GTA Vice City: The Real Miami Behind Vice City

Tommy Vercetti comes to Vice City in 1986 to set up a drug deal with crooked lawyer Ken Rosenberg, and the exchange in the city's port is ambushed: Tommy and Ken barely escape, and Sonny Forelli's drugs and money are gone. Recovering them drives the whole story. The real counterpart is the Port of Miami, formally the Dante B. Fascell Port of Miami and the largest passenger port in the world, joined to Downtown by Port Boulevard.

Location precision: Vice City is fictional; the pin marks the real Port of Miami, standing in for the port where the opening deal is ambushed.

Visitor guidance: Port Boulevard links the port with Downtown Miami.

Vice Beach, the eastern half of the game map, is where the game starts, and its Ocean Beach promenade of Art Deco buildings alludes directly to the famous Art Deco promenade of South Beach. At first the bridges west stay closed because of a storm warning, so the player learns the city here. The developers built the world from extensive field research in Miami. The real model is Ocean Drive, a major thoroughfare in the South Beach neighbourhood, known for its Art Deco hotels, restaurants and bars.

Location precision: Vice City is fictional; the pin marks the real Ocean Drive, the street the game's Ocean Beach strip copies.

Visitor guidance: Walk the Art Deco hotel row along Ocean Drive in South Beach.

On the game's western island the Cuban gang holds Little Havana, and Tommy takes missions for both sides of the war between the Cubans and the Haitians, a power struggle that keeps ending in bloodbaths. The game's plot draws on real Miami Cubans, Haitians and biker gangs. The real Little Havana is a Miami neighbourhood home to many Cuban exiles and immigrants from Central and South America, and its landmarks include Calle Ocho and Domino Park, an integral part of the district.

Location precision: Vice City is fictional; the pin marks the real Little Havana, whose name and Cuban character the game reuses.

Visitor guidance: Walk Calle Ocho and pass Domino Park, an integral part of the neighbourhood.

Further south on the game's mainland lies Little Haiti, territory of the Haitian gang, whose power struggle with the Cubans keeps ending in bloodbaths while Tommy works for both sides. The real Little Haiti is a Miami neighbourhood home to Haitian immigrants and other Caribbean residents. Its landmark is a 13-foot bronze statue of General Toussaint L'Ouverture, father of the Haitian Revolution, on N Miami Avenue at 62nd Street.

Location precision: Vice City is fictional; the pin marks the real Little Haiti, whose name and Haitian character the game reuses.

Visitor guidance: Look for the Louverture statue on N Miami Avenue at 62nd Street.

The bikers hold Downtown, in the north of the game's western island, and Tommy's deals there run alongside errands for men like the Texan business tycoon Avery Carrington. The real counterpart is Greater Downtown Miami, the city's urban core, where Brickell Avenue and Biscayne Boulevard are the main north–south roads.

Location precision: Vice City is fictional; the pin marks real Downtown Miami, whose name the game's biker territory reuses.

Diaz's gang holds its ground around the don's villa on Starfish Island until Tommy and Lance storm the mansion, kill Diaz and take his empire; the same villa, now the seat of the Vercetti gang, hosts the final shootout. Starfish Island is the villa district of the rich and beautiful, alluding to Fisher Island. The real Fisher Island is a private residential and resort community known for wealth and restricted access, with no road or causeway to the mainland, reached only by yacht or private ferry.

Location precision: Vice City is fictional; the pin marks Fisher Island, the real island Starfish Island alludes to.