Suite 801, The Tides, South Beach, Miami Beach; 305-604-5070; tidessouthbeach.com. There are 45 suites, ranging from $299 to $695. Suite 801 is $695.

If adaptablity were a currecy, Miami Beach might be the wealthiest place on earth. Less than a century ago, its towering high-rises and glamorous hotels weren't even a glimmer in the imagination. In fact, when Henry and Charles Lum bought the uninhabited sandbar off Florida's coast for 25 cents an acre in 1870, they envisioned a coconut farm. The crop failed, but a new bridge connecting the strip to mainland Miami had an unexpected result: Investors like Harvey Firestone and J. C. Penney pounced on the oceanfront property. Between the South Beach Art Deco boom of the 1930s (which popularized the glam term SoBe) and the influx of World War II Army Corps cadets, the city experienced another reinvention. But nothing changed the landscape as much as the ascent of Fidel Castro in 1959, when half a million Cubans fled the revolution, injecting Miami Beach with a heavy dose of Latin flavor. More recently, the arrival of glitterati like Anna Kournikova, P-Diddy, and their fabulous friends caused yet another transformation. Even The Tides wasn't spared. Previously an homage to minimalism, the hotel has morphed into a sometimes frenetic pastiche of textures and styles, like Miami Beach itself. Between the zebra-print rugs and the faux tortoise shells, you'd be hard-pressed to find remnants of its former persona—your present vantage point notwithstanding. But would you want it any other way?