The Boca Raton

A century of pink-stucco grandeur on Lake Boca

★★★★★📍 Lake Boca and the beach, Boca Raton$$$$

Mizner's original buildings are the soul of the place, with cloistered walkways, antique-filled lobbies and garden courtyards that feel nothing like the beach towers to the south. The later additions supply the modern resort amenities, and the Beach Club gives the sand-and-pool experience without leaving the property. Since MSD Partners and Northview acquired the resort in 2019, a $200 million reimagination has remade much of it: Rockwell Group designed Sadelle's, Major Food Group's breakfast and lunch room beside the Cloister lobby, and the lakefront Palm Court cocktail lounge; the Beach Club reopened with Marisol, an indoor-outdoor Mediterranean restaurant, and Onda on the sand; and Flybridge, the fine-dining room for Yacht Club guests, looks over the Atlantic. The resort now promotes four Forbes Five-Star ratings, for the Beach Club, the Yacht Club, Spa Palmera and Flybridge.

Booking craft: choose the hotel by trip type rather than price alone; the Yacht Club suits couples, the Beach Club suits families who want the ocean, the Cloister suits history lovers. Reserve spa treatments and popular restaurants when you book. Families should base their days at the four-acre Harborside Pool Club, with three pools, water slides, the 450-foot floating river, cabanas with butler service and the Banyan Bunch kids club, while the 32-slip marina handles boating outings.

Practicals: 501 East Camino Real, Boca Raton; about forty minutes from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood airport and closer to Boca's Brightline station; resort fees apply. Gumbo Limbo Nature Center is a short drive up the barrier island.