FL Miami Winterhaven Hotel South Beach

[marla6]

I'll begin by saying that, overall, I think this hotel is a great value. It is certainly not a high-end or 'splurge' hotel but great for almost any stay. I'll give you the short and long list.

Pros:

location, location, location

price/value

comfortable

clean

good service

breakfast

snacks, drink discount

Cons:

not high-end or luxury

may be a bit cramped for some tastes

no onsite restaurant or spa (if you can't walk 5 minutes to one)

location: near perfect, across from the beach, within few minutes walking to anything you can think of. Ideal for walking to restaurants, shops, beach, drinks, music, etc. Also, the people-watching on Ocean is spectacular :) If walking isn't your thing, catch a cab (I hear you can rent bikes nearby too); we walked to the bus stop two blocks down to go visit a friend. One thing to note is that the hotel is directly across from one of the beach's public restroom, which may be particularly attractive to homeless folks. Keep in mind that this is south beach, and you're going to find them through the area anyway, not just in front of the hotel. I would say that we didn't see any more vagrants at the bathroom than there were anyplace else, but I can see why this would be a turn-off for some guests.

parking: we used valet, which was convenient, but they took an awful long time (I'm talking more than 10 minutes) to retrieve the car on check-out. I know there are tons of parking structures in the area however, we just didn't use them because of our late-night arrival.

lobby/common areas: lobby is comfortable and open, including four overstuffed chairs reminicent of a living room for lounging. There is a handy front porch with tables and chairs which is great for people-watching. One of my favorite nights was sitting on the porch with my love, drinking mojitos, and dancing to the salsa playing over the speakers! The hotel in generall looks and smells clean, and appears well kept.

rooms: We stayed on the third floor, double beds, with what was probably an "accessible" bathroom though I can't be sure. The beds were comfortable enough (this is SO subjective, there's no sense in describing more), plenty of pillows both firm and soft, and light bedding (it's Miami, you don't need to bundle up). One of the beds did have a small stain on the top sheet, but whatever. Change 'em, move on. If we thought about all the stuff that's on the sheets, we'd never leave the house! The AC was plenty cold, not particularly noisy, there was no unpleasant odor or stained carpeting. I'm not sure if the windows opened, but they were HUGE and let in great light. It was outfitted with wooden blinds (horizontal) but no curtains so if you're a light sleeper, the sun would definitely wake you up. Again, it's miami...isn't everyone here for the sun?! I loved having the big window. There was a small desk and closet with bathrobes. The room was tight though, for two people, and we are light packers. We ended up using one bed for the luggage (as there was no other room for it besides in front of the work desk, on top of that folding luggage thing hotels have). There was a full-length mirror on the back of the closet door. The tricky part was that the bathroom door was incredibly wide (which is why I think it was accessible) and when opened, it reached the foot of the bed and blocked part of the room (and the mirror). Not terrible, but some people are picky. The walls were a little thin (we could hear someone talking) but we couldn't hear TVs which makes me think our neighbor was just especially loud. In general the hotel was rather quiet, so we didn't hear much noise at all. On the 3rd floor you could hear minimal street noise/music if you really paid close attention. Cable channels, though no premium or pay-for service.

bathroom: was very large in our case, but a little awkward shower. I think it was a roll-in shower (again, accessible) with a floor-length curtain, which was fine (don't have time for baths) but it hard to not get water all over the place. One or two tiles around the drain in the shower were chipped, if that concerns you any. It had a removable shower head, good water pressure, plenty of hot water; it was a little narrow for my taste, but I'm on the tall side so long arms tend to get in the way often. Has bath & body works products, small counter top on both sides of the sink as well as a shelf for toiletries. Good size too, which was nice when you have more than one person getting ready at the same time.

amenities: hotel was wireless internet throughout, but it was painfully slow and weak signal. I was only able to use it look up some google maps directions (though the actual map didn't load completely) and check email. Other web searches were useless. I didn't try using it from the lobby or outside...not sure if that would have made a difference. The HW list says there is a business center though I didn't see one nor did I ask about it. They have free beach chairs (not loungers) and towels to use, which was nice. They offer a free breakfast (toast, bagels, muffins, cereal, fruit, juice, coffee) but the 'dining room' is in fact the tables/chairs in the lobby and it was a little awkward to sit and eat while people were checking in/out , coming/going, and the front desk was answering questions or phone calls. I just took mine back to the room, no problem. Free food is a good thing. They have free snacks in the afternoon (though we didn't make it back in time to see what they were). There is a full bar, albeit tiny (maybe 6-8 barstools) but we just took our drinks to the porch. Good drinks too :)

service/staff: no complaints here. Front desk was polite, one of the bartenders was incredibly helpful in recommending a spa, they set up massages for us on the rooftop deck, gave us directions. Overall, very nice.