Hilton Bentley South Beach

[cruisefam86]

Looking at staying here the two nights before our cruise. My husband travels for work so we have free nights to cover the cost completely so money is not a factor. What do you think spring break with a 5 and 8 year old? We definitely want somewhere beach front and we stayed in Fort Lauderdale last spring break and know we don’t want the hassle of getting from there to Miami w the kids 

[GaryAA]

We stayed in the Marriott Stanton last February before a cruise. Anything south of Fifth Street is pretty calm. Most of the action is north of Fifth. You will be close to the cruise ships when they leave port. We usually walk over and watch them leaving starting around 4:00pm. There is a nice walking/bike path next to the hotels.

[Kay45]

I would avoid South Beach hotels during Spring Break. Most locals avoid try to avoid Miami Beach that time of the year, 

[BMW Hoosier]

Points still have value. And, even in points, the Bentley is expensive. I much prefer the Hilton Cabana. But it is really personal preference and there are a lot of Hilton choices at Miami Beach. 

[cruisefam86]

6 hours ago, BMW Hoosier said:

Points still have value. And, even in points, the Bentley is expensive. I much prefer the Hilton Cabana. But it is really personal preference and there are a lot of Hilton choices at Miami Beach. 

Yes I definitely agree! I guess I should have specified we have 2 free weekend nights to use! So higher price the best use!

[Happy Cruisers]

My wife and I stayed at Hilton Bentley in February 2021 for a pandemic era vacation - also on a points redemption! *fist bump*

First off, I think this would be a perfect place to bring your children before the cruise.  I would 100% do the same thing.  Yes, it's South Beach, but it's definitely on the "quiet" end of the beach (search online for the SoFi district of South Beach and you'll see from people who actually know the area).  We see more flesh on a Royal Caribbean pool deck than we did on that end of the beach.  The "exciting" end of South Beach is further uptown, toward all the notorious hotels (e.g., Fontainebleau) - that's the area I'd probably keep younger children away from. 

The hotel itself is pretty nice - sort of feels like a condo building that went hotel, honestly.  Our room had a *lot* of marble, which felt like an odd choice for the beach, but it made for a nice room.  It's definitely a nicer Hilton (way better than the Hilton Cabana South Beach), but I'd stop short of calling it a truly luxury property.  For 2 nights, I think you'd be fine there.   [Edit: I just saw after posting the earlier replies about Hilton Cabana - I'm not throwing shade at those folks, but on our trip in early '21 we spent about half our trip at the Cabana and half at the Bentley (5th night free point redemptions...) and found we liked Bentley materially better, although it is significantly more expensive from both a dollars and points perspective.  Cabana reminded me a LOT of the Hilton Ft. Lauderdale Marina (minus the marina), if you've stayed there.  You get what you pay for, of course.] 

Hotel guests have access to the adjacent beach club - a discrete tip to the guy leading you to your included chairs and umbrella should get you close to the water in the "members only" area - or that trick worked for us, anyway.  Access to the beach club was one of our favorite perks of the property - we got a ton of value out of that. 

The on-site restaurant, Santorini, is perfectly fine considering they'll bring food and drink to you on the beach.  If you're a Hilton elite, you'll probably get a fairly generous daily breakfast credit there, too (I'm Diamond and think the credit was $30/person, but that was also before Hilton rolled out certain "improvements" to elite benefits last year). We had dinner there one night and it was fine - probably fair to say that they have a stronger breakfast or lunch game, though.  

Lots of good restaurants in the area - for example, Carbone's Miami outpost is almost literally across the street. Ocean Drive is just a short walk away - during the pandemic, they had Ocean Drive closed to traffic for pedestrians.  I have no idea if it's still that way, but it was nice at the time and a great place to take an afternoon walk.  That said, the crowd in the evenings is not one I'd have young children around.  In our experience, the TGI Fridays on Ocean Drive was our turn-around point if we didn't want our walk to get too interesting. 

You'll also be able to see the cruise ships come and go - get an ocean view room and I'd think you'd be able to see your ship arrive the morning of departure if you're up early enough.  I wouldn't hesitate to return to this property on points.  The cash price gets aggressive, but it's a great point redemption property.  

Feel free to DM me if you have any specific questions.  We don't have kids, but I'd answer the best I can.