The Next Great Florida Vacations
Courtesy WFort Lauderdale
The former spring break capital is all grown up and has the goods to prove it: wide beaches, exquisite waterfront homes, new and updated hotels, ocean-to-table restaurants, and the dive bars that locals still love. Check into the W Fort Lauderdale, fresh off a $55 million facelift. After a day of splashing around the “see-through” swimming pool, head downstairs to either Steak 954, a Stephen Starr restaurant that delivers on surf and turf, or to El Vez, Starr’s margarita-fueled Mexican restaurant (slated to open in January 2018). Alternatively, reserve a table outdoors at neighboring Terra Mare, the signature restaurant at the just-opened Conrad Fort Lauderdale Beach for a meal that may include tuna crudo and crab-laced tagliatelle in uni butter.
fallbrookSarasota
Sarasota is booming. Its downtown grows daily, thanks to a widespread revival of mid-century modern architecture, new construction (between 2016-2018, the city will have welcomed more than 1,112 new hotel rooms), and neighborhoods like the rapidly-changing Rosemary District, packed with small, one-off stores and restaurants (brunch on Cinnamon Roll pancakes at Station 400, in a restored c.1852 train depot). In January 2018, the city welcomes a new hotel dedicated to Sarasota’s thriving visual arts and cultural scene, Art Ovation Hotel. This 162-room Autograph Collection hotel will feature an artist-in-residence program, and is walking distance to the likes of the Sarasota Opera and the Florida Studio Theater, and a short drive to other sites like the Ringling Circus Museum. Added bonus? There’s a fabulous rooftop bar and pool overlooking Sarasota Bay.
Photo by Laurence LambrechtBowling Green
The golf-centric Streamsong Resort is branding a once-isolated swath of Central Florida as somewhere very special. The stylish 216-suite resort in Bowling Green (halfway between Tampa and Orlando) is anchored by several championship golf courses designed by legends like Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, Tom Doak, and Gil Hanse. The latest addition to the hilly landscape, the par-73 Streamsong Black, was named “Best New Course of 2017” by GOLF Magazine and has a new high-design clubhouse and restaurant with panoramic views aplenty. But you don’t even need to love golf to embrace this self-contained destination, thanks to tricked-out amenities like an infinity-edged pool overlooking an alligator-populated lake, the subterranean AcquaPietra Spa, (distinguished by a seven-pool hydrotherapy circuit), and the rooftop Fragmentary Blue bar. The remote resort is also your gateway to the outdoors, offering activities like bass fishing, sporting clays, hiking, and fossil expeditions along the Peace River.
Photo by Dana HoffSt. Petersburg
It’s no secret that St. Petersburg has some of Florida’s most idyllic beaches (we’re looking at you Honeymoon Island and Caladesi Island State Parks), but less familiar is its thriving cultural scene, underscored by the world-class Salvador Dalí Museum, home to some 2,000 of Dalí’s works, the largest collection outside of Europe. In January 2018, the Imagine Museum opens, with collections highlighting the studio glass movement of the 1960s onward and complementing works in the Morean Arts Center, a museum dedicated to the contemporary glass sculptor Dale Chihuly. Soon after, the James Museum of Western + Wildlife Art arrives, rooted in the art, landscape, and wildlife of the American West. Stay at the 18-room, 1920s-themed boutique inn, The Birchwood, for its location—it's walking distance to the arts district and a short drive to the beaches.
Courtesy MonkitailHollywood
If you can’t choose between Miami and Fort Lauderdale, consider meeting somewhere in the middle—literally. Often-overlooked Hollywood is currently making major waves thanks to the $100 million dollar modernization of The Diplomat Beach Resort as envisioned by design firm Hirsch Bedner Associates. Even if you don’t end up staying here, take time to sample the new restaurants and lounges. In particular? Monkitail, a seductive iteration of a Japanese izakaya by celebrity chef Michael Schulson, impresses with its small plates and artisan cocktails (try the black cod fried rice). After dinner, ask for the path behind the kitchen to Nokku, an intimate cocktail lounge with a six-seat bar counter, plush couches, and four private rooms equipped for karaoke sessions and bottle service.
Photo by Jeff HerronMarco Island
Despite some delays from Hurricane Irma, in early 2018, the JW Marriott Marco Island Beach Resort is scheduled to complete a 94-room adults-only Lanai Tower, with a celebrity chef-led restaurant, private pool deck, and 12,000-square-foot entertainment center. It’s the final phase of a $320 million-plus facelift, which saw the space revamped into the first JW Marriott resort in the continental United States. The Balinese-style hotel is designed to compete with the large-scale, chic resorts of Florida’s east coast like the Fontainebleau Miami Beach and the Ritz-Carlton, Fort Lauderdale, and has the trappings to prove it: think sleek, clean-lined interiors, four lounger-lined swimming pools, a full-service spa, and a beachfront tiki bar.
GettySt. Augustine
Fans of history-steeped Charleston and Savannah will want to head south to the nation’s oldest city, Spanish-influenced St. Augustine. Amble along the centuries-old cobblestone streets, and visit the oldest masonry fort in the continental United States, Castillo de San Marcos, built circa 1695, followed by the wonderfully kitsch Fountain of Youth Archeological Park. Book a room at The Collector Luxury Inn & Gardens, a 30-key adaptive reuse of late eighteenth-century homes (formerly preserved as the Dow Museum of Historic Houses), and marvel at the homes’ restored coquina walls outside, along with artwork from famed collector Kenneth Dow inside.