Hotel of the Week: The Standard Miami
Posted by Caroline on September 4th, 2009Our hotel-love levels have reached new heights this week as we turn our amiable affections to yet another hand-picked hero. Hot on the heels of Istanbul’s finest pasha palace and the Top End of Australia’s wildlife-teeming Bamurru Plains, it’s the turn of Floridan minimalist masterpiece, the Standard Miami…
Style Spa attraction
Setting Belle Isle Miami
Why this week? One never needs an excuse to indulge in a little spa-centred relaxation, a slick Miami party or two and a spot of rollerblading-hotty ogling, but if one did, the Standard’s three-nights-for-two offer for Mr & Mrs Smith members runs all the way up until 28 December (book by 30 November).
Our favourite bits? The cracking spa includes a hammam, gym, cedar sauna and steam room and has a whole range of treatments and therapies. There are also yoga lawns, a Roman Waterfall Hot Tub and a fire lounge in the gardens. Each wet room has its own private terrace with roll-top bath, and the Full Spread loft suite has vast windows for plenty of natural light and wonderful panoramas. We also love the Lido Restaurant and the Bayside Grill for their sleek Nordic styling with blond wood and clean lines.
Mr & Mrs Smith say ‘The Standard hotel is anything but – by a long shot. André Balazs’ ultra-cool palace of minimalism has pared down its fixtures, streamlined its technology and vanished away clutter. Our room fits in with the Standard’s spa and wellbeing theme with features such as an old-fashioned outdoor bathtub on a private sundeck. There’s also a lightly screened terrace area with a sunbed placed further out on its own patio, and canvas deckchairs that Mrs Smith and I earmark for at least a few hours of morning and 
late-afternoon snoozing. See, if we were actually in South Beach, snoozing wouldn’t be an option: we’d have to be out rollerblading in tight neon shorts, dragging along a poodle on a skateboard. However, the Standard is where Miami’s party people hole up when they want to relax (and take a break from rollerblading with poodles). The main draw here, though, is the spa; it has a quite mind-boggling array of facilities and treatments. Even in a city renowned for its focus on the body beautiful, the Standard takes its wellbeing credentials more seriously than most. Everyone we meet seems to have an opinion on what we should try out first: ‘Go to the Mud Lounge!’ they say. ‘Do the Roman Waterfall Hot Tub; have a dip in the Sound Pool; make time for the hammam!’ Mrs Smith does make time for the latter, while I go to the gym. Twice. It’s that good.’
This doesn’t sound like anything else than bliss than me! Next destination, Miami (only in my dreams though - so far).
By Erica
On September 7th, 2009
[...] turned our backs on the so-last-week minimalist Miami masterpiece and resisted the eastern allure of the A’jia Hotel, laying our love instead upon Ian [...]
By Gramercy Park Hotel, New York | Travel Blog - Mr & Mrs Smith Boutique & Luxury Hotels
On September 11th, 2009