The minute you wake up in your Shore Club room, you know you're not at home. Look around and all you see is sleek and white...and, if you have a room like ours, you'll eventually see the frosted glass wall that divides the room's bathroom from its sleeping area...and forms one side of its huge (roughly 7'x4') three-out-of-four-frosted-glass-sided shower. An exotic and a pitch-perfect embodiment of the South-Beach vibe? - absolutely! A problem when only one of you has to get up early to get dressed for your day at a business conference at the hotel? Also, absolutely!

Actually, my husband wasn't so disturbed by the blast of light that filtered from the bathroom vanity out into the sleeping area as he was inconvenienced by - I'm not making this up - the absolute lack of a waist-high ledge or soap dish where he could park the soap while he was showering. (He made me promise I'd include this in my review...so here it is.)

Speaking of the shower, I have fallen totally in love with the bath amenities this hotel provides: peppermint shampoo, cilantro hair conditioner, lemon verbena body lotion and a very distinctive and lovely "rum" body wash and hand soap: your whole shower turns into one yummy scent after another. And when you're finished in the shower, there could be a bathrobe, slippers, and a huge thick bath towel waiting to dry you off. Not bad at all - even if it's just like this at your own house. (!)

Now, get dressed and take a stroll on the hotel's compact "grounds" - you'll fall in love with the the glorious colors, the beautiful landscaping, the scents in the air, and the profusion of cosy sofas, chairs, hammocks and daybeds that line the outdoor public areas. These "conversation areas" become even more cozy and intimate after dark, after the staff light what must be hundreds of candles and lanterns and tuck them artfully into the space.

Walk far enough in a direct line away from the hotel's lobby, past the big pool, and the little pool, past the sunken hot tub, and there you are, a hundred feet from the beach. Need I say more?

Eventually you might decide to come back into the hotel and enjoy the thoughtful and friendly hospitality provided by the hotel's staff; they really bring the rest of this idyll come together. The service is so personalized and attentive that I'm pretty sure one of them will read this review.

In short, I thank the Shore Club staff for all for the relaxing, soul-renewing, sense-stirring moments they provided my husband and I during our stay. (Now, if you could just do something about that soap dish!)