Don't stay at The Raleigh. They were doing renovations to only the pool (so we were told just one week before our trip). It turned out that they were renovating EVERYTHING at once. Not my idea of a relaxing beach vacation when you have to constantly duck under scaffolding and step over drop cloths. Also, two words came to mind upon entering our room... college dormitory.

Stay at South Seas if you can get a ocean front room. The people there are great & there's a decent free breakfast every morning. It's not a trendy spot, but the decor is beach simple and clean. The hammocks were a nice place to take a nap out of the sun.

I like the South Seas a lot. You get exactly what you pay for.

Did you go out? Shop? Dine? Give us some scoop.

We did dine out, at the Delano and it was great (two bottles of wine later, we didn't go clubbing due to lack of energy). I basically just went to get some sun and hang at the beach/pool. Mission complete!

I went shopping and bought a GREAT belt at a place called Vogue. They were definitely aware that we had been having cocktails and tried to seel us everything in the joint.

Next time I go back I am definitely going to Nikki's beach, I heard from friends that I should have gone there.

I also liked the South Seas...great pool area, nice room. The only bad things about it were the booming music from neighboring resorts and the REALLY hard water that left a nasty film on my hair and skin. Anyone else have this water problem in South Beach?

Oh man I hate it when there is hard water uck! It seemed like the MGM in Las Vegas left my hair like that. I hope that Loes is ok.