Gateway Park lights up on Saturday, November 21. If you bring two visiting cousins, three wristbands go on three wrists at two different prices. Yours costs $10. Theirs cost $50 each, the same as for a stranger who drove in from Aventura.
Every holiday-season price the city of Sunny Isles Beach posts is tied to the Resident ID Card. Of those prices, the city lets a resident pass the discount to guests at just one place, the courts at Intracoastal Sports Park. At Winter Fest, the beach lots and the fishing pier, a visitor pays the visitor rate no matter whose guest they are. That makes the guest bill for Thanksgiving week mostly a question of where you take people.
Winter Fest Has a Resident Price and a Visitor Price, and No Guest Price
Winter Fest 2026 runs two evenings at Gateway Park, 151 Sunny Isles Blvd., from 5 to 9 p.m. on Saturday, November 21, and Sunday, November 22. The park lighting is Saturday, and Sunday adds more entertainment. Wristbands are sold per person, per day, through the city's Winter Fest 2026 page.
The format changed this year, and so did the resident price. Last season's Winter Fest 2025 centered on a single Holiday Lighting Celebration on Saturday, November 22, from 7 to 9 p.m. The program listed ice skating, inflatables, arts and crafts and hot chocolate. A wristband bought for that night also got you a second day of ice skating on Sunday, November 23.
| Winter Fest 2025 | Winter Fest 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| Format | One lighting night, with a second skating day on the same wristband | Two full evenings, each sold as its own day |
| Hours | Saturday 7 to 9 p.m. | Saturday and Sunday, 5 to 9 p.m. |
| Resident ID Cardholder | $5 | $10 per day |
| Non-resident | $50 | $50 per day |
| Event parking | Free in the Gateway Park Garage | Free in the Gateway Park Garage |
The resident price doubled, and the evening also got longer, with a 5 p.m. start in place of last year's two-hour window. The visitor price held at $50, but it now buys one night. A guest who wants both evenings pays $100, where last year's $50 wristband covered the lighting and the next day's skating.
Here is the arithmetic for a common Thanksgiving-week household, two hosts with a card and four visiting relatives. If everyone goes Saturday, the hosts pay $20 and the guests pay $200. Going both nights brings that to $40 and $400. Many households will settle on a single night, and since the park lighting happens Saturday, that is the evening the city is billing as the main event.
The $50 rate is the same one charged to anyone who drives in, so hosting adds nothing. The garage is the one thing that costs a guest nothing extra. Free event parking in the Gateway Park Garage means the meter question doesn't come up on either Winter Fest night.
The One Place Your Card Carries Guests
Intracoastal Sports Park at 15800 Collins Avenue had its grand opening on Thursday, September 3. It has multi-use tennis and basketball courts, outdoor exercise equipment and a pedestrian walkway along the water. According to the city's October 2026 Islander, tennis and basketball ranked among residents' top choices in the community survey that shaped the park.
This is where the card works for your guests too. The Intracoastal Sports Park page sets out three prices for the same hour of court time:
| Who is playing | Hourly rate per person | How the court is booked |
|---|---|---|
| Resident ID Cardholder | Free | Online, up to seven days ahead |
| A resident's guest | $5 | Rides on the resident's reservation |
| Hotel guest with a valid reservation | $15 | Not specified on the city's page |
| Non-resident on their own | $30 | In person only |
Say you book a tennis hour and bring three visiting relatives. They pay $15 for the hour all together. If the same three walked up without you, they would owe $90, and $45 as hotel guests. Guests don't have to live in Sunny Isles Beach, but each one needs a valid waiver on file.
The rules are tight, and they matter more during a busy holiday week:
- Reservations open seven days ahead and are first come, first served, so a Thanksgiving-week slot is worth booking on the earliest day it becomes available.
- A tennis reservation covers up to three guests, and a basketball reservation up to nine.
- Each booking lasts one hour, starting on the hour. A household gets one court at a time, one reservation a day and three a week.
- Basketball reservations run daily from 5 to 8 p.m. Any court without a reservation is first come, first served.
- After a 10-minute grace period, an unclaimed reservation is forfeited. Missing bookings or canceling less than 12 hours ahead can lead to a booking suspension, and three of those in a 90-day quarter bring a one-month online booking restriction.
- Everyone checks in with city staff at the office before stepping onto the courts.
With three reservations a week per household, a four-day visit holds three guest sessions at most. When relatives are staying all week, it makes sense to spread those bookings across the visit.
At the Meter and on the Pier, a Guest Is a Visitor
At its September 17, 2026 meeting, the City Commission approved a resolution raising the non-resident hourly rate from $5 to $10 at the Intracoastal Sports Park lot and at the beach lots, including Pier Park and Ellen Wynne Beach Access. The resident rate stays at $3 an hour, according to the commission recap in the October 2026 Islander. The city's parking rates map, dated October 26, 2026, already shows $10 standard and $3 resident at all three lots.
So a three-hour beach afternoon costs a visitor's car $30, compared with $9 at the resident rate. The same resolution lets the city charge for its electric vehicle chargers, at $0.18 per kilowatt hour plus a $0.10-per-minute idling fee, which matters for guests arriving in an EV. Pier Park's meters are enforced 24 hours a day, every day of the year.
Newport Fishing Pier at 16501 Collins Avenue follows the same pattern, with one free option for everyone. The city's pier page lists fishing as free for Resident ID Cardholders and $10 for non-residents, and walking the pier as free for everyone. A sunset walk out over the water costs a visitor nothing. If they drive there, parking is the expense.
A November Calendar Built Around Those Prices
Here are the dated events from Veterans Day through Thanksgiving, in order:
- Wednesday, November 11, 9 to 11 a.m. The free Veterans Day Celebration at Heritage Park, 19200 Collins Ave., includes the unveiling of names newly added to the Veterans Wall, with light refreshments. Early arrivals or a veteran in the family make this worth planning around, and it costs nothing.
- Saturday, November 21, 5 to 9 p.m. Winter Fest's park-lighting night at Gateway Park. The garage is free, so every dollar of the guests' $50 goes to the wristband.
- Sunday, November 22, 5 to 9 p.m. Winter Fest's second evening, with the extra entertainment. This is the night to decide whether a second $50 per guest is worth it.
- Thursday, November 26, 5 to 10 p.m. BALEENkitchen at Solé Miami is serving a four-course Thanksgiving dinner for $135 per person plus tax and gratuity. Turkey is on the menu, along with other entrées including pumpkin ravioli and steak, according to the Miami and the Beaches listing.
- Thursday, November 26. Trump International Beach Resort has a Thanksgiving Buffet on its events page, with details still marked as coming soon. The same page lists a Christmas Brunch on December 25 and a New Year's Eve Celebration on December 31, also without published details.
Spread the court time across the open mornings and late afternoons in between. Three things on this calendar cost guests nothing: the Veterans Day program for anyone visiting by November 11, a walk on the pier, and the Winter Fest garage. For the rest, the host's card makes a difference only at the courts.
The Card Has to Be Current Before the Guests Arrive
Every rate above that favors a host assumes the host holds a valid card. Cards are free and good for one year, so a card issued last November may run out right before relatives fly in. The city's Resident ID Card page takes applications online and in person. A new card requires photo identification, a deed or a qualifying one-year lease, and two more documents verifying your address. The same page lists fishing at Newport Pier, lower program prices, priority registration, event discounts, access to the Gateway Center and free Intracoastal Sports Park courts among the card's benefits.
If a resident pays the non-resident court rate by mistake, there is a path to a refund. They bring proof of residency and apply for a card within five business days of the reservation, and the refund goes through once the card is approved. The city's event listings can change, so check the Winter Fest page again before buying wristbands for a group.
Hosting family or friends who are thinking about a Sunny Isles Beach home of their own after a week on the beach? Linda Faille-Roy can walk them through the buildings they passed on Collins Avenue, in English or en français. Schedule your bilingual concierge consultation.
