Faena vs The Setai: Which Miami Beach Hotel?

Signature: A hotel conceived as a theatre, scarlet, gilded and muralled, crowned by Damien Hirst’s 24-karat-gold mammoth and a working cabaret stage, the most flamboyant grand hotel on Miami Beach.

Faena is unembarrassed spectacle. Alan Faena built it as the heart of a district he commissioned outright, and he engaged Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin to dress it like one of their pictures: the Cathedral corridor and its murals, the red velvet of the Faena Theater, the unicorn and the gilded mammoth on the lawn. Its 169 rooms and suites are richly colour-saturated, many with bay or ocean balconies, and the public rooms hum well into the evening. Dinner is a genuine draw, Los Fuegos by Francis Mallmann cooks over open Argentine fire, and Tierra Santa Healing House offers South American ritual in one of the largest hammams on the East Coast.

It is the hotel for travelers who want their stay to feel like an event: couples marking an occasion, the design- and art-minded, and anyone drawn to a lively, see-and-be-seen address. As a setting for a celebration, little in Florida competes with its sense of production.

Honest trade-off: The same theatricality that thrills some will tire others. Faena is loud in spirit and often in fact, its scene runs late, and the maximalist styling is the opposite of restful. It has a single pool rather than The Setai’s three, its Mid-Beach location is a short drive from the South Beach Deco strip, and as a marquee address it charges accordingly. Travelers seeking calm should look next door.

Signature: An Asian-Deco sanctuary of black granite and teak, with three temperature-controlled pools stepping toward the ocean and the kind of anticipatory service that defines a Leading Hotels of the World member.

The Setai is restraint where Faena is flourish. Built in 2004 on the site of the 1937 Dempsey-Vanderbilt by Henry Hohauser, it weds that restored Deco low-rise to a slim 40-storey tower, with interiors by Jean-Michel Gathy and Jaya Ibrahim drawn from Chinese and Southeast Asian sources, antique Shanghai brick, lacquer, courtyards lit by lanterns. Its roughly 135 rooms and suites are calm and richly materialled; the three pools, each held at a different temperature, are its signature pleasure. Dining spans three rooms, Jaya for South and Southeast Asian cooking, Ocean Grill on the sand and the newer Japon for Japanese, and the weekend Caviar and Champagne brunch is an institution. The service, quietly, is the reason regulars return.

It is the hotel for travelers who want luxury without noise: couples after romance and rest, design lovers drawn to its serene materials, and guests who measure a hotel by the grace of its staff. For a tranquil base within walking distance of South Beach, it has few equals.

Honest trade-off: Calm has its costs. The Setai is deliberately understated, those wanting a buzzing scene or a single iconic spectacle will find Faena more exciting, and its tower rooms, while handsome, trade Deco character for height and view. It sits closer to the South Beach crowds, so the immediate streets are busier, and its rates sit firmly at the top of the market. It rewards the guest who values peace over performance.