This post is sponsored by The Palms Hotel and Spa in Miami. The hotel generously gave me a complimentary stay, dinner and a massage. As always, all opinions are my own.
On a scale of 1 - 10, with 10 being the thing I love the most, I enjoy long haul travel a -5. I mean, really. The only thing I want to do after 22 hours of travel is sleep. I arrived at Miami airport last week and to my surprise, all my bags made it through, too. It was a small miracle and it did not go unnoticed (thank you, travel gods!). I zipped over to The Palms Hotel and Spa, and got directly into bed.
The Palms Hotel
I had an oceanfront king bedroom with a split plan bathroom. The bed was extremely comfortable, and the water pressure was great. Turn down service included Godiva chocolates, woop woop!
The view from my room
After the longest day of travel ever, this was a great view to wake up to.
The Palms Hotel and Spa
I couldn't wait for my massage at The Palms and arrived 30 minutes early to fill out the paperwork and try out the steam room. I always find it interesting how spas do intakes so differently. This one was more ayurveda based and I answered questions about how I deal with stress, and my current energy level. The spa's philosophy is to use various essential oils to balance energy, I was curious to see what oils my therapist would choose.
#beachhairdontcare
The Palms Spa
The spa gives you robe, towel and a pair of sandals. I was pumped because my sandals actually fit, and I wasn't swimming in the robe. They've got a great steam room, and I spent a good fifteen minutes or so in there before coming out and relaxing with a cup of ayurvedic licorice tea before my massage.
My massage was incredible. Honestly, it was one of the best I've had. The therapist had a fantastic personality - she joked around about the music, and let me pick the station (my choices were piano or lounge music), and then once she started working, she was quiet. She ended up choosing lavender oil for me, as it is a calming oil, and at the end she used peppermint oil on my back which had a cooling and energizing effect. I had a few questions about fascia and how the lymph works and she answered them with enthusiasm and explained everything very clearly. I felt like she not only paid attention to what I needed, but was also happy to educate me on various things I had asked about. Highly recommended.
Essensia
I ate at Essensia Restaurant for dinner, and had a flank steak with asparagus (so amazing after a few months in Europe where asparagus is hard to come by). I loved that the majority of the ingredients in their dishes come from the on-site organic garden. The food was delicious and came out fast and exactly as I had ordered it. Maybe something was going on the night I was there, but I felt the staff wasn't great - my server never came back after taking my order. I was extremely jet lagged and after I had eaten my meal I just wanted to go to bed, but no one knew where my server went, and they were too busy with their own tables to help me.
Overall thoughts
Overall, I liked the hotel. I found the front desk staff to be extremely kind and helpful. Security was fantastic (I had an issue with the room next to me and security was super kind and fixed the situation immediately). The spa was incredible, and the staff was excellent. Overall, I would recommend the hotel to friends. I would probably tell them to pass on the restaurant because while the food was great, I found the staff left a lot to be desired.
Let's talk Have you been to Miami? Where did you stay? What did you do?
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