We decided to stay the last two days of our stay in a party hotel in South Beach. We chose the Mondrian Hotel, because we wanted to party, but at the same time stay somewhere more classy. We have had a lot of good experience with the Mondrian Hotels in general (especially the one in Doha!), and both my mom and I are huge fans of the work of Marcel Wanders who designed this hotel. You can definitely tell that this is not a brand new hotel anymore, but it is a completely different story than the other party hotels in Miami. We had an amazing 2 days here!
The Mondrian Hotel is not located on the beach; it is located on the opposite side of Ocean Drive. The fact that it does not have a pool is indeed a downside, but the fact that the pool overlooks the lagoon and the star Island with all the celebrity mansions really makes up for it!
We had a 1 bedroom suite, which was pretty spacious and just right for 3 people. The room had some very interesting interior thanks to Marcel Wanders. For example, one of the things was the chandelier-shower! The only downside was that our room had no balcony, but regardless of that, we had an amazing view of South Beach from the big windows.
Pool Parties
After staying 3 days at the very empty Bal Harbour, we were starting to be a bit nervous about the amount of people that would meet us at the Mondrian. I had a bet with my mom’s friend about the place going to be packed. Luckily, I won. The place was indeed completely packed and we were lucky that we even found available sun loungers. The reason for this huge difference was most likely because it was weekend, and of course because it is South Beach! After talking to some people at the parties, we also found out that many of the people attending were not even hotel guests but outside guests who regularly come to party at the Mondrian hotel during the weekends. The party was really good. The DJ’s did an excellent job, and the atmosphere here by the pool overlooking Star Island while drinking a glass of champagne was just splendid. I also really enjoyed looking at all the very good looking people here! You could really tell that the people coming here find it really important to take good care of themselves and are extremely into fashion.
South Beach
I guess it is time to write a bit about South Beach in general. South Beach or SoBe, has a a little bit of everything. In general, I like South beach very much, as long as I stay far away from Ocean Drive! South Beach really does have a lot of great shopping, amazing restaurants, and bars for everyone’s taste. I can really recommend a place called Papi Steak for dinner or a drink at the bar. It is definitely not cheap, but it is a really cool spot which is hard to just randomly find when walking outside on the street; so you won’t really find it unless your intention is to actually go there. You will get what I mean if you decide to go there. Another place I really like is the bar at the “W South Beach” for some nice cocktails.
The more often I come to South Beach, the more I fall in love with this place, and I start realising that I could actually see myself spending more time here, maybe even relocating to here for a while?
The Setai
The Setai is one of my mom’s favorite hotels, so we had to come here for a drink. It really is a beautiful place, and I recommend coming here if you enjoy classy bars and restaurants, at least for a drink. The whole place is very elegant and mystic, with a Japanese touch, and the cocktails really are special!
Wynwood
We asked a couple of guys at the pool party for some advice where to go during the evening. Apparently, there was nothing to do at the Mondrian during night. One of the guys told us to check out the Wynwood neighbourhood. To be honest, I had heard much about Wynwood, but I never thought I would actually like it too much from what I had heard. I completely changed my mind once we got there. It is an extremely cool artistic and hipster-style neighbourhood, with a great nightlife, street musicians, foodtrucks, and an overall great atmosphere. Here, you can find great nightclubs such as Proyecto Tulum, which is an outdoor club, and there are plenty of bars blasting Latino music. We also really enjoyed the Wynwood Marketplace, where there was a huge dance floor and people dancing Reggaeton, Salsa and other Latin-American dances and having fun. It was a pretty cool sight. There were also plenty of food trucks selling Latin American food. I still cannot forget those tacos! Wynwood, however, is the complete opposite of the luxury South Beach or Miami Beach in general.
Anyah Mroz 