MIAMI’S 15 HOTTEST HOTELS

Ultra-luxury, high design and more

From private yacht marinas and “vibe managers” on hand to personally tailor moods, to showerheads that spout from crystal chandeliers (such as at the Mondrian South Beach, opening Dec. 2008), unfettered hedonism is the mantra at Miami’s most buzzy hotels.

Decades before the iconic hotels of South Beach’s Art Deco District were reborn as postcard-worthy facades with diaphanous curtains fluttering in tropical breezes and white on white everywhere, behemoth luxury bastions like the Fontainebleau Hotel and Eden Roc in what’s now dubbed Mid-Beachlured Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack with their oceanfront settings and legendary lounges.

Today, those testaments to old Miami style—built during an era when the American notion of bigger is better firmly applied—are being reinvented.

The Fontainebleau underwent a facelift in 2008 that would make even the most discerning plastic surgeon seem light-handed, while the Eden Roc recently profited from $180 million in work that doubled the number of the rooms, added a new tower and upgraded the pool area.

“There’s a shift going on right now,” says Maria Argüello, Miami community manager for Yelp.com, an online community of local reviewers. “South Beach in the 90s had a lot of attitude, a lot of models” and while that scene is still intrinsic to the South Beach experience, there’s “been a shift in the marketing, and places are becoming more sophisticated and cultural.” For starters, “hotels need to have more than a lavish pool. They also need a lifestyle element in the form of a good restaurant, nightlife scene, [and] a good café.”

The Fontainebleau Miami Beach’s hallucinatory $1 billion “rebirth” resulted in the hotel opening its doors in November 2008 with a new Las Vegas-like nightclub and 11 new restaurants and lounges, including an outpost of Britain’s only Michelin-rated Chinese restaurant, Hakkasan. The 1,504-room resort now occupies two glittering towers that dominate Mid-Beach. And five-star pampering comes in the form of a 40,000-square-foot spa and one of the most enviable pools in South Florida.

Argüello said that the lifestyle element’s influence on the hotel scene is also evident in the rise of actual residences being offered at Miami’s newest hotels. The Gansevoort South, which opened in March 2008, is a case in point. Along with the W South Beach Hotel & Residences, set to open in Spring 2009, and the Mondrian South Beach Hotel Residences, Gansevoort South is one of several new hotels to offer visitors and locals a more permanent stake in America’s Riviera, with luxury condominiums offered for sale in addition to nightly room rates.

And while the Gansevoort shares its Manhattan cousin’s contemporary aesthetic and scenester rooftop pool (albeit one of the most immaculately designed watering holes in Miami), the South Beach hotel has a few kinks to work through when it comes to meeting five-star expectations. Professional service can be hit or miss, and while many of the rooms are huge (among the biggest in South Beach), hot pink headboards and uncomfortably empty wall space creates an aesthetic that may not appeal to everyone.

For guaranteed Deco style that’s neither minimalist nor over-the-top, consider The Victor. This glitterati hotspot on a relatively quiet stretch of Ocean Drive, next to the former Versace Mansion, was glammed up during renovations in 2005. The result is high style with a surprisingly subdued snob factor.

“At this stage, all the Deco hotels have been brought back,” says Andrew Thiel, director of business development for Hideaways International. “And the Victor was one of the last ones to be reawakened.” Though a lot of South Beach properties have interesting Art Deco facades, they “they tend to look the same” inside. The Victor stands apart, according to Thiel. “They’ve purposely avoided the stark whitewashed look and really embraced the Deco past of the hotel, with rich colors drawing from original artwork. Art Deco in the 1930s was really futuristic, and it’s almost like design is catching up with the times now.”

It’s impossible to talk about South Beach hotels without mentioning the Delano, Ian Schrager’s pride that was reborn in the 1990s. It’s home to one of Miami’s most photographed pools—dubbed a ‘water salon” here, since it’s more for posing and preening than actual athletic pursuits. “Delano has staying power, but even they’ve had to up their game,” says Argüello, citing the addition of a sushi restaurant, Blue Sea, and the Florida Room—an Art Basel hotspot where the lounge’s rockstar designer Lenny Kravitz can sometimes be spotted tinkling the keys of a glass grand piano.

The Tides, another Miami luxury mainstay and vintage throwback dating to 1936, went under the knife in 2007 and emerged sexier than ever, with chic safari touches seamlessly melding with South Beach chic. It’s “a little bit of an enclave from South Beach,” says Mike Thiel, president of Hideaways International, “The rooms are very spacious and there’s a very nice setback from Ocean Drive.”

And while it’s not on the oceanfront, The Standard—an erstwhile motor lodge turned stunning Scandinavian-inspired spa resort on residential Belle Isle—is another Miami classic. “The Standard has the old spirit of what Miami was,” says Karelle Levy, a fashion designer who has showcased her label, KRELwear, during fashion events at the hotel. “You don’t have techno music pumping like in a lot of the other hotels,” Levy says. “It’s a very relaxed atmosphere, very laidback—classy without having to be the scene to be seen.”

When it comes to effortless elegance that weathers the test of time, few Miami hotels are as elegant as the Biltmore in Coral Gables. The Mediterranean-feeling grand dame’s modern rooms are complemented by seductive Moorish arches and colonnades in the public areas and one of the most beautiful pools in Florida.

“My boyfriend and I try to spend a weekend at the Biltmore every year,” says New York City-based novelist Lisa Wixon, author of Dirty Blonde and Half Cuban. “In October, I was doing laps when Tom Wolfe plunked down in a lounger with his white suit and patent leather boots in 90-plus degree weather. The Biltmore is that kind of place.”