People sometimes talk as if tourism is something new in Sunny Isles Beach but long before Donald Trump and his friends invested in luxury high-rise properties on the coastline, the area attracted plenty of visitors to the more modest motels that were dotted alongside the dunes.

It is hard to find many images from the days gone by but one of the things we want to do here is to dig out whatever can be found online to give a taste of what life must have been like in this area. Tourists need cars and the area has most of the major auto rental companies and indeed some have been here a long time ago.

At Don Boyd’s wonderful photography website we discovered, in his section on cars, these wonderful pics from Sunny Isles Beach in the 1960’s.

Avis Car Rental, 1964, Collins Avenue (A1A), Sunny Isles

Hertz Rent a Car, 1964, on Collins Avenue (A1A), Sunny Isles

Yellow Car Rental, 1963, on Collins Avenue (A1A), Sunny Isles Beach.

We’d love to publish any pictures you or your family may have of Sunny Isles Beach of yesteryear. Drop us a line at visitsunnyislesbeach@gmail.com

And do check out the rest of Don’s pics here.