Four Seasons Surf Club

Four Seasons Hotel at The Surf Club is the strongest luxury address in Greater Miami for guests who want history, sand and serious food. It occupies the restored 1930 Surf Club in Surfside, holds Forbes Five Star for 2026 and two MICHELIN Keys, and houses The Surf Club Restaurant, Thomas Keller's one-star Florida debut.

"The only Miami hotel pairing Forbes Five Star, two Michelin Keys and a starred restaurant, set inside a restored 1930 beach club."

Aggregate 9.6/10 on our editorial scale (Room & Design, Service, Location). Independently scored; see our methodology. This is our opinion, not an aggregate of user reviews.

Affiliate disclosure: we may earn a commission from bookings at no cost to you. We never accept payment for placement. Hotel status, room product and Michelin ratings were verified against official sources and the 2026 Michelin Guide Florida in July 2026. Resort fees and valet charges were checked separately and move frequently.

What makes Four Seasons Surf Club special?

This is the only Miami-area luxury hotel built inside a genuine 1930 beach club, and that history is the reason to book it. The club opened on New Year's Eve 1930 as a private members' club, and its guest list ran to Winston Churchill, Frank Sinatra and Elizabeth Taylor; the members' club still operates alongside the hotel today. Pritzker-winning architect Richard Meier handled the restoration and the new glass towers, while Paris-based Joseph Dirand designed the interiors, the guest rooms and the spa, his first spa project in the United States. The result is a small hotel of 77 rooms and suites sitting beside 119 private residences, with oceanside gardens, a park and more than 40 beach cabanas along the sand. The credentials support the architecture: Forbes Travel Guide Five Star in the 2026 Star Awards, two MICHELIN Keys, and a place on The World's 50 Best Hotels list. Keys are a hotel award and not a restaurant star, and the distinction matters here because this hotel happens to hold both, which almost nothing else in Florida does.

Which room should you book?

Rooms here are Joseph Dirand's work, and they are the most restrained design statement in Miami luxury. There are 77 guest rooms and suites in total, a genuinely small count for a beachfront property of this profile, set alongside 119 private residences in the same complex. The suite tiers climb to the three-bedroom Marybelle Penthouse Suite, which has its own private rooftop pool and terrace and is named after the yacht from which Harvey Firestone and his circle first spotted the site. The most characterful accommodation is Cabana Row, second-floor bungalows built above the original cabanas designed by architect Russell Pancost, which put you a few steps above the sand rather than high in a tower. Because the property mixes hotel rooms, private residences and a working members' club, ask at booking exactly which building your room sits in. The Meier towers and the restored historic buildings deliver two quite different experiences of the same address, and the difference is not reflected in the category names.

Where should you eat and drink?

The Surf Club Restaurant holds one MICHELIN star in the 2026 Florida MICHELIN Guide, which makes this one of only two hotels in Greater Miami with a starred restaurant inside it. It is Thomas Keller's first Florida restaurant, contemporary American, in the hotel at 9011 Collins Avenue. Lido Restaurant covers Italian coastal cooking under chef Marco Calenzo, who was named Chef of the Year with a three-fork honour by Gambero Rosso in 2024; Lido itself is not starred and should not be described as such. The Champagne Bar handles cocktails and champagne, and Winston's On The Beach is the casual al fresco option. One correction worth making, because it still circulates online: Le Sirenuse Miami, the Amalfi import that once operated here, closed in 2020 and has never reopened. Book The Surf Club Restaurant well ahead of arrival, because it draws non-residents as heavily as it draws hotel guests.

What is the spa and pool like?

The spa is Joseph Dirand's first spa project in the United States and runs to roughly 15,000 sq ft, with a fitness centre attached. Water is the other strength: four swimming pools sit across the property, plus the private rooftop pool attached to the Marybelle Penthouse Suite, and beyond them more than 40 beach cabanas, oceanside gardens and a park along the Surfside sand. The spa carries the same restraint as the guest rooms, which is unusual in a market where wellness space is usually loud. One practical note: cabanas and beach service are charged separately from the room rate, so a full day on the sand is a spending decision, not an inclusion. Treatments book out on holiday weekends, so reserve when you reserve the room.

Where is Four Seasons Surf Club, and how do you get there?

The hotel is in Surfside, not Miami Beach proper, and that is the single most important thing to understand before booking. Surfside is a low-rise residential village directly south of Bal Harbour and north of Miami Beach, and the hotel sits at 9011 Collins Avenue directly on the sand, with its own oceanside gardens and beach cabanas. There is no road to cross to reach the water. Driving times are approximate and traffic-dependent: Ocean Drive and Lincoln Road in South Beach are roughly 15 to 25 minutes south, about 9 miles; Wynwood is roughly 25 to 35 minutes; Miami International Airport is roughly 30 to 45 minutes, about 15 miles. Rush hour and major event weekends stretch all of these considerably. The trade is straightforward. You get quiet low-rise streets and an uncrowded stretch of beach, and you give up walkable nightlife entirely.

What do guests consistently say?

Guest feedback splits cleanly between the property and the bill. The restoration, the beach position and the food draw consistent praise, and the small room count supports service ratios that larger Collins Avenue resorts cannot match. The recurring complaints are three. First, the total cost of a stay climbs steeply once daytime cabanas, beach service and parking are added on top of an already top-of-market room rate, and this is the most repeated theme by some distance. Second, guests who want South Beach nightlife face a 15 to 25 minute drive each way, which is fine once and tiresome nightly. Third, the property mixes hotel guests, private club members and residence owners, and some guests report that pool and beach loungers in the best positions are effectively spoken for before they arrive. Treat those as expectation-setting rather than as deal-breakers.

Honest cons: who should skip it?

Cost is the first drawback and the largest. This is the highest-priced property in the area, and cabanas, beach service and valet parking are billed on top of the room. Four Seasons resorts in the United States typically bill valet daily, and this hotel does not publish a fee schedule, so ask for the full list of daily charges at booking rather than discovering them at check-out. For context, 71 of 93 surveyed Miami-area hotels charge a daily resort fee, luxury properties sit at roughly USD 35 to 46 per night, valet is charged separately and often costs more, and most Miami Beach luxury hotels have no self-parking at all. Second, Surfside is quiet by design, so nightlife means a car. Third, hotel guests share the pools and the beach with club members and residence owners, and the best loungers go early.