The most famous, and perhaps most notorious, of Miami hotels, the Fontainebleau has played host to everyone from royalty to mobsters, and was even featured prominently in the James Bond classic Goldfinger. The Fontainebleau is the greatest work of iconic Miami Beach midcentury resort architect Morris Lapidus, whose masterful design still shines through despite a more recent billion dollar renovation.

Originally called Mayfair House when it was designed in the 1980s by iconic Miami architect Kenneth Treister, the Mayfair is distinctly unique and also extremely localized to its Coconut Grove environment. Intricate carved-wood, tile, and metal details are evocative of the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, but faintly art nouveau-esque, in a way that Wright's architecture never was, . The urban hotel is centered around two atria with elaborate interior gardens and fountains, and it has a rooftop pool.

The Miami Beach incarnation of Andre Balazs’ chain of ‘Standards’, the Standard Spa took over the midcentury ‘Lido Spa’ on Belle Isle, within walking distance of the heart of South Beach but still quietly removed from it all. The exhibitionistic ethos of the Standard brand is carried out here with very public bathtubs on the guest room terraces, which are separated from the hotel’s public walkways by nothing more than breezy white curtains. The Standard has a very relazing and un-South-Beach-like bayfront pool as well as a steamy hamam in its upstairs spa.

Named after FDR, the Roosevelts kept a suite at the art deco Delano for their trips to Florida in the good old days. Originally designed by B. Robert Swartburg, the hotel’s deco styling is more provocative than most, with sharp angles, and a towering verticality. It was one of the earliest and most successful of the hotels to be redone during South Beach’s revival, when Studio 54 co-founder Ian Schrager hired interior designer Philippe Starck to gut the entire lobby floor and install flowing white curtains to capture the breezes. Although not the most historically sensitive of renovations, Starck created a magical space that is unmatched among Miami Beach hotel lobbies to this day. Also magical: the heavy iron garden furniture that Starck put in the shallow end of the pool decades ago is still there.

One of South Beach’s hottest hotels, the W is admittedly of-the-moment, but has been called the Starwood brand’s signature W, and stands out with its spectacular lobby, leading restaurants, and popularity with celebrities and creative types alike. Even starchitect Zaha Hadid purchased a double unit in the residential portion of the building, which she lives in a part of every year. Unlike some other very posh hotels that cut themselves off from the outside world, the W has embraced its civic presence and is always hosting conventions and parties.

The Mondrian is the last, and most recent of the Miami Beach hotels under the Morgans flag. This time Morgans went bayside, converting a midcentury apartment building into a chic and spacious hotel. It has elements that seem to be signature to a Morgans Miami Beach property, like the white lobby, and new elements adding a bit of surprise, like the floating head on the wall, and a heavy black staircase that totally underlines the sheer whiteness of the white.

Renowned for its art collection, the Sagamore’s owners—the Taplins—have been filling the hotel with art since opening it in the early days of South Beach's revival.

The largest hotel in South Beach, and the only one built from scratch during the South Beach revival (except for the hotel’s annex, the historic St. Moritz), the Lowes is a large convention hotel that evokes the area’s art deco roots. It comes complete with an impressively large pool, a grand breezeway leading through the property and an oceanfront ballroom.

A graduate of Curbed Miami's first Hotels Heatmap, and a subject of much Curbed coverage (not all of it positive, we should add) the Gale South Beach has proven itself to be a fast mainstay in the Miami hotel scene. Although we were in shock by the extent of the alterations during construction, the end result proved excellent and very sensitive to South Beach's art deco fabric. The rooftop pool is beautiful, and the hotel's Regent Cocktail Club is a favorite South Beach haunt. Across James Avenue, we're eagerly looking forward to the hotel's upcoming expansion, the Gale Suites at the Kaskades.

A private British club for young creative types that rents its rooms to the public for very high prices, the Soho Beach House has become a mainstay in the too-cool-for-school Miami social scene. Although we were originally put off by the exclusivity, Soho is here to stay and is unlike almost any other obsessively trendy Miami Beach offering. In fact, the intimate hotel, which seems to be packed to the rafters with all sorts of surprises, is almost the total opposite of its next door neighbor, the Fontainebleau. The tower addition to the historic art deco Sovereign Hotel by architect Allan Shulman is also very well done. The interior decor is also rather intense, but lots of fun.

The St. Regis Bal Harbour may have meant the destruction of one of Morris Lapidus' most classic midcentury beach resorts, the Americana, but move on one must. The combination hotel and condos have been around for a few years by now and, in addition to singlehandedly boosting Bal Harbour's tax rolls by a whopping %31.4, the hotel embodies everything about Bal Harbour: tasteful luxury on an absolutely huge scale. Just walking from the front entrance to a modest poolside party, one is immediately offered a flute of champagne practically upon stepping out of one's car, and then escorted by no less than four attendants on the way to the event.

The Breakers, Palm Beach's grand dame, is glorious in her maturity. One of Palm Beach's original hotels, the Breakers was founded by Henry Flagler as the Palm Beach Inn. Its current structure was designed in the 1920s by the greatest hotel architects of the era (they also designed the Waldorf-Astoria and the Biltmore in Coral Gables) Schultze & Weaver and, although expanded over the years, remains very much her old self.

Once the winter estate of William K. Vanderbilt II, the Fisher Island Club is a tropical island resort that feels like you're staying in someone's grand and very private home... because, well, it used to be Mr. Vanderbilt's home. Having recently undergone an extensive renovation, many of the various resort amenities are located within Vanderbilt's original structures including (of course) the main house, the sheltered harbour, the airplane hangar (which contains the spa) and a collection of guest and service cottages.