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The Whitelaw Hotel in South Beach is our go-to hotel time after time for reasonable prices, cool decor, and awesome location. In summertime, they have specials, so I also suscribe to their email alerts. Some of the specials are for Florida residents only, and others are for anyone who wants to visit South Beach, Miami during the off season.

The rooms are tiny, but with creative planning, they’ve made the best use of space and teh result is nice.  Take a look at the bathroom- how small is that space, but with a modern sink and use of quality fixtures, you don’t mind.  It seems clean and it looks nice, so that’s good. 

The rooms are really beautiful- again, great use of space and color for maximum effect.  This is boutique hotel at its best.  The lobby is impressive, with a centeral round sofa under a chandelier dripping with crystal-like drops and beads.  The colors are magenta and bleach white.  Very crisp and refreshing.  There’s a small bar in the lobby.  In the morning, sometimes they serve coffee and sometimes you have to hunt down the front desk person and ask for it. 

The porch is one of the nicest things about Whitelaw Hotel.  It’s large and wide and has comfy large sofas behind umbrella tables.  This is a fantastic place to sit for hours sipping cocktails and watching the people go by.  And one of the perks of the Whitelaw Hotel is free cocktails in the evening for a few hours.  Nice!

Another perk is their association through the group of hotels is belongs to, to the Chesterfield Spa, nearby.  Ask for details when you book a room.  They also have a free shuttle for guests from Miami International Airport.  The Whitelaw Hotel s located at Collins Ave. and 8th Street.

On Collins Ave in the morning, you can stroll down the sidewalk and all the hotel restaurants have their cafe tables set for breakfast.  There’s a hostess lady who beckons you as you go by, and she offers great deals on breakfast at what seem like incredible prices.  There’s often a sign with picture of what you can get for as little as $5.  What a great deal, right?  Well, that depends.

For all you readers out there who drink coffee – need coffee – in the morning, let me introduce you to the $5 cup of coffee.  The nonrefillable $5 cup of coffee, that is.  There are two hooks to the cheap breakfast in South Beach.  One it that it doesn’t come with coffee and to get a cup of coffee costs as much as the breakfast. 

The second hook is that you may get two eggs, but no yolks.  no toast.  actually, all you get is a small pile of egg whites on a plate.  And toast is not cheap if you order it on the side. 

As long as you know these things, you can sit down and have a diet South Beach breakfast for under $10.

South Beach is all about nightclubs, dining, shopping, people watching, and of course the beaches.  Now that it’s starting to get colder elsewhere, the warm beaches of South Beach are looking better and better to the rest of the country. 

The dune areas behind the beach are coverd with beautiful grassy areas, making the perfect backdrop for the sunny wide sand beaches here in South Beach.

The lifeguard houses on Miami’s South Beach are widely recognized and very much photographed.  Why?  They’re bright  pink and yellow and they’re round.  South Beach is beautiful for lots of reasons, but the lifeguard houses are at the top of my list.  Any time of year, any time of day, the lifeguard huts are always photogenic and a lasting symbol of South Beach, Miami.

The Clevelander is on Ocean Drive in South Beach- hotel, bar, and entertainment spot.  With the new renovation including lots of flat screen tvs at the outdoor bar, it’s a major hub for Spring Break central.  They aim for the tailgate crowd, or the ones who actually didn’t make it to the tailgate parties and end up in South Beach instead to watch their games. 

It’s nice, and the large courtyard faces the ocean, and has a large, inviting central bar with fountains splashing all around, and plenty of seating for the tailgate wannabees.  Lots of fun, the place to be for the Spring Break crowd.