The Shore Club - Miami Beach, USA 

Stayed here on recommendation of a friend. First impressions of the hotel weren't very promising. The 'minimalist' style in their eyes seemed to mean leaving the hotel in a half-way refurbished state. The floors are all concrete paved, even in the rooms - white tile would have looked much better and cleaner IMO. The view of the Ocean was good.. we could even see the pool from our room which got busier the closer we got to the weekend. Service was fine - polite and adequate. The best things about this place are the social scene . If you're youngish, you will love the cool bars - one in the Nobu restaurant and the Sky Bar which is not on a high floor as you might think, but on the ground floor with the Sky above you i.e outdoor. With the dim candlelit effect, the Sky bar has a relaxed, intimate and classy feel. Nobu Bar is just great for looking at unbelievably beautiful women...it really is something else. During the day, you can relax by the pool while the dj plays smooth tunes. Tunes get a bit more banging by the weekend and there is a pool party on Sunday afternoons where you might catch a glimpse of the 'rich n famous'. (I met Christina Millian earlier in the week)....(but perhaps she ain't so well-known anymore) You're still beautiful though Christina...and polite :-p A couple of things I noticed - drinks by the pool - sometimes they forget to come back to you with your drinks. They seem to push the extortionately expensive FIJI bottled water which works out to 15 dollars incl. tax for a 1 litre bottle This to me is disgracefully ripping off 'guests'. I refused to buy one but my friend told me the servers had intimated to him that you could only get iced (free) water if you also got food..otherwise it was the Fiji stuff. To which I replied to him, "I would have asked to speak to the manager, told him it was a disgrace they were refusing to serve iced water to a guest at the hotel unless they also ordered food and then would tell them that I would go on trip advisor and let everyone know about it!" By all means spend your hard-earned money on this water if you are thirsty but let them know what you think about it. You are a guest at the hotel after all. Also don't use the toiletries or knickknacks in the bathroom unless you like wasting money...even the complimentary looking Evian is 8 dollars for less than a litre bottle..which I think they cheekily don't tell you if complimentary or not...but it is placed in a way which suggests it could be (on the desk under the tv, NOT in the mini-bar). Good thing we checked. Don't get me wrong, I am not a penny -pincher but some places try to rob you blind in the sneakiest way and I won't oblige. Also watch out for the taxes they dump on you when checking out. In addition to the usual sales tax, there're other inane taxes like City room tax or suchlike which I hear is usual for South Beach hotels. It adds a a significant amount onto the bill so be prepared. All in all, a good hotel with good bars and restaurants (Nobu and Ago) and a good pool scene (although the pool itself is nothing to write home about, but the music makes it). It's not necessarily a poser's paradise; you might see a few beautiful people but nothing to get intimidated about. Added bonus is it makes it easier to get entry into Delano, the sister hotel a block up the road as Shore Club guests. Also entry to the pool is exclusively for hotel guests during the week and bar entry is easier as guests too. Get an Oceanview room because although the loft rooms are bigger, you get views of precisely nothing..maybe some rooftops and windows if you're lucky. Just watch out for the extra charges and horrendously expensive bottled water. My tip would be to go and stock up on water at the off licence a couple of blocks away and save yourself several tens of dollars. I think this hotel relies heavily on its name - it's not anything special. I'm surprised that celebrities rush to stay here. Won't rush back there but wouldn't say never again either. It served its purpose.

We went to the Shore Club past October '07 as a part of our Honeymoon in South Beach; Miami. As we arrived the day after our wedding, we where very tired and decided to spent our first night in the hotel. We did surprise as we found out that the Shore Club indeed is a Club for very nice people at Miami. We kind felt out of place with T- Shits and Bermudas in the pool bar as many people arrived very nice dressed to get some drinks and dance. The first problem we had is that we didn?t find a place to sit nearby the pool because it was crowded with outsiders. This can be annoying to some guests who feel they can't use the instalations becaus of an outsider got first. As we found some were to sit, I went to get some drinks and found out that they were really expensive (paid 45 dollars + tip for a beer, a Mojito and a Scoth). We decided to get dinner after our expensive drinks and went to oune of the two restaurants of the hotel, the italian Ago. It was also very expensive, but worth it because the food and service were excelent. We never went to the japanese Nobu because it was even more expensive than Ago. People says that it is an excelent restaurant. They also have a red bar inside the hotel, very interesting. The rooms were ok, a little bit minimalist. Think that they can be a los better with some other decoration. At the end of our three day stay, we foun out that we were charged with the total bill, but it was payed earlier from our tavel agent. Went to front desk and have to wait a while as there were 4 to 5 guests before me complaining by diferrent issues. At the end the bill was erased with the help of a kind person from the front desk, but noticed they had a lot of complaints by other customers. By the way, the lobby was very nice decorated. The whole experience was ok. but very, very expensive (and I've gone to a lot of hotels in the world). Think it helped that we stayed from sunday to wednesday so the hotel was not totally crowded and noisy. In weekends has to be very crowded and this can be annoying to some guests.