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.

A midcentury hotel designed by ingenious midcentury modernist Igor Polevitzky, the Albion was restored and boutiqued during South Beach’s revival by hotelier and art collector Don Rubell, brother of Studio 54 creator Steve Rubell. The albion's pool, on the second floor, plays an exhibitionist game with the courtyard below it through portholes cut into the pool's wall.

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.

The Raleigh was Andre Balazs’ first Miami Beach hotel, which he extensively restored to its original art deco glory. The hotel’s incredible, sinuously curved pool was famously designed for Esther Williams, who swam there. During the renovation, Balazs raised the pool’s water level, flooding the sunken terrace around it to create a shallow moat, and turned the former diving board into a waterfall. It’s now owned by sbe Group, who also owns the new and much hyped SLS across the street, so watch out.

The subject of a Kim Kardashian freak out (she wanted the penthouse suite at the Setai, and nothing else would do) the Setai has nonetheless proved its staying power and become one of South Beach’s most well known hotels, and contains some of its most expensive real estate. Originally an art deco hotel from the 1930s, an oceanfront tower was added in the aughts, adding hotel rooms and condominium apartments with contemporary, asian inspired interiors.

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.

Another Schultze & Weaver-designed hotel, The Breakers has been entertaining Palm Beach high society since 1896 when a wooden predecessor to the current building was opened as the Palm Beach Inn by railroad tycoon and Florida pioneer Henry M. Flagler. The hotel adopted its current name when guests began requesting rooms “over by the breakers”, officially becoming The Breakers in 1901. It burned down twice, in 1904 and the 1925, the second time being replaced by its current edifice, modeled after the Villa Medici in Rome.

The grand dame of Downtown Miami hotels, the InterContinental, dripping in marble has gone through a recent renovation. Along with new guest rooms, and a successful new restaurant, the hotel has dressed up its facade with huge display screens above the front entrance and thousands of LED lights that often show a rather regrettable animations of a dancing lady in overtly suggestive poses.

Another Morgans Hotel, the Shore Club was one of Ian Schrager’s first forays into Miami Beach back when Mr. Schrager was still sailing the Morgans ship. You can see

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 South Beach revival.

Two midcentury hotels, the Di Lido and one other, were merged and restored to create the Ritz-Carlton South Beach. A modest entry on the ocean end of Lincoln Road leads to a grand lobby in classic Miami Beach glamour.

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 classic spanish edifice by the great architect Addison Mizner, the Boca Raton Club was originally planned as the center of the entire Boca Raton development. Now a Waldorf Astoria, the expansive resort stretches to both sides of Lake Boca Raton, with a shuttle boat running between the main resort/golf courses and the beach club.

A symbol of pre-Great Recession decadence brought to the center of urban Miami, the Viceroy’s lavish interiors include a rooftop nightclub and pool up on the 50th floor. Also pooltastic: the long, long infinity pool on the amenity deck that looks like it's falling over the side of the building.

Named for Betsy Ross, the Betsy is a federal-style hotel in the middle of art deco South Beach. Back to its original glory in a somewhat recent renovation, the Betsy is also a supporter of local cultural events.

Another relic of the high times just before the Great Recession, inside the Espirito Santo Plaza, the Conrad is soaringly vertical, like the Four Seasons, but geared more towards the business traveler. In any case, the atrium, which begins on level 25 and goes wayyy higher, will give you vertigo. The unimpressive pool is a reminder that you came for a work conference and not to frolic in the South Florida sun.

Right on the mouth of the Miami River, the Epic is a luxury chain hotel that does the ‘business boutique’ thing rather well.

A small, funky boutique hotel in the center of West Palm Beach, the hotel is an early 20th century building on the National Register of Historic Places decorated in shockingly bright hues of orange and pink. Set in gardens, it has lots of contemporary art, and is a major contrast to the over-coiffed hotels across Lake Worth in Palm Beach proper.

All the super-refined Palm Beach living without the pomp and circumstance of the Breakers.

Originally built as workers housing for the no-longer-in-existance Royal Palm Hotel, literally the hotel that built Miami, the Miami River Inn has become a hameau of escapist beauty that can easily stand on its own, deceptively right in the middle of Downtown Miami.

Many think this tower hotel with its flying saucer roof was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright because of its resemblance to his Price Tower, but it wasn’t. It was by a follower of Wright, and was likely a riff on one of his designs.

Very popular with Russian oligarchs, Acqualina is huge, and full of pasty pale people straight out of Siberia who expect excellent service and very strong sunscreen. It also receives excellent ratings from Conde Nast and those people who give hotels diamonds.

Owned by two cousins whose family has been in Miami Beach for almost as long as their was a Miami Beach, the Shelborne - designed by two of Miami’s iconic architects, Morris Lapidus and Igor Polevitzky - is midcentury Miamian on the outside, and contempofabulous on the inside. Having just undergone a major, and very expensive renovation, a few of the rooms are still a bit icky (they had served as condos) so it’s about to go under the knife again, for another big budget overhaul.

Founded by two former Morgans Hotels execs with lengthy resumes, Casa Morada is kind of like the Delano's ultra chilled out little brother. Sure, he may not grow up to be a neurosurgeon, but he's got sand in his shoes, a cool salty breeze in his hair, and a fat trust fund. (which one needs to afford a room at the casa)

Why yes, that man next to you did drop his towel! He's in the buff you say? Well, naturally. The best of the many gay guesthouses of Fort Lauderdale Beach, leave your clothes in the car and nobody will notice at the Royal Palms. The combination of a high end boutique hotel with the heat of South Florida and the easy-breazy sexual freedom of Fort Lauderdale’s gay scene can get you in to trouble if you don’t watch out. Plus, apparently instead of a house car they have a house yacht. Love boat?