Miami is a major coastal city in southeastern Florida, in the United States. Described as the “only great city of the world that started as a fantasy,” Miami, with its subtropical climate, naturally protected harbor, and spectacular beaches, has traditionally been a haven for tourists and retirees. Since the late 1980s, however, the city has sustained unprecedented growth and, while transforming its image, has emerged as a center of international finance and commerce and as a regional center for Latin American and Haitian art. In the Miami City Guide, for the first time, the Louis Vuitton City Guide is shining its light into every corner of this flamboyant, sunny city through some 450 exclusive addresses. Luxury bars and hotels on the beach, Cuban cafes and top seafood restaurants, nightclubs and night-time parties around the pool, extravagant fashion stores, pioneering museums and avant-garde galleries, Art Deco monuments…The Miami City Guide also suggests a number of tropical escapades that offer a relaxing alternative to the frenzy of this capital of hedonism. Clear, practical maps allow you to find your way around the city and the surrounding area easily.

Complied by a team of independent journalists and illustrated by Ruben Toledo, this book includes a special section on Miami by Barbara Hulanicke, designer and Miami personality.

For ten years now, Louis Vuitton has been sharing its passion for a unique urban immersion. As we all know, this year Louis Vuitton released a series of 2009 City guides, which must have been mentioned in previous posts. These books perfectly capture the spirit of cities with words and imagination. In this collection Louis Vuitton has developed its collection of guides and for the first time-presents five individual volumes devoted to five cities of the world: Mumbai, Miami, New York, Paris and Tokyo. Now follow me to appreciate them one by one.

Mumbai is a fascinating, bewitching megalopolis. Known as Bombay until 1995, it is a great port city, situated on the west coast of the Indian peninsula. It is one of India’s dominant urban centers and, indeed, is one of the largest and most densely populated cities in the world. Deriving its name from Mumba Devi, a goddess of the local Koli fishing peoples, Mumbai grew up around a fort established by the British in the mid-seventeenth century to protect their trading interests along India’s western coast. The city’s superb natural harbor provided a focal point for sea routes crossing the Arabian Sea, and Mumbai soon became the main western gateway to Britain’s expanding Indian empire. The city emerged as a center of manufacturing and industry during the eighteenth century. Today, Mumbai is India’s commercial and financial capital, as well as the capital city of Maharashtra State. In its debut edition, the Louis Vuitton City Guide to Mumbai explores every facet of this dynamic metropolis through 450 exclusive addresses: luxury hotels and guesthouses, spice-scented restaurants, artisanal fashion and design with a contemporary edge, stunning jewelry, exceptional museums and temples, and fabulous Bollywood stars. This astonishing guide also offers the opportunity to discover three legendary Rajasthan cities – Jaipur, Udaipur and Jodhpur – which offer a haven of rest after the hectic pace of Mumbai.

Mumbai Guide is compiled by a team of independent journalists and illustrated by Ruben Toledo. Special sections on Mumbai by Princess Sangita Singh Kathiwada, stylist and on Jodhpur by Maharajah of Jodhpur are included. Now it is available in both English and French with a price of $34.

In my previous postings related to Louis Vuitton City Guides, I have occupied myself in introducing the contents of theses books. Their boxes and covers are also distinctive and meaningful. The redesigned City Guides boxes reference the heritage of Louis Vuitton, drawing inspiration from a vintage luggage label of the kind hotel bellboys would affix to travellers’ trunks. While deep brown makes an appearance, adding its distinct character to the collection, the guide still features the bright colours that have become its trademark over the past ten years. Pistachio Green for the European cities, Royal Blue for Paris, Rosewood for Tokyo, Magenta for Mumbai, Buttercup for New York and Almond Green for Miami.

Now let’s open the blue cover to appreciate the city of light at the crossroads of culture. The Paris City Guide reveals all of the elegance of the French capital through the prism of 500 addresses chosen with distinctive taste and flair. Fashion designers and design trendspotters, unusual antiques, secret museums and art galleries, gourmet restaurants and local eateries… Available for the first time in its own slipcase, the 2009 edition of the Paris City Guide observes the city with a unique, original and deliberately unconventional eye.

As the same with other city guides, the City Guide Paris is compiled by a team of independent journalists and illustrated by Ruben Toledo. It includes a special section on Paris by Kiraz, the illustrator for his drawings of “Parisiennes”. No matter business or leisure traveler, I bet this city guide would help you a lot.