Vice City

''This article is about the City of Vice City. For the games, please go to Grand Theft Auto: Vice City or Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories''

Vice City is a fictional city in the Grand Theft Auto series that is based on Miami, Florida. It is the setting of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories and a level in the original Grand Theft Auto 1.

The name "Vice City" is a double entendre: on one hand, it is a direct reference to Michael Mann's 1980's police television series Miami Vice, but it also conveys the actual definition of the word, labelling Vice City a place of sin, greed and overindulgence; making it literally, a city of vice.

Vice City is geographically similar to Miami - located in the shorelines of Florida in the southeastern United States. Vice City enjoys a subtropical or near-tropical climate with year-long sunny weather with occasional storms. It is also suggested in GTA Vice City that the city is exposed to hurricanes, as is Miami - early in the game, bridges were closed to the public as Hurricane Hermione was believed to be approaching the city, although that is only used to prevent the player accessing the other half of Vice City until he has completed enough missions to do so.

Vice City in GTA Vice City

 * See full article: Vice City in GTA Vice City

Vice City, as depicted in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, is set in 1986, a reference to 1980s Miami, which was believed to have become a major trans-shipment point for cocaine from South America at the time. This is further reinforced with its theme of the drug business and crime, as well as the presence of new upper-class businesses and residents in the city, with some of them likely to be funded by the drug business. Vice City is specifically indicated to be located within the state of Florida, while clues in GTA III suggest that Miami does exist alongside Vice City.

This incarnation of Vice City consists of two major islands (Vice Beach and the Mainland) and several smaller islands: Starfish Island, Prawn Island and Leaf Links. Both main islands are separated by a large body of water similar to that of Biscayne Bay, which separates Miami Beach with mainland Miami in real-life. Each major island is divided into several districts.

Vice City in GTA Vice City Stories
The Vice City to be featured in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories is based on the GTAVC version of the city, but set in two years earlier (1984). Several changes are notable:
 * A populated trailer park exists just south of Little Havana, surrounding Sunshine Autos, a car showroom. The Trailer Park Mafia operates from the trailer park and controls many of Vice City's poorer communities. The entire area and the gang, apart from the showroom, is vacant in 1986.
 * A fairground is based on a patch of land in western Washington, which features a ferris wheel, dubbed the "Chunder Wheel." The area, circa 1986, features a construction site (which is later blown up in a mission in GTAVC).
 * A single Art Deco-like building exists in the immediate north of the Washington Beach fairground, on what would be the site of low-rise apartments in 1986.
 * The Cholos are known to be in control of Little Havana in 1984. The Cubans (known in Vice City Stories as the "Los Cabrones") would wage war on the Cholos and control Little Havana in 1986.

Vice City in Grand Theft Auto 1
Compared to GTA Vice City, the Grand Theft Auto 1 rendition of Vice City is more geographically accurate to Miami. Western Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and surrounding areas are depicted as "Vice Beach;" North Miami Beach and the Central Business District have been tagged as "Felicity". Eastern Vice City is made up of Miramire, Coral City, Greek Heights, Little Dominica, Little Bogota and Richman Heights, each representing the counties Broward and Dade.

The GTA1 city is not similar at all to the GTAVC and GTAVCS versions, except in name and style.