The Park Central Hotel in the Art Deco Historic District stands just across the street from the beach and palm-studded Lummus Park, a blocks-long expanse of lawn and sand containing playgrounds and volleyball nets. The South Beach Express, an electric shuttle, whisks vacationers from the tip of Miami Beach through South Beach and as far north as the Convention Center 14 blocks away.
Built in 1937 and restored in 1987, the Park Central offers a classic lobby of pink-and- green terrazzo, fat-paddle ceiling fans and potted plants. In addition to complimentary Internet access throughout the hotel, guests also can enjoy free coffee every morning in the lobby. A rooftop garden with a whitewashed-wood deck, potted plants, and cushioned teak lounge chairs furnishes additional relaxation space. Adjacent to a small, flower-filled sculpture garden is a 20-by-12-foot heated pool surrounded by a sundeck furnished with padded lounge chairs. The hotel includes a small fitness center and provides discount passes to a health spa about two blocks away.
The hotel's veranda/sidewalk restaurants attract patrons from throughout South Beach. Quinn's Bar and Restaurant offers linen-service, pasta, steaks and seafood specialties, such as wasabi/ginger-crusted ahi, roasted lobster tail, citrus-crusted sea bass in an atmosphere of votive candles and hurricane oil lamps. Also into linen service, Casablanca dishes up pizza, salads, burgers, sandwiches, pasta, fish and steak, but no Rick, Elsa and Victor Laslow.
The 126 guestrooms come complete with featherbeds, light comforters, floral bedspreads and pale-yellow walls graced by black-and- white photographs of 1930s Miami Beach. The rooms also include ceiling fans and CD players.
Leisure travelers blend with fashion-shoot crews and models, who love how the colorful art-deco hotels provide the perfect backdrops for pictures in publications throughout the world.