Casa Casuarina

Hotel description

It’s perhaps the apex of a certain tendency in hospitality: the old Versace mansion is back, this time as a private members’ club — and, for those willing to shell out for a temporary membership, a luxury boutique hotel. This patchwork Italian-style palace is still every inch a monument to excess; the difference being that now it’s open to the public, or at least a certain subset thereof.

The accommodations don’t play it any safer than the hyper-ornate common areas; all the suites, from the Persian to the Pompeii to the Egyptian and even the Owner’s Suite — this last Versace’s own — are intricately detailed, full of stained glass, mosaic tile and hand-carved furniture, along with everything a modern luxury hotel needs, from marble baths to plasma televisions.

As for the social atmosphere, you’ll share the Casa Casuarina with the club members. There’s a full-service spa, a beach club, a restaurant headed by the award-winning chef Wolfgang Birk, as well as Versace’s famous mosaic swimming pool, surrounded by private cabanas, for when exclusive isn’t exclusive enough. And rather than just the typical South Beach velvet-roped hotel bar, the Casa has not just a cocktail bar and a cigar room, but a caviar lounge as well.