The Freehand is a funky little hostel property for twenty-something hipsters from all over the world. It is certainly not for everyone. The halls can be a bit noisy at times. There is no carpet in the entire place, as far as I could tell. If you are over thirty years old, and are discomforted by being the oldest person in the room, you absolutely should not stay at this property. If you have kids with you, this is not the property for you. However, I absolutely loved the little place. They have a great little salt water pool, with a really fantastic high-end cocktail bar featuring the work of two truly excellent mixologists, and some friendly and knowledgeable bartenders. The rooms are profoundly spartan. Many of the rooms are shared, with bunkbeds. I opted for a private room. Service, as with any hostel, is less than minimal. The housekeeping "staff" isn't going to put chocolates on your pillow, in other words. No restaurant or food, really, other than complimentary muffins, juice and coffee for breakfast. However, there is a great little Cuban family restaurant a half-block away that serves cheap, excellent food. Plus you are a significant walk (or short cab ride) away from all of the restaurants of South Beach.

For a comfortable, very simple, affordable stay in Miami Beach, it is hard to beat the Freehand. If you are in your 20's and you are part of the super-cool crowd, you'll fit right in. That doesn't describe me, but I will definitely be back anyway. Great place.

I stayed at the Freehand from Feb 7-11 for my first visit to Miami Beach with a few friends. Overall, we really enjoyed our stay at the hotel.

Pros: The hotel provides complimentary coffee/muffins in the morning which is nice. The outdoor space is pretty awesome. Lots of places to lounge about and a good amount of chairs by the pool for laying out. They also play great music. The outdoor area with the bar and pool was great fun. It was nice to have a drink or two there before hitting the town. The outdoor area is never locked, so when my friends and I came home, sometimes around 4 or 5am, we could dip our feet in the pool and just relax for a while. I thought this was really nice. The room itself was simple, but always clean and comfortable. We were in the four person private quad. I was on a top bunk, so getting up to go to the bathroom at night meant climbing a ladder but this was the most minor of inconveniences. No complaints about the room or room service. Also, every time we needed something the staff was friendly and available. The location of the hotel itself is also quite nice - just two blocks from the beach. It is not in the heart of South Beach, but it's a nice quiet area. The heart of SoBe is easily walkable in 10 minutes, and a cab ride from the hotel to Nikki Beach (southernmost part of Miami Beach) was only $12.

Cons: The only two cons to this place was that there did seem to be a funky odor permeating the air in some parts of the hotel. Not sure where it was coming from or what caused it, but on our floor there was a general odor of "funk". Secondly, the hotel does not offer late check out, which we had hoped to get, so be prepared for that. Check out time is 11 AM.

Overall, we had an excellent time. I would recommend this place to anyone visiting Miami Beach and I would definitely stay there again. Thank you for the hospitality!

As a flight attendant, many of my nights are spent at Hiltons, Sheratons, Doubletrees, etc. When I travel for pleasure, I crave a different experience. Freehand Miami was just that.

My husband and I checked in on February 2 for two nights before going on a cruise. We booked a private, 4-bunk room. The beds are twins, so you'll either really have to snuggle up really tight or just sleep separately (we chose the latter).

I pre-purchased our stay from Hotels.com. Upon check-in, we were charged again by mistake. It was refunded immediately, no big deal. Actually I take part of the blame because I wasn't paying attention when my husband was checking in or else I would've caught it before we were charged.

The lobby is really cute and low-key, as is the hostel in general. There are bicycles available for rent and board games you can check out. There is a little bulletin board that has daily activities listed next to the front desk -- we went to the Lincoln Road Farmers Market and had a wonderful day there. We wouldn't have known about it had it not been for that bulletin board! The garden and pool area is absolutely gorgeous. There are ping pong tables, plenty of seating around the pool, and seating throughout the garden. I'm calling it a garden because it was that beautiful. Just a really cool, low-key, eclectic space. There is a bar outside with very reasonably priced cocktails. We were there on a Saturday night and the garden/bar area was packed all night, at least until 4am. It is a great scene and the music was SO good anytime -- day and night. Sunday was Super Bowl and although the property has no TVs, they brought in a gigantic screen and showed the game in the garden/bar area. Awesome.

A block away is a little strip mall with a Subway, a liquor store, and two restaurants. We ate at the Cantina, and it was excellent. Very convenient if you need a quick thing or two and/or you don't want to trek all the way down to SoBe.

At first I was afraid we'd be really old compared to the other guests (we're both 33), and although there were many guests younger than us, there were also families with small children as well as a handful of guests that looked to be in their 40s. A lot of Europeans, which doesn't bother me because my husband is European. Everyone was friendly and open to chatting, which I really like. If you're a keep-to-yourself kind of person, you can do that here too.

The rooms are kind of loud. The hallways have wood floors and don't absorb much sound, so I did wake up a couple times on Saturday night when people were coming in after a night on the town, and I'm a pretty heavy sleeper. Honestly, that would really be my only complaint about the Freehand Miami, and that's not that bad as far as complaints go. The rooms are clean and cute, kind of Ikea-esque. Each bunk has a little light and a cubby to plug in your electronics. I thought that was cool. My husband and I had a lot of fun climbing around on the bunk beds -- I say bunk bed, but really it's an entire wall unit, like a built-in. Very sturdy.

South Beach proper (what you see in the movies, etc.) is about 1-1.5 miles away, accessible by a beachfront boardwalk, or you can walk up Collins Ave. It was a little farther than ideal, especially after the 5-mile run on the boardwalk I did every morning, but we're active and pretty fit, it was really no big deal. It would probably suck after a night of drinking, though. A cab is about $5 one way and readily available.

All in all, I would definitely stay here again. Really cool vibe, nice, friendly people, and a great staff. My first and most excellent hostel experience.

Upon entering the lobby, you will be amazed. Extremely pretty place in an old, traditional building with beautiful outside area including pool; all very tasteful. The breakfast offers only two items on the menu but boy, they are good: enjoying small muffins and fruit salat in a comfy couch under an old tree in the garden with some Cuban vibes in the background gives you a good start of the day, before walking a mere three minutes over to Miami beach...

The service was good, the facilities were indeed very clean, the rooms properly aired, the beds amazingly comfortable and equipped with outlets and the two en suite bathrooms of the 8 bed dorm were cleaned on a daily basis. All in all, way beyond hostel standard and highly recommended.