Top places to stay in Miami, Florida.
Miami forged a distinctive hospitality culture through the expansion of Atlantic coastal tourism, the architectural exuberance of the Art Deco era, and the influence of Caribbean and Latin American communities, establishing a cosmopolitan resort tradition shaped by tropical leisure, international commerce, and energetic cultural exchange.The Tequesta inhabited the shores of Biscayne Bay and the Miami River for centuries before European settlement, establishing communities sustained by the region's waterways and coastal resources. The extension of Henry Flagler's Florida East Coast Railway to Miami in 1896, encouraged by landowner Julia Tuttle, connected the settlement with the expanding winter tourism industry of Florida's Atlantic coast. The Royal Palm Hotel opened in 1897 near the mouth of the Miami River, introducing an ambitious resort whose tropical gardens and substantial public spaces attracted affluent northern visitors. Across Biscayne Bay, developers Carl Fisher and the Lummus brothers transformed Miami Beach through land reclamation, transportation infrastructure, and the construction of oceanfront accommodation. The development of causeways connecting the barrier island with the mainland accelerated investment in hotels, residential estates, and recreational facilities, establishing the foundations of a coastal resort economy. The Florida land boom of the 1920s encouraged an ambitious program of construction, with Mediterranean Revival architecture expressing the prosperity and international aspirations of the region's developers. George Merrick's creation of Coral Gables culminated in the opening of the Biltmore Hotel in 1926, designed by Schultze and Weaver with an expansive tower inspired by Seville's Giralda. The devastating hurricane of 1926 and the collapse of speculative real estate development interrupted this expansion, reshaping investment in the region's accommodation industry. During the 1930s, Miami Beach architects Henry Hohauser and L. Murray Dixon developed a distinctive interpretation of Art Deco through streamlined façades, geometric ornament, and compact hotel buildings suited to the growing market for seasonal tourism. Their work helped establish South Beach as one of the most architecturally recognizable resort districts in the United States. Following the Second World War, commercial aviation and expanding American prosperity encouraged the construction of substantial beachfront resorts combining accommodation with dining, entertainment, and recreational facilities. Morris Lapidus transformed the architectural style of luxury hospitality through the Fontainebleau Miami Beach, opened in 1954, whose theatrical interiors and sweeping forms established a new model of resort performance. The Cuban Revolution of 1959 initiated a profound demographic and cultural transformation as Cuban migration reshaped Miami's commercial institutions, restaurants, and international relationships. The expansion of Latin American finance and aviation subsequently strengthened the city's position as a commercial gateway between North America, the Caribbean, and South America. During the late twentieth century, preservation efforts led by Barbara Baer Capitman and the Miami Design Preservation League helped protect the architectural inheritance of South Beach, encouraging the restoration of historic hotels and the revival of Ocean Drive and Collins Avenue. The emergence of boutique hospitality within these restored properties connected architectural preservation with Miami's growing international reputation for fashion, entertainment, and contemporary design. The subsequent development of waterfront towers and sophisticated metropolitan hotels extended the hospitality economy into Brickell and Downtown, establishing a distinctive relationship between beachfront leisure and international business travel. Miami's hotel industry expresses the enduring connection between transportation, coastal development, architectural innovation, and the international commercial relationships that transformed a small settlement on Biscayne Bay into a major Atlantic destination.
Miami's accommodation landscape follows the relationship between its Atlantic barrier islands, the sheltered waters of Biscayne Bay, and the mainland districts shaped by successive periods of metropolitan expansion. South Beach preserves the city's most concentrated historic resort environment, where the Art Deco Historic District extends through streets distinguished by compact hotels, geometric façades, and the intimate proportions of interwar architecture. Ocean Drive forms a celebrated coastal corridor overlooking Lummus Park, with restored properties occupying narrow parcels facing the Atlantic shoreline. Collins Avenue extends northward through an architectural progression from historic boutique hotels to substantial midcentury resorts and contemporary luxury buildings, reflecting the changing scale of Miami Beach tourism. The pedestrian environment surrounding Lincoln Road connects accommodation with established restaurants, retail institutions, and public spaces within the island's historic commercial center. Mid-Beach presents a more expansive resort landscape through expansive oceanfront properties occupying substantial sites, where landscaped swimming pools, dramatic entrance courts, and extensive recreational grounds establish a distinctive interpretation of coastal luxury. The Fontainebleau and Eden Roc occupy prominent positions within this architectural environment, their expressive modernist forms overlooking the Atlantic. Farther north, North Beach preserves a concentration of Miami Modern buildings distinguished by decorative concrete screens, cantilevered elements, and tropical landscaping, supporting a quieter accommodation environment within established residential streets. Across Biscayne Bay, Downtown developed around the historic commercial waterfront, where contemporary hotels occupy substantial towers overlooking Bayfront Park, the Port of Miami, and the principal transportation connections of the metropolitan center. The district's glass-clad architecture reflects the expansion of international commerce and financial services, establishing an urban hospitality environment connected to major business institutions and cultural landmarks. Brickell extends this metropolitan landscape southward through its concentration of international banking headquarters, luxury residential towers, and sophisticated mixed-use developments. Its waterfront hotels provide access to prominent restaurants, commercial institutions, and the landscaped pedestrian spaces surrounding Brickell Key, whose island setting introduces a distinctive residential character within the financial district. South of the urban center, Coconut Grove preserves an established subtropical environment shaped by mature vegetation, historic estates, and winding streets extending toward the sheltered shoreline of Biscayne Bay. The neighborhood's longstanding sailing culture and substantial waterfront properties contribute to an intimate accommodation landscape distinguished by landscaped gardens and historic residential architecture. Coral Gables presents a more formal interpretation of metropolitan planning through its Mediterranean Revival buildings, broad boulevards, and carefully composed public spaces. The Biltmore occupies an expansive position within this architectural landscape, connecting prestigious accommodation with the civic ambitions of the city's early development. Along the northern Atlantic coastline, Bal Harbour established an exclusive resort environment through its concentration of luxury oceanfront properties, landscaped streets, and prestigious shopping institutions. Sunny Isles Beach reflects a more recent phase of coastal development, with slender hotel and residential towers occupying prominent waterfront sites between the Atlantic Ocean and the Intracoastal Waterway. South of Miami Beach, Key Biscayne offers a secluded island environment distinguished by broad beaches, coastal vegetation, and substantial parkland, supporting resort accommodation within a landscape closely connected to the marine ecology of southeastern Florida. These environments establish a coherent accommodation landscape extending from intimate Art Deco hotels and expansive beachfront resorts to Mediterranean Revival landmarks, tropical residential retreats, and contemporary waterfront towers, each expressing a distinctive stage in Miami's development as an international coastal destination. Foresyte may earn a commission when you book.
Foresyte Travel's top five choices.
5. The Elser Hotel Miami
The Elser Hotel Miami occupies a 49-story tower developed by Property Markets Group opposite Bayside Marketplace, placing the property within Downtown's accelerating transformation into a dense residential and hospitality district. Sieger Suarez Architects designed the tower with a faceted glass exterior and extensive private terraces oriented toward Biscayne Bay, continuing the firm's substantial role in shaping Miami's contemporary high-rise skyline. The Elser name revives the legacy of the Elser Pier, a prominent early-twentieth-century waterfront attraction that once extended into Biscayne Bay near the present property and became a gathering place for entertainment, boxing and civic events. That historical reference connects a new generation of vertical development with the recreational waterfront culture that helped define Downtown more than a century earlier.
4. EAST Miami
EAST Miami became Swire Hotels' first property in the United States when it opened in 2016 as part of Brickell City Centre, the $1.05 billion mixed-use development that transformed several blocks of Miami's financial district. Arquitectonica designed the hotel tower within the larger complex, whose integration of hospitality, residences, offices and retail established one of the most consequential private urban developments completed in modern Miami. Clodagh Design shaped the interiors, and the building's external profile incorporates stacked balconies and extensive glazing into the vertical architecture associated with contemporary Brickell. The hotel represents both the international expansion of Swire's EAST brand and a central component of the project that accelerated Brickell's evolution from a predominantly financial district into a major residential, retail and hospitality center.
3. InterContinental Miami by IHG
InterContinental Miami occupies a waterfront tower completed in 1982 as the centerpiece of the development originally known as the Miami Center, conceived during a pivotal period in Downtown's modern redevelopment. Architect Pietro Belluschi designed the 34-story building with Emery Roth & Sons, giving Biscayne Bay an expansive hotel tower whose massing and dark glass façade became defining elements of the downtown waterfront. The property subsequently entered InterContinental's portfolio and developed an unusual civic role through large-scale digital imagery projected across its exterior, turning the architecture itself into a visible component of Miami's nighttime skyline. Its continued presence beside Bayfront Park connects the contemporary downtown hotel district with the generation of major commercial construction that reshaped Miami's urban core during the early 1980s.
2. Four Seasons Hotel Miami
Four Seasons Hotel Miami occupies part of the 70-story Four Seasons Tower, a 789-foot skyscraper completed in 2003 that became the tallest building in Florida and the tallest residential building south of New York City at the time. Bermello Ajamil & Partners designed the mixed-use tower for Millennium Partners, combining hotel functions, residences and offices within a structure that materially altered Brickell's skyline during the district's early twenty-first-century building surge. Artist and landscape architect Dan Kiley's influence entered the property through an extensive pool terrace incorporating mature palms and elevated outdoor spaces above the surrounding street grid. The development established a major architectural marker for Brickell before the district's subsequent wave of supertall residential and mixed-use construction transformed Miami's financial center into its present vertical form.
1. The St. Regis Bal Harbour Resort
The St. Regis Bal Harbour Resort occupies the former site of the Americana Hotel, Morris Lapidus's celebrated 1956 resort whose theatrical modernism helped define postwar Miami Beach hospitality before its demolition in 2007. Sieger Suarez Architects designed the replacement development as three slender glass towers directly across Collins Avenue from Bal Harbour Shops, extending the area's architectural history into a new generation of oceanfront residential and hotel construction. The St. Regis opened in 2012 as the hospitality centerpiece of the complex, linking the service traditions originating with John Jacob Astor IV's 1904 St. Regis New York to one of South Florida's most concentrated luxury districts. Its redevelopment connects two distinct periods of Miami resort history on the same Atlantic site: Lapidus's vivacious midcentury tourism architecture and Bal Harbour's twenty-first-century transformation into an internationally recognized center of luxury hospitality, residences and fashion.
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