The boutique hotel scene in Miami is maturing nicely, with a growing collection of charismatic spaces that have more to say for themselves than just being close to a beach.
Our Dispatch series takes a little August inspiration from our European brethren — shifting the gears down a few notches, getting into vacation mode, and giving you some easily digestible hotel curation content. We won’t spend a half-dozen or so paragraphs up here describing a place and explaining why you should visit it. Instead, we’ll just let the hotels do the talking, choosing for you a collection of standout accommodations that represent the range of culture, character, history, luxury, and landscape on offer.
Without further ado, here is a list of top hotels that tell the story of hospitality in Miami, Florida. To see our entire selection of hotels in Miami, click here.
The Setai Miami Beach
Miami Beach, FL, USA
In a town filled with over-the-top luxury accommodations, the Setai manages to set itself apart by being even more over-the-top. The heart of the hotel lies behind the refurbished facade of the Dempsey Vanderbilt hotel, a classic eight-story Art Deco building dating back to the first golden age of Miami Beach. Then there’s the more recently constructed tower, forty curvaceous, luxurious stories of aquamarine glass right on the beach.
Esmé Miami Beach
Miami Beach, FL, USA
Just one block from the Collins Avenue hotel strip, hiding in plain sight at Washington Avenue and Española Way, is something a bit subtler than the big, glossy, Miami Beach boutique hotels: Esmé Miami Beach is a Spanish-Mediterranean gem whose bohemian-luxe interiors establish a warm and slightly retro mood — one that’s got nothing to do, for once, with mid-century modernism.
Mr. C Miami – Coconut Grove
Coconut Grove, Miami, FL, USA
The C in Mr. C stands for Cipriani, the famous family of restaurateurs. To their restaurant in Downtown Miami you can add Mr. C Miami – Coconut Grove, on Biscayne Bay just to the south of the city proper. Here, a bridge or two from the painstakingly preserved history of Miami Beach, there’s room for something different, and Mr. C Miami – Coconut Grove is certainly that.
Hotel Greystone
Miami Beach, FL, USA
The historic 1930s Art Deco façade of the Hotel Greystone looks brand new — and after a vast renovation, what’s inside looks more or less like the last word in contemporary South Beach boutique luxury. The location is just about as central as it gets, but the Greystone’s interiors offer immediate relief from the bustle outside; soothing cream tones dominate, accented by living greenery and subtle Deco reverberations.
Mayfair House Hotel & Garden
Coconut Grove, Miami, FL, USA
Mayfair House Hotel & Garden offers a different perspective on a familiar destination. The original Mayfair is an uncommonly stylish 1980s icon by architect Kenneth Treister, and it’s been reverently updated by Goodrich NYC into the hotel you see today. The word “garden” is in there for a reason; the hotel’s open atrium is filled with lush greenery, from towering palms to leaves that fringe the upper levels.
Faena Hotel Miami Beach
Miami Beach, FL, USA
The Faena District occupies an eight-block stretch of prime oceanfront real estate. There are condominium towers, a high-end design bazaar, and a cultural center, but for our money, the knock-out highlight is the hotel. Faena enlisted a dream team of designers, including architect Rem Koolhaas, to bring his fantasies to life, and the result is fanciful indeed.
The Vagabond Hotel
MiMo, Miami, FL, USA
The Vagabond was one of many family-friendly motels that popped up in Miami to cater to the postwar surge of road-trip tourists, and in short order, it was hosting the likes of Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr. But like many vintage landmarks, the motel fell into disrepair. Fast forward to the future: after sitting empty for years, the MiMO icon got the star treatment, and reopened to considerable fanfare among the design set.
The Moore
MiMo, Miami, FL, USA
Originally built in 1921 as a neoclassical furniture showroom, The Moore has long been part of Miami’s design DNA. Reimagined as a boutique hotel with serious creative pedigree, its 13 suites play with texture and tone: plaster walls, curved wood, clay and rattan. Below, a Zaha Hadid installation anchors the atrium, while art galleries, concept dining, and a private club animate the rest of the building.
Betsy – South Beach
Miami Beach, FL, USA
In Miami the flash hotels arms race has escalated to a point where a hotel like the Betsy is almost shocking in its restraint. We’re almost tempted to call it conservative, but with a disclaimer: the Betsy’s pre-deco style means it’s got a personality all its own. This was pretty much the last Georgian-style hotel to be built on Ocean Drive.
Soho Beach House Miami
Miami Beach, FL, USA
The Soho House concept has proved to be eminently adaptable, even while it retains its core appeal — for an illustration you couldn’t do much better than Soho Beach House Miami. It’s set right on Collins Avenue, surrounded by hotels of every size and style, but none of them are quite like this one, a private members’ club whose highly covetable services and facilities are the reason for the lodging’s existence.
The Villa, Casa Casuarina
Miami Beach, FL, USA
The old Versace mansion is back, this time as a luxury boutique hotel, under a new name: The Villa, Casa Casuarina. This patchwork Italian-style palace is still every inch a monument to excess. The accommodations don’t play it any safer than the hyper-ornate common areas; all the suites are intricately detailed, full of stained glass, mosaic tile and hand-carved furniture, along with everything a modern luxury hotel needs.
The Standard Spa, Miami Beach
Venetian Islands, Miami Beach, FL, USA
Unique to this particular Standard are a few novel solutions to the problem of shoehorning another big-deal hotel into the already packed South Beach scene. First, the hotel is located off the main drag, on the quiet and mostly residential Belle Isle, along the Venetian Causeway just short of Miami Beach proper. Second is the spa, where guests indulge in mud wraps, steam baths, and the occasional swim in the chlorine-free Sound Pool.
Mark Fedeli is the hotel marketing and editorial director for Tablet and Michelin Guide. He’s been with Tablet since 2006, and he thinks you should subscribe to our newsletter.