Metropolitan by COMO – Miami Beach

Last month, Mr. Feather and I spent a long weekend in Miami Beach for a wedding. I hadn’t been to Miami in years (when I want a beach destination I usually head for Hawaii), so I was excited for the trip.

When we were looking for hotels, I saw that the Metropolitan had recently opened in Miami Beach. I didn’t get a chance to stay at the Shambala Estate while we were in Bali (next time), so thought this would be a good opportunity to try out the COMO brand. Plus, the hotel had no nightclub or “scene” downstairs – a plus in my book as having come directly from some work travel in New York and Boston, I wasn’t in the mood for a loud hotel with a party atmosphere.

Inside the Metropolitan’s lobby, we admired the classic Miami style and colors used, including the beautiful original stone floors.

Each of the Metropolitan’s guest rooms had these floors (at least ours did). At first, I was a little taken aback, since I’m definitely used to carpet, at least in the bedroom. But the Metropolitan provided comfortable slippers to move around in.

The Metropolitan is a “wellness” retreat, in keeping with the COMO brand, and you could definitely see that sense of calm in the rooms. No ostentatious luxury – it was much more like a serene spa.

Beautiful bathrooms, and of course the Como Shambala’s own house toiletries, which were great. The shampoo didn’t strip my hair like many hotel shampoos tend to do.

Each evening, without fail, an employee would come by to deliver ice for the bucket (of course – this is Miami!) as well as a fabulous turndown tray of sweets. Usually, turndown sweets have been a few chocolates, maybe a few candies in my experience. The Metropolitan though, went above and beyond.

But speaking of food…each morning, we’d have breakfast downstairs at the restaurant, where there was a buffet with mostly sweet selections and fruit. There were also fresh squeezed fruit and green juices, which I appreciated!

You could also order from the a la carte menu, so I’d typically grab some favorites from the buffet, and then order my favorite breakfast item ever, eggs benedict with smoked salmon and roe on top. Yeah!

As we were in Miami Beach, naturally the Metropolitan had a lovely outdoor pool. It usually wasn’t heavily occupied while we were there, and we had a lot of privacy.

There were also cabanas set up in the grassy area between the hotel’s pool and it’s stretch of beach.

Did I mention? The pool had great food! There was a nice mix of healthier and heavier items.

Besides the ground floor pool and its stretch of beach, the Metropolitan also had a rooftop hydrotherapy pool, super relaxing. For some reason this pool was super rarely frequented – the two times I went, we were the only ones there. It was beautiful and the pool was a nice temperature in between the pool downstairs and a jacuzzi.

The view from the roof was also beautiful, directly overlooking the beach and sand.

Overall, I enjoyed our stay at the Metropolitan and would stay there again, though I’d probably try out the Setai on our next visit to Miami Beach.

Positives: The Metropolitan had really good pricing – it was about half the cost of the Setai’s, which is a huge difference, though I’m not claiming that the properties themselves are at parity since I didn’t try the Setai. One note though that if you are used to luxury hotels and have more exacting standards, I’d book at least a suite level room with a view here to ensure yourself enough space and nice scenery.

The staff seemed like they genuinely wanted to help and provide great service, and the pastry chef is a genius. Seriously, you must try pastry while there. The stretch of private beach was lovely.

Areas for improvement: The spa was charging top level prices for services (no surprise since the Metropolitan is billed as a “wellness” resort), but I didn’t think the facilities were enough to justify the price. Service was patchy at times (though as I mentioned…the staff were all very nice). And I would have liked more dining options…seemed a bit limited at times.

Thanks for reading along, and next time I’ll take you through some of our favorite food and sights in Miami Beach!