The EDITION is a wonderful mixture of showiness and subtlety. It’s sly, decadent and amusing. Even its beach is a little bit honesty, a little bit of artifice: reportedly, almost a million dollars worth of rocks were shipped in to form a small breakwater so guests could still swim on a rough day.

Just south of The EDITION is a hidden walkway, set between the hotels and the beach boardwalk. Easy to miss, it runs half a mile south towards the Metropolitan by COMO. At this small, cool, oasis, you won’t find a DJ playing by the pool, although during Miami’s Ultra Music Festival in March, you’ll see plenty of turntablers staying here, soaking up the peace and quiet and impeccable service, perhaps by the relaxation pool on the roof. The rooms, too, have a cool mood: mint-green walls, monochrome floors and frosted mirrors.

The Metropolitan may be all about restraint, but it’s an attribute that has long been in short supply in Miami Beach, where you can check into a five-star hotel wearing nothing more than a thong. People tend to think of Miami Beach and Miami as one and the same, but in fact, they’re two separate cities connected by four bridges. Miami Beach was incorporated as a city in 1915.

Having failed as a coconut and avocado plantation, this glorified sandbar soon found its natural calling as a holiday destination with an early string of small hotels. Within a decade, the rapidly growing city received its first presidential visit: Warren Ci Harding on vacation in 1921. In what was already becoming the regular Miami Beach overkill, he was given a special caddy for his first round of golf: a three-ton elephant called Rosie. To this day, Miami Beach hotels will try to give you something different for your dollar.