The Setai Miami Beach

The long-awaited opening of the Setai was some of the biggest news to hit the South Beach hotel scene in a while. This is a town that’s not exactly hurting for over-the-top luxury accommodations, but the Setai manages to set itself apart by being even more over-the-top than the competition.

From a distance what you notice is the tower, forty curvaceous stories of aquamarine glass right on the beach, home to the private owners’ suites as well as some of the more excessive hotel suites; like the sky, it’s hard to say whether the tower’s color is a reflection of the sea or some intrinsic property. From the inland side on Collins Avenue, though, you can see that the Setai’s heart lies behind the refurbished facade of the Dempsey Vanderbilt hotel, a classic eight-story Art Deco building dating back to the first golden age of Miami Beach. This is where you’ll find the comparatively more modest studio suites; it’ll quickly become clear, though, that modest isn’t really a word that applies in this case.

Art Deco the exterior may be, but the Setai’s interiors are anything but classic Miami. Forget about white, let alone coral-pink; think dark, as in black brick, black granite, lightened only by rich expanses of polished teak, more a sort of Indonesian volcanic look than anything you’d associate with South Beach.

Even the smallest rooms, in the old Dempsey building, are huge, and the suites in the new tower are truly vast, many with views out to sea from many floors up, a luxury that’s nearly unique in this town. At this level flat-screen televisions, CD/DVD players and in-room espresso machines seem less like luxuries and more like pleasant background; the real surprise is the open-plan bath, with the black terrazzo tub exposed to the room, offering itself for in-room spa treatments.

Spa treatments are of course also available outside of your room: the spa, in keeping with the overall character of the place, is almost overindulgent. Three pools seem rather more than plenty, especially with the Atlantic just steps away. And no big-news luxury hotel would be complete without a deeply impressive restaurant: the Setai’s serves a “Trans-Ethnic” cuisine that is not a fusion but a mixing and matching of any number of very authentic Asian dishes.