering kayaking and canoeing on the Oleta River and Maule Lake, mountain biking trails, a fishing pier, and shoreline access along the Intracoastal Waterway. This page does not have confirmed current park hours, entrance fees, or specific trail-length data, and recommends checking Florida State Parks' own current listing for Oleta River before visiting.

What This Page Does Not Know

This page does not have a confirmed, current, complete inventory of Aventura Mall's specific retail and dining tenants beyond its named major anchors; a confirmed current Aventura Arts & Cultural Center event schedule; or confirmed current Oleta River State Park hours and fees. Attraction and event details change over time in ways this research pass did not attempt to track in real time.

For current hours, tickets, and programming at any of these attractions, check directly with Aventura Mall, the JW Marriott Miami Turnberry Resort & Spa, the Aventura Arts & Cultural Center, and Florida State Parks.