The Biltmore’s lobby is like a mosque in Granada, Tarzan learned to swim in the pool here, the golf course is well renowned, and Bill Clinton is partial to the Al Capone suite. The Biltmore is luxurious enough for you to justify staying in Coral Gables. South Beach is only a twenty minute drive away, which is nothing if you are passed out in a taxi.
Telephone: +1 305 445 1926
Price: from USD 409
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At 21,000 square foot, the Biltmore’s pool is the largest in the continental United States, and used to be the domain of Johnny Weissmuller, who later became Tarzan. The hotel itself is the creation of Coral Gables’ founder George Merrick and John McEntee in 1925, and architecturally it could be a thousand miles away from South Beach, not a 20-minute drive.
Your first walk through the lobby will take your breath away: with its hand-painted vaulted ceilings, 25-foot columns, oversized arches, porcelain planters, French and Spanish furniture, marble floors and oriental rugs, it looks more like a mosque in Granada. The building’s bell tower, modelled after the Giralda bell tower in Seville, is 300 feet high.
During Word War II it served as a hospital, and people say that ghosts of soldiers and even Al Capone, after whom the Everglades Suite is named, roam the halls here. Bill Clinton, however, stayed in the Al Capone suite and had no problems – as far as we know. Instead he enjoyed the 18-hole golf course.
