South Beach
 

Is anyone familiar with the Waldorf Towers hotel in South Beach? Is it a nice enough place? Close to clubs and dining?

I was searching for the same thing! Any advice anyone?

Don't know anything about the specifics of the interior of the hotel but the location is dead center of the Deco District on Ocean Drive. It is around 9th avenue and is on top of dining, shopping, and nightlife. News Cafe is almost next door.

It's an old deco hotel so don't expect large rooms.

It's across the street from Lummus Park which is oceanfront. None of the hotels on that strip from 15th down to 5th Street are oceanfront as they are across the street from the beach.

I think this is the hotel I'm going to book. Would you recommend another hotel? It seems really good from everything I've read, and it's $99 a night. The other hotels around there seem to be more expensive and/or scumier. We're going to be arriving on the water taxi www.watertaxi.com and will have no vehicle until the following day. Everything seems to be close together though so I think we'll be fine. Thanks for your help in my other post as well GoTravel! :)

All the online reviews I've seen for the Waldorf Towers have been horrific (see travelocity). Its location is indeed great, but it sounds like it needs some major renovation inside (not surprising). The times I've walked by, the public areas have looked pretty dingy.

A little south of there but worlds better would be the Park Central or the Avalon Majestic (the latter being a little more basic, but clean and comfy). If you go a bit north, the Winterhaven is a good deal.

The rule of thumb in South Beach is: No matter what time of year, the "$100 and below" hotels tend to be dumps. I would steer clear of the Waldorf Towers.

Thanks for the advice, I'll check into those although I think they will be more expensive. The Waldorf Towers seem to have more positive reviews than negative (tripadvisor.com) whereas the Colony had all negative (that was what I really wanted at first). We don't want the Holiday Inn, we want to experience something different. Thanks for the heads up...I'll read the reviews on Travelocity.

Er, the Tripadvisor reviews I found for the Waldorf Towers in Miami Beach are more skewed to really bad:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev...h_Florida.html

A couple of raves, the rest vivid slams. Fact is, in South Beach you get what you pay for, and $100 a night is the minimum rack rate for getting something truly nice.

Of course, I say that knowing that once I paid $79 a night for the Avalon Majestic. Perfectly fine, but really basic.

What I suggest: Pick a couple of places, call them, and when they quote a rate, do the old "Oh dear, that's a bit more than I wanted to pay. That's the best you can do...?" game. It can work quite well.