Pinecrest

This roughly triangular-shaped Miami metro village, located south of South Miami and Coral Gables, is a beautiful upscale place to live. Pinecrest boasts five parks, and the widely praised 20-acre Pinecrest Gardens contains extensive botanical gardens and a petting zoo. Pinecrest is primarily residential. Other than the chain stores on Route 1 (Pinecrest’s eastern boundary), commerce inside the village is limited—a few markets and a tennis club—but happily, Dadeland Mall lies just over the northeastern line.