Though surrounded by intensive residential development, most visibly North Miami Beach’s posh Bal Harbour community not merely to retreat from the world for a while, but also to drive, walk, or cycle among mangrove forests and serpentine lagoons.

If you stroll, you will encounter wading shore birds, and there is a good chance of seeing the snout of a porpoise rising from the water. The odds of spotting that strangest of aquatic Florida mammals, the lumbering manatee, are not so high, but these sweet-natured creatures, perched on the brink of extinction, often escape the estuary traffic in the park’s quiet coves.

You can rent a bicycle here and cruise the 1.5-mile biking path, or rent a canoe or paddleboat and explore the .75-mile canoe trail. Locals come to lunch alfresco and read in the shade of picnic-area pavilions, wade into the warm water off the park’s 1,200-foot-long sandy beach, and drop fishing lures from a sturdy fishing pier that reaches nearly 100 feet offshore.