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Published: June 23rd 2010
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As an introduction to this trip, let me just say that we referenced my last South Beach post numerous times as a reference! Mission for this blog accomplished. 😊
Now for the down and dirty. As mentioned before, Matt and I vowed to take little getaways at least every 5 or so weeks to maintain our sanity. We had such a great time in South Beach last time and craved another go around. Luckily, summer time brings lower hotel rates. For this trip, we debated between 3 or 4 hotels: The Hotel of South Beach
, The Blue Moon Hotel , The Essex House and the Beacon Hotel . After much thought and reading countless reviews on TripAdvisor, we opted for the Essex House.
Hotel Review and Parking:
We decided to park in the garage on 5th and Collins like we did last time because of convenience. Although it was a bit of a walk to our hotel on 10th and Collins, 5th is the main road that takes you to and from I-95 with the least amount of time on Collins. I'm not sure if South Beach raised it's parking rates or what exactly happened but the cost is now a $15 flat fee for 12 hours. Unfortunately, we stayed roughly 27 hours and ended up paying $45 as if we stayed 36. We'll definitely keep this in mind next time around and be more diligent about our timing to maximize our parking costs.
The Essex Hotel was overall very nice for the price. Through Hotels.com, we paid $150 per night when all was said and done. The costs have dropped an incredible amount since February! The cool thing about The Essex Hotel is that it is affiliated with The Clevelander
next door on Ocean Dr. The Essex Hotel is known as the "family hotel", whereas The Clevelander is notorious for being a party hotel. The idea here is that one can stay at The Essex House to maintain some peace and quiet and freely utilize all the amenities and bars at The Clevelander just by showing a room key. In theory, this sounds great and like the perfect compromise of getting sleep and still having the South Beach experience. In reality, Matt and I are old beyond our years when it comes to bed time and were passed out in our nice and quiet Essex Hotel by 10 PM....maybe next time. 😊 Otherwise, the Essex was local to everything being centrally located on South Beach at 10th and Collins. The rooms were nice and clean with a basic modern design and a huge TV which was a perk. The staff was very friendly and helpful and the bar downstairs offers Happy House from 5-7. Despite the bed being comfortable, I did not sleep too well which could be attributed to the loud A/C unit by the window. The walls were also thin which is pretty common in all South Beach hotels. Other cons were the musty smell in the hallways and elevator and incredibly poor water pressure. Although not a bad deal at all for the price we paid, I still like The Hotel of South Beach better (although it's also more expensive).
Dining: Per Matt's choice, we had our first meal in South Beach at WingZone
located at Washington and 7th. Don't get me wrong, I like Wingzone every now and then but not on vacation when we have so many unique restaurants at our foot steps. Nonetheless, we opted to try it out because we were both starving and wanted a safe bet. Matt ordered Teriyaki chicken wings which were prepared within 15 minutes and good as usual. I ordered a grilled chicken salad thinking it would be quick and easy for them to make. Wrong. My salad took 50 minutes to make (I kid you not) and the service was absolutely terrible. To make matters worse, it wasn't even that good when I finally was able to eat it. Never again will I patron that WingZone.
Saturday night we decided that we wanted the delicious mojitos that we had last time we were in South Beach at On Ocean 7 (
). Just like last visit, the special was buy one get one free ($25 per drink of course). For our first order, Matt ordered the Peach Mojito and I ordered the Champagne Mojito. Both were very large and very good (although Matt did not like my Champagne Mojito simply because he doesn't like champagne). Our second order I opted for the Mimosa Mojito and Matt had some Grape Mimosa which tasted more like lighter fluid than anything. I don't think either of us was able to get through even a third of our second drink. We also ordered the Mozzarella Sticks to nibble on while at On Ocean 7. The fries that came with the Mozzarella sticks were decent but the sticks themselves were equivalent to something you would buy in the freezer aisle at Publix. I would not suggest getting these again. As the night wore on, we started walking to the shops on Lincoln. We stopped at the French Cafe Paul
to grab some actual grub. Matt ordered a Chicken Club Sandwich on French Bread, French Onion Soup, Lemonade and a Blackberry Tart. The sandwich was delicious and came with fresh salad on the plate in addition to wedge fries. Although the French Onion Soup was also very good, he claimed Panera's is better. I ordered a cappuccino and a chocolate chop croissant. Paul is also a chain which we had been to before. Regardless of being a chain, I'd probably go back in South Beach if we wanted quick, delicious and affordable food.
On Sunday morning, we decided to heed the advice of my parents and try out the News Cafe on Ocean Dr . As we were walking to the New Cafe, we passed by several other restaurants that offered very cheap breakfast deals. For whatever reason, the News Cafe did not offer these specials like it's neighbors on Ocean Dr. Regardless, I was curious to see what the hype was about. I order a mimosa, coffee and an egg white veggie omelet with a side of fruit. Matt ordered scrambled eggs, bacon, fruit and an orange juice. The fruit was good and fresh with raisins on the top. The OJ was fresh and delicious as was our overall meal. I believe we paid around $50.00 total for breakfast. Although everything was good and the atmosphere nice, I would probably try one of the other restaurants with breakfast specials next time around. It should also be noted that gratuity is already included in most places which saved us some number crunching on vacation. 😉
Shopping: Aside from people watching and sipping giant Mojitos, one of our favorite South Beach activities is browsing the various shops and boutiques. Per last visit, we spent much of our time exploring the various shops on Lincoln Ave such as The Alchemist
, All Saints Spitalfields and Y3 . We loved the Alchemist and were amazingly close to splurging on a few pieces but luckily for our wallets, the store did not carry our sizes in the pieces we liked. My favorite shop was the new sister store of the Alchemist, also located on Lincoln. It ended up being a bit of an adventure to find, but well worth it and apparently the hunt the owner was going for. Right next to the Y3 store is a parking garage. The Alchemist sister store is located on the 5th level of the parking garage in an amazing contemporary loft setting with amazing views of the city and ocean
. Apparently, there's a similar loft on the 7th floor that can be rented out for events such as weddings and parties. Very cool. Very expensive.
All in all, this was yet another exciting getaway for Matt and me. I can't wait for our next trip. Maybe next time we can actually stay up past 10 PM. 😉
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