The Confidante Hotel, part of Hyatt’s Unbound Collection, in Miami Beach, Florida is a perfect location for a long weekend getaway. It is a category 4 World of Hyatt hotel, so even when it is expensive, it’s a great award (or free night certificate) redemption.
I generally have the same rule for writing blog posts as I do for giving wedding gifts – if it’s within one year, it’s okay. I’ll make an exception here because . . . well 2020. My visit to the Confidante Hotel was over Martin Luther King weekend 2020, a little over one year ago, but pre-pandemic, so possibly light years ago.
I’m not usually drawn to older hotels, but I really like Art Deco and Kitsch style. Needless to say, I loved the decor of the hotel and Miami Beach in general. We took a public bus from the airport, which dropped us off about one block from the hotel. Also, while the hotel is in Miami Beach, it’s a hefty few blocks from South Beach or downtown Miami Beach. I don’t mind because I like to walk, but you might want to know this.
We checked in on a Saturday early afternoon. There were no lines at the time and we were greeted with friendly faces.
There’s lots of fun and original art throughout the hotel.
Our room was a standard size room with a balcony. I thought it was adorable. I loved all of the accents.
The mid-century theme continued in the bathroom. My favorite part was the Jonathan Adler toiletries.
The closet had robes and a safe.
There was a refrigerator with a mini-bar items for sale. As always, we asked the hotel to remove the mini-bar items so we could use the refrigerator for our own items.
We received a wonderful welcome gift from the hotel: a bottle of French Rose wine by Minuty, delicious chocolates and a heartfelt handwritten note.
From the balcony we had a fabulous view of the pool and beach.
On the first floor, coffee was available for all guests in the morning.
Next door was the bar and indoor portion of the restaurant, which continued outdoors. It was then called Bird and Bone, but has since changed to a new name, Ambersweet.
We enjoyed drinks at the bar in the evening, and breakfast in the morning. As a globalist, the breakfast was complimentary. It was a very nice breakfast buffet (boy do I miss breakfast buffets!), with an omelette bar and amazing fresh fruits. We ate outdoors. It was delightful!
The pool was very nice, but it was extremely loud and crowded most of the weekend (we were told that there were two wedding parties at the hotel that weekend).
Behind the hotel is the famous Miami Beach Boardwalk. Parts of it are wooden and other areas north and south are cement paths. I’m told the entire boardwalk will soon be cement, paved paths. I really enjoyed walking many miles on the boardwalk – this was a definite highlight of the trip.
The hotel fitness center is very cool, with more art and open air areas to work out and a wide variety of equipment. Unfortunately, the indoor portion of the gym was closed during the first two days of my stay because new equipment was being installed (and on the third day, the smell of the new rubber flooring was too strong). I didn’t mind – the weather was too perfect on this January weekend to stay indoors!
All in all, we had a phenomenal stay and would go back in a heartbeat.
A New York frequent flyer who elegantly combines her passions for worldwide travel, running a gazillion marathons all over the globe and staying fit ... without sacrificing her fancy for good wine and food.
Great review! We enjoyed it there as well–we stayed on a Hyatt certificate. Our dinner at Bird and Bone was excellent (their speciality at the time was Chicken & Waffles, which were really good). Also should note that if you are not Globalist (I was a lowly Explorist at the time) and are too cheap to pay for breakfast, there is a perfectly fine Dunkin for breakfast three short blocks away.
Truly a wonderful hotel that I hope doesn’t ever change (except mild refreshes). The ambiance, the service, the friendliness of the staff. I love coming back here and look forward to doing it again soon.