Where to Stay: Miami’s South Beach

by Nicholas Gill

While you still might need a warm jacket in some parts of the country, Miami’s South Beach is already sizzling. Here’s a quick rundown of this season’s hotspots in this pulsating South Florida district.

If Money is No Object: The Setai
Starting Price: $615 per Night
Adrian Zecha, the Indonesian hotelier and founder of Aman resorts, transformed this 1930’s Art Deco landmark building, once the Dempsey Vanderbilt Hotel, and the adjoining 40-story glass tower on Collins Avenue into—as far as a hotel can be classified as such—a work of art. Here a variety of Asian themed suites come equipped with black granite baths, BOSE surround sound systems, LCDs, plasmas, hand carved furniture, teak walls and jade pieces hand picked from antique markets in China. A few rooms have private entertainment rooms, others their own spa. Their ten thousand square foot, 4-bedroom Penthouse Presidential suite is the most expensive hotel room in the United States—at least at the moment—at $20,000 per night. Their Atlantic Ocean front is a dreamland of Oriental gardens, sundecks, 90-foot long bars and pools tuned to temperatures of 75-95 degrees.

Smart Luxury: South Beach Group Boutique Hotels
Starting Price: $115 per Night
The party friendly attitude of the South Beach Hotel Group attracts a fashionable club-going crowd and the occasional celebrity in a contemporary package that somehow maintains some of the best value in the neighborhood. You have your pick of the Asian themed Hotel Chelsea, the trendy Catalina Hotel and Beach Club, the hipsterish Whitelaw Hotel, where the slogan is—seriously—”Clean sheets, hot water, stiff drinks” and four others scattered around South Beach, mostly on Collins Avenue. VIP nightclub passes, a nightly “hook up hour” in their hotel bars, free airport shuttles and a slew of other extras make these boutique properties hard to resist.

Smart Family: The Sagamore
Starting Price: $250 per Night
South Beach sometimes seems to cool for families. World-renowned fashion designers, pencil thin models and Mexican soap stars can all be found mingling with mojitos under umbrellas in sidewalk cafes. Something called an Art hotel that is mostly decked out in white would also be too cool for families, right? Wrong. One amenity makes the Sagamore possibly the best kid hotel ever: the Sagamore Kids VIP pass, which allows any child wearing one to receive free hot dogs, French fries and ice cream on request. For hip moms and dads, there’s an infinity pool, video bar, Social Miami, a museum quality art collection, an all white gallery dining room and a concierge that will put you on any nightclub’s guest list. The 93 one- and two-bedroom suites feature breakfast bars, whirlpool tubs and plasma TVs.