Miami: Home of the Beachside Swimming Pool
For anyone seeking the sun stateside, the beaches of Miami can be a solid cure for the wintertime chills. Bikini-friendly chill-out time awaits along lovely beaches, in luxurious pools, or both at the same time. Beachfront swimming pool, anyone? Florida also has a deep history of Esther Williams-style swimming pool capades - we love Esther for doing her part to popularize the bikini!
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- Raleigh Hotel: The Raleigh's free-form saltwater pool is where Esther Williams cavorted in The Million Dollar Mermaid (in which a one-piece is seen as scandalous). What makes this pool even more glamorous is that it is totally laid-back and ready for basking in classic, black rubber inner tubes and burger service. The Raleigh pool can’t compete with the natural beauty of the ocean a few hundred feet away, but it is worth a peek and a day pass if you can swing it. Email me if you want tips.
- Shore Club: If you are going to Miami and just got a Brazil Bikini, this is the perfect place to wear it.
- Biltmore Coral Gables Miami: This 22,000-square-foot swimming pool, formerly the largest pool in the continental US, was built in1926 while the Jazz Age was gaining momentum. With the Stock Market Crash of late 1929 and the onset of the Great Depression, the Biltmore began hosting aquatic galas and capades that kept the hotel in the spotlight and drew crowds. As many as 3,000 guests would come out on a Sunday afternoon to watch the synchronized swimmers, bathing beauties, alligator wrestling and other water fun. The hotel continues to host synchronized swimmers doing vintage routines.
- Lummus Park Beach: Also known as South Beach. People watching in overdrive! See and be seen. Topless bathing is legal here.
- Virginia Key Beach: Being one with nature is important for mental/physical health and beauty. Virginia Key is a perfect place to explore natural beauty. It's a beach with a conscience.