Miami
Florida, USA


The Experience

Set on an island in a posh residential quarter close to the city's financial district and overlooking Biscayne Bay, the Mandarin Oriental is literally a world away from the South Beach frenzy. Pairing the scale of an island resort -- a soaring atrium lobby, massive bay-front pools and chaise-filled man-made beach -- with the efficiency of a business hotel, the Mandarin Oriental is an oasis of Asian calm and order.

The Rooms

Dominated by calming beiges and whites, the rooms -- the smallest of which is 377 square feet -- are light and airy, like their aquatic surroundings. Depending on the view, take in the sunrise over Brickell Key or the sunset over the Miami skyline from your balcony. Upgrade to a Dynasty Suite and you'll find rice-paper sliding doors separating living room from bedroom, while the new 2,000-square-feet Mandarin Suite offers even more Asian touches, including a separate Spa Serenity room, complete with Spa Butler and infinity-edge stone bath.

The Service

Invoking the attention to detail for which the Mandarin Oriental brand is renowned, service is at a level of precision rarely found in more laissez-faire Miami. Cabs are always a mere doorman away, restaurant hosts remember favorite drinks and the business center wisely overlooks unnecessary charges like a two-minute Internet session.

The Highlights

Following in the footsteps of celebrated founding-chef Michelle Bernstein, Clay Conley continues to make Azul's massive open marble kitchen one of Miami's best. At the hotel's opposite end is a 15,000-square-feet trilevel spa with 17 treatment rooms, many with floor-to-ceiling water views, and all with Asian elements such as bamboo mats and rice-paper screens. On the bay itself, the hotel's weekly winter beach parties continue to lure young Miami swells, but the Mandarin reasserts its quiet luxury on "Opium Beds" set over the thin strip of sand down by the water's edge.

-- David Kaufman

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