Kimpton Hotel Palomar South Beach

The pool

• Rooftop pool
• Skyline + waterway views
• Tiered deck with cabanas
• Poolside bar and food service

Why it's on the list

A tiered rooftop deck on the bay side of the island, looking across the water at the Miami skyline rather than out at the Atlantic, with a bar and food service running poolside. The operator is explicit that this is a swimming pool rather than something to stand in, which on a roof is rarer than it should be.

The stay

The Palomar is the quiet-side one — 96 rooms on Alton Road in Sunset Harbour, on the Biscayne Bay flank of the island rather than the ocean flank, which is the whole character of the place. You trade the Atlantic for the skyline, and Ocean Drive for a neighborhood people actually live in. The rooftop is genuinely a deck rather than a token plunge: tiered seating, cabanas, oversized loungers, a corner built to look like a ship's prow, and a bartender on duty through the afternoon. At $$$ it is the value pick of South Beach's rooftops — take it if the view you want is the city across the water, and note that the signature restaurant is mid-transformation, so dinner is currently a walk rather than a lift ride.