The choice is a neighbourhood, not a hotel
Miami Beach is one long barrier island, and the only decision that really changes your week is which part of it you sleep on. The ocean is the same from end to end. What changes is the street behind your room, how far you have to go for dinner, and how early the noise stops.
We're at 7418 Harding Avenue, at the north end, so you should read this knowing which end we live on. We'll still tell you plainly when another stretch suits you better. Sending someone to the wrong neighbourhood costs us more than losing the booking.
South Beach: the Art Deco blocks, and the busiest end
South Beach is the part most people picture, roughly 5th Street to 23rd. It holds the Art Deco buildings, Ocean Drive along the sand, and Española Way, the narrow pedestrian lane a few blocks inland. It's where the island is densest: the most restaurants per block, the most people on the pavement, the shortest walk between one thing and the next.
The standing recommendation we give is the Lincoln Road Farmer's Market, which runs Sundays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. along Lincoln Road between Meridian and Washington: produce, cut flowers, a pleasant hour. Go in the morning. By midday the pedestrian mall is full. The Bass, the city's contemporary art museum at 2100 Collins Avenue, is the other reason we send guests south, and it runs free community days that are worth checking before you book a ticket.
Stay in South Beach if you want to walk everywhere and don't mind the volume. Don't stay there if you sleep lightly.
Mid-Beach: the stretch in between
Mid-Beach is the run north of South Beach along Collins Avenue, the long hotel corridor between the Art Deco district and the seventies streets. It's quieter than South Beach and further from the restaurant blocks at either end. The honest summary: it suits people who want the beach and a pool and are happy to take a car to dinner. If you plan on walking to everything, it's the weakest of the five.
North Beach, or NOBE: where we are
North Beach starts around the sixties and runs up into the eighties. This is our stretch. It's residential, lower, older, and much quieter in the evening. The anchor is the Miami Beach Bandshell at 7275 Collins Avenue, an open-air venue a few blocks from our gate, which is the rare thing in Miami that you can walk to and walk home from.
North Beach still has its soul. The restaurants and cafés cluster around 71st Street and the Normandy Fountain rather than along the beachfront, which is why the sand up here is emptier than the sand further south on the same afternoon. Our own house is a 1948 building with 29 rooms and suites across two floors, and Felix designed each room himself: every piece is custom, down to the teak deck pattern around the pool. The courtyard is where the day really begins, usually at 8 a.m. before the heat sets in.
Stay here if you want to be able to hear the evening. Don't stay here if your plan is to roll out of bed into a crowd.
Surfside: a small town with its own business district
Surfside is the next town north, and it functions like a town rather than a strip. The business district on Harding Avenue around 94th to 96th carries the everyday business of eating: delis, bakeries, casual dinners, including the MICHELIN-recommended Josh's Deli. The Surfside Farmers Market runs at the 96th Street beach entrance October through May, 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Because Harding Avenue is our street too, Surfside is a walk for us rather than a drive, which is part of why we chose this end. We've written a separate guide to what's worth the walk.
Bal Harbour: the top of the island
Bal Harbour sits at the northern tip, and the reason to be there is Bal Harbour Shops, the open-air luxury shopping centre that anchors the whole village. It is the most expensive stretch of the island and the least eventful on foot. Our view: Bal Harbour is better as somewhere you go to than somewhere you sleep, which is exactly how we use it.
Side by side
| Stretch | What the street is like | Stay here if |
|---|---|---|
| South Beach | Densest, Art Deco blocks, Ocean Drive and Española Way | You want to walk to everything and don't mind noise |
| Mid-Beach | Hotel corridor along Collins, little street life | Beach and pool are the plan and you'll drive to dinner |
| North Beach (NOBE) | Residential, cafés around 71st Street, Bandshell on Collins | You want quiet evenings and emptier sand |
| Surfside | Small-town business district on Harding Avenue | You want to eat well on foot without a scene |
| Bal Harbour | Luxury shopping, little else at ground level | Shopping is the point of the trip |
What we'd tell you at the desk
If it's your first time on the island and you have three days, the gap between South Beach and the north end is smaller than it looks on a map: a short drive, or the beach walk itself. Pick the end that matches your evenings, then travel for your afternoons. Quiet luxury you feel rather than see is a thing you want at 10 p.m., not at noon.
If you're booking with us, check-in is after 4:00 p.m. and check-out is 11:00 a.m., and someone is at the desk at any hour. Tell us your arrival time in advance and we'll do what we can for an early room.