Monday, January 18, 2010

Hotels in South Beach


The hotels in the South Beach area are incredibly cool.  The area just oooozes the Art Deco style.  If it isn't art deco then it compliments that style.



I really like the traveller palms against this small hotel and the lighting is so soft.



I have no idea what type of tree this is, but it was very unusual with all of these strange strings hanging from it.  OK, so they aren't real strings, but part of the tree.




Unless I took a picture of the hotel sign, I have no idea which hotel is which.    I like the fancy ones, the run down ones, the tall ones, the short ones and the closed ones.  The Leslie Hotel (not shown) was the one featured in the movie The Bird Cage and it's empty and for sale.  It's so sad, but still, it's lovely even though it needs a lot of work.


I wish I had taken a dozen more photos of the Hotel Victor.  I didn't realize how great that palm tree looked with the red lights behind it.  I guess this one is going to have to do.



This place is 100% c ditioned.  The neon wasn't on, but I think that this hotel was open.  This place needs some work.


I liked the balconies on this hotel.  It made the whole building even that much more interesting.

Steve and I stayed at the Cavalier.  We've stayed at the Cavalier for the the past two years and as luck would have it, we even got the exact same room. 



This is the window in that room.  It looks right onto the door to the hotel restaurant next door.  The deliveries come through this door.  The workers stand out there and smoke and talk.  The door slams shut.  Ahhh, delightful.

The Cavalier, I have to admit, really isn't a great hotel.  The shower is awful, the bathroom is minuscule, the beds are very uncomfortable and the internet has not worked in room 105 both times I've stayed.  We had breakfast there on Sunday and Steve ordered oatmeal.  When the waiter came with out with the food he plopped down a bowl of instant oatmeal.   Normally that's alright - not great, but alright.  But when Steve asked if it the oatmeal could be mixed with some sort of liquid, the waiter was totally baffled.  Yep you read that right, he got dry oatmeal!  They finally figured it out and he finally brought back oatmeal mixed with far too much hot milk. 

Steve keeps picking this hotel because it's one of the cheaper ones (@ $190 a night), it's in a great location to the places we like to go and it's on the ocean.  Well, the ocean side - the ocean is across the road, beyond the park, on the other side of the dunes and finally you can see ocean.  I think maybe if we were on a higher floor, we might actually see the ocean, but then again, I'd miss that restaurant service door.

I hope you have enjoyed my whirlwind trip to southern part of Florida.  I'm so glad that I was able to pick up and go.  Mocha was pretty upset, but she's gotten over it I think.  She stopped nibbling on my toes this afternoon, so I must have been forgiven.

Have a great week!
Kristin

4 comments:

Leigh of Tales from Bloggeritaville said...

Great post!
I beleive that tree is my favorite tree...a banyan tree. The root system is above the ground,. The roots travle from top to bottom. So beautiful!

Anonymous said...

when we were kids, in the summer, we would turn off the lights, have our bedroom windows open, and listen and watch all the neighbors. your hotel cavalier story of the service entrance door made me think of that..

denise said...

glad you are having a fun trip and i can live vicariously through your travels...i like art deco quite a bit...our home was built in the 60's and we have been going to estate sales filling it with eclectic pieces from eames 50ish to art deco...

love all the detailed photos you take of palms and such...keep it up!

Debby@Just Breathe said...

The pictures are wonderful. I really enjoyed seeing these. I thought that maybe it was a Kapok Tree. I remember a resturant in Florida that was called that and it had a tree that I thought looked just like that.