MY BEST HOLIDAY EVER AT THE FONTAINEBLEAU- MIAMI. (Fontainebleau Hilton Resort)

Member Name: Tamzin1989

Product:	Fontainebleau Hilton Resort
Date:	16/08/09 (29 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Amazing, amazing. simply- amazing

Disadvantages: you need ALOT of money to take advantage of all the opportunities

Wow where do i start. This is my review of a 2 and half weeks stay beginning 17/07/09.

TRAVELING/ARRIVING TO THE HOTEL:
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Miami Fontainebleau is a good 20 minute drive from the airport and the taxi fare is a fixed price of $32 for zone "B". When i arrived (in awe at how beautiful the hotel was!!), the taxi door was opened for me by "Fred" and my bags were taken from the car boot and put on a "trolly".

The staff wear a nice clean cut uniform so are easy to spot, and are REALLLY helpfull.

I must mention that when we were checking in, the hotel refused to take Maestro credit card for incidental precaution,which did leave us in a bit of a pickle- so we were forced to leave some money behind the desk. We were supposed to have a Ocean Front suite but were issued a Ocean "view" suite instead as they were "all booked up".
They issued us with door keys in the form of a card, and "Fred" brought our suitcases up in the lift with us.


OCEAN VIEW SUITE:
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The front door walks you straight into the kitchen come living room. "Fred" unloaded our bags and hung around for about 15 minuets to make sure we felt settled, answered questions about local life,partying, and whatever else we needed to ask.

The kitchen was equip with a fridge freezer with ice dispenser. Annoyingly, we would later find that we would have to ring "ASK MORRIS" (basically room service) every other day to refill the freezer with ice as the freezer was tempermental.

There was a oven,a microwave ,sink, washing machine and tumble dryer.We had to "ASK MORRIS" to bring us up some plates, cups, glasses, cuttlery ,salt n pepper and washing powder- All at no extra cost.

The air-conned living room was supplied with a huge HD tv, a 30" screen Apple iMac computer, a phone, a sofa bed, 2 cupboards big enough as wardrobe space,iron and board, table and chairs and looked out into the wide balcony.

The spacious bedroom had a king size bed, a huge tv, chest of draws, a phone and a wardrobe. The bedroom also looked out into the wide balcony. The bed sheets were absolutely divine- it was like sleeping on clouds- i assume they were the best Egyptian cotton sheets you can get.

The bathroom was gorgeous, huge dresser style mirror on the wall, a "silent" toilet, and a shower/bath that was also a jacuzzi. They supplied complementary spa soaps, spa salts, body wash, hair shampoo and conditioner, shower caps and cotton buds/ cotton wool balls.

The balcony was big enough to be another room, it looked over the hotels "private" swimming pool- it was just beautiful with a waterfall into the pool and a jacuzzi tub. I couldn't work out whether it was ACTUALLY open for hotel guest use- but i did use it at night when nobody was about so- i guess you can.haha.

The overall feel of the suite was pure Luxury.

THE HOTEL:
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Ok so this hotel is absolutely huge!It boasts 6 outdoor swimming pools dotted by private cabanas, all within their own spectacular setting, entwined within the beautiful kept gardens and poolside bars. It really looks tropical and luxurious! There are hundreds of sunbeds and round poolside beds. I personally LOVED this, but note that the music round the hip hop pool, was hip hop funnily enough, but not to worry as there are 5 other pools to choose from with different types of music to suit you.

There are also 11 restaurants and nightclubs WITHIN the hotel- that is how huge this hotel is! We ate in the hotel once for breakfast- it was a buffet breakfast with a good range of food and it cost $30 per person - so was rather expensive (hence why we took to self catering).

There was a variety of shops, 3 EXPENSIVE clothing boutiques, a 40,000 square foot- state-of-the-art health spa, Hair salon, Nail salon, a FREE GYM, and a few inside bars.

The hotel backs straight onto Miami beach with direct access.Water sports from the beach include jet skiing, windsurfing and much more. Marina provides deep sea fishing boat charters also.

I need to randomly throw in also that the housekeeping was great, but that 90% of the housekeeping staff spoke broken english.

NIGHTLIFE WITHIN HOTEL:
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The weekends at Fontainebleau turn into CELEBVILLE!! It has a strong upperclass hip hop/urban scene and the celebrities host pool parties and party in the exclusive "Live" nightclub. It wasn't hard to mingle with the celebrities as i ended up brushing shoulders with Pharrell, Bow Wow, Fabolous and Spliffstar. This is the place to be if your involved in the music industry or even the entertainment business- The networking that goes on is immense. I hear that November times are when the wild parties occur- the poolside becomes 18+ as it transforms into a nudist pool?! crazy.

TIPS FOR STAYING AT THE HOTEL:
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*check before your holiday what credit cards are accepted.
*make sure your aware of how much money you will need to accommodate the experience you want to have- this hotel is expensive and offers a million and one things to do and they are worth every penny.
* Get yourself down to Target or Walgreens for food shopping.
* YOU MUST visit ocean drive. Clothes shops are open until 12 at night, and i recommend STRONGLY!!that you go to ceejays for delicious reasonably priced food.(good steaks, fried shrimp ect ect all under $20)
*Be aware that the hotel is always a taxi ride from wherever you want to go- on average it was no more than $10 to walgreens, to ocean drive..it was $40 to go to the HUGE shopping mall Adventura -then obviously you have to pay to come back..
*Make friends with the concierge and the bellboys- they often bend their backs for you and supply you with "off the record" advice and information which is extreeeeemley helpful.
* Take a camera, take pictures!! i regret not taking anough pictures- the settings are amazing and the perfect backdrop for the best holiday pictures ever.

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I was lucky to have a free holiday here as my cousin had broken up with his girlfriend and had a spare ticket. Although i was here for free- i WOULD 150% pay to come and stay here again. It's the kind of place that offers class for the business types, style and pleasure for the young couples and fun for the little ones.
I was so impressed with the hotel design - the architecture, the elegant interior decor , the Fontainebleau brand identity and the furniture.
The staff made you feel like they were your friends and i have never had a holiday so amazing. "Fred" who had been our bellboy from day one hooked us up with so many little things- he really made a difference to our stay i think.

I will be going back next year, hopefully with a group of friends!
this 5 star hotel deserves 6 stars!

Hope "Fred" still works there when i return! :)

Summary: I seriously reccomend you vist this hotel.