Esme Miami Beach ★★★★

Where Miami Beach's Spanish Village Found a Second Act

Esmé occupies eight interlinked buildings along Española Way, the pedestrian paseo built in the 1920s as a stage-set Spanish artists' colony in the middle of Miami Beach's Art Deco grid. Infinity Hospitality took over the complex in 2021 and handed its interiors to Jessica Schuster Design, who kept the original arcades, courtyards and tiled passages and layered in emerald greens, mauve, chartreuse and warm mahogany rather than smoothing them into something more generic. Washington Avenue runs along one side of the property, Española Way's cobblestones along the other, so the hotel reads as a genuine piece of the block rather than a structure dropped onto it. The result behaves less like a renovation than a second act for a complex that has welcomed travellers, in one form or another, for a century.

Why It Works

We came back to Esmé for the way it uses its own architecture. The paseos that once connected artists' studios now link a lobby, a courtyard, a rooftop pool and five food-and-beverage rooms without ever reading like a single corporate floor plan. It is a 145-room hotel that behaves like a small village, with enough variety across its public spaces that a returning guest rarely eats or drinks in the same corner twice. The design leans into its Spanish Village bones rather than sanding them down, and that specificity is rare on a strip of Washington Avenue this central and this busy.

Why This Location

The hotel sits at 1438 Washington Avenue, on the corner of Española Way, inside Miami Beach's Art Deco Historic District. Lincoln Road's pedestrian mall is a six- or seven-minute walk north, Ocean Drive and the sand are closer to ten minutes east, and the Art Deco architecture that draws most visitors to South Beach starts at the front door. Washington Avenue itself carries a mix of boutiques, galleries and late-opening bars, so the walk back from dinner rarely turns into a detour through a quiet residential stretch.

Fast Facts

• Price: €€€ (Premium)

• Vibe: Spanish Village colour, boutique, design-forward, sociable

• Rooms: 145, spread across eight connected buildings

• Best For: design-minded travellers, small groups wanting a social hotel, couples who want South Beach's energy without a velvet-rope door policy

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: the paseos, the 1920s walkways that still link every building and courtyard on the property

• Dining: El Salón for Miami-inflected plates and cocktails, Bar Pintxo for Basque small plates and ciders

• Amenities: rooftop pool deck, wellness programming with yoga and cold-pressed juice, pet-friendly rooms, on-site parking

• Attractions: Española Way, Lincoln Road, Ocean Drive, the Art Deco Historic District

El Salón and Bar Pintxo, Two Ways to Read the Same Block

El Salón runs along the Española Way walkway and keeps its menu close to Miami: arepas, empanadas and chicharrones by day, a cocktail list built on proprietary spirit blends once the sun drops. A few steps away, Bar Pintxo takes the hotel's Spanish references literally, pairing pulpo pinchos and gilda with Basque ciders and txakoli, and bringing in rotating musicians and visiting chefs rather than settling into a fixed weekly format. Beverage direction across the property comes from Lost Boy & Co.'s Chris Hudnall, which goes some way to explaining why the drinks list reads less like a hotel wine list and more like a considered neighbourhood bar programme.

The Roof, by Morning and by Night

Up top, The Roof carries the hotel's pool, a run of cabanas and a wellness corner that keeps yoga sessions and cold-pressed juice going through the morning. By evening the same deck turns over to large-format Spirited Jugs, house sangrias and reworked classics built for sharing rather than solo sipping. It is the one part of the hotel built explicitly for people-watching, with Miami Beach's low skyline standing in for a water view.

What to Know Before You Book

Rooms line two pedestrian paseos rather than a single interior corridor, so a quieter room is worth requesting at check-in rather than assuming from the room type alone. The hotel welcomes dogs and families, which keeps the public spaces lively rather than hushed, a better fit for travellers happy to have company around the pool than for those chasing total quiet. On-site parking is available, worth knowing given how few hotels on this stretch of Washington Avenue still offer it.