Glenvar Heights Tutors

About Glenvar Heights

Glenvar Heights is an affluent suburb of Miami. It borders the cities of South Miami, Westchester, Olympia Heights, and Coral Terrace in Miami-Dade County, Florida. It is just 10 miles south of Miami city center and a short car or bus ride from University of Miami's main campus in Coral Gables.

At the northwestern end of Glenvar Heights is Tropical Park. An urban public park since 1979, Tropical Park began as a track for horse racing in 1931. Tropical Park held its first meet over 4 days and promptly closed. It wouldn't reopen again until it came under new ownership in 1940. As a track it was unique in that it held races for both thoroughbred and standardbred horses. Tropical Park was an important part of the horse racing circuit in Florida and operated at the same time as other notable tracks like GulfStream and Hialeah. Horseracing was a very popular tourist attraction and the warm sun and soft earth made Florida an ideal place to breed and train fine boned race horses like thoroughbreds. Horse races were also advertised as a year round activity in sunny Florida; an exotic alternative to racing in Northern states which had colder weather and thus a much shorter racing season.

Though its racing days are over Tropical Park remains a popular destination for Miami residents. It is considered to be a "recreational jewel in the highly acclaimed Miami-Dade county park system..." 275 acres are now home to facilities for football, baseball, softball, tennis, and basketball, equestrian events, water sports, track and field, boxing, and cycling. The Ronald Reagan Equestrian Center hosts horse 36 horse shows annually for Arabians, hunter/jumpers, Western style, Paso Finos, and other breeds. This facility also hosts the Miami International Agricultural Horse and Cattle show.

For the last 34 years however there has been one even at Tropical Park that is dear to the hearts of locals: Santa's Enchanted Forest. Santa's Enchanted Forest is advertised as the world's largest holiday themed park and free carnival. It began as a 1/4 mile walk through with lighted trees and holiday displays and a few traditional holiday foods. One year early in the event's history organizers added a Merry Go Round. This proved such a popular decision that more and more children, family and extreme thrill rides, midway games and other activities were added. Now there are 42 rides including 4 roller coasters, a mega drop tower, and a log ride water slide. Visitors can also enjoy a variety of live shows including a sea lion revue, a magic show and the motorcycle globe of death. It wouldn't be a carnival without carnival food. Santa's Enchanted Forest features holiday favorites as well as more traditional fair food like pizza, churros, candied apples and roasted corn on the cob.

There are more than 3 million lights throughout Santa's Enchanted Forest. There are so many lights that it takes 4 months before opening day to unpack and hang all of them. For the last three years Santa's Enchanted Forest has been home to what is billed as Miami's tallest Christmas Tree. At over 60 feet tall, the tree is filled with LED lights. The lights are synchronized to holiday tunes and popular music. Light and sound show plays several times an hour.

South Florida is incredibly diverse with residents from all over the world including Haiti, Colombia, Venezuela, and Jamaica. Glenvar Heights reflects this diversity as well; more than 50% of residents identify as having Cuban ancestry. Pleasant weather and steady job growth make a consistently popular place for visitors and as well as new residents.