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Adrienne Arsht Center
Ann Norton Sculpture Garden
The former residence of Alabama-born artist Ann Vaughn Weaver is today an oasis within paradise. The enchanting gardens are home to colossal works in bronze, stone and wood set into lush surroundings. Between a collection of rare palms and flora and fauna, visitors become a part of the evolution of the artist's work, which embodies nearly four decades of her work.
Art Basel Miami Beach
Art Basel Miami Beach, which started in 2002, has become one of the season’s most important social and cultural events.
Bicycling & Strolling
Starting at Royal Poinciana Way and winding north along the Lake Worth Lagoon is a true Palm Beach treasure: the Lake Trail. Henry Flagler built the path in the 1890s for his hotel guests to take quiet morning strolls. Open to the public, the trail is an extremely popular destination for bicyclists, skaters, joggers and moms with strollers. The five-mile-long ribbon of pavement winds past gorgeous lakefront homes and docks, affording a view of the West Palm Beach skyline on the other side of the lagoon. It is best in the early morning and late afternoon, when the sun is not beating down.
Boating
Indagare members can contact our bookings department for help chartering a boat for exploring and/or deep sea fishing.
Boating
A great way to see the Miami area is to reserve a boat and captain for a day charter. Visitors can discover the city's canals and adjacent seafood restaurants, the downtown skyline from a different perspective and island paradise, Key Biscayne. Seeing Stiltsville, a cluster of houses built on pilings in the middle of the ocean, makes for a fascinating day-trip. Indagare members can contact our Bookings Team for help with trip planning, including customized recommendations and itineraries.
Colony Theatre
The historic Colony Theatre has undergone a multi-year renovation to restore and update it to its former glory. Miami New Drama, the theater company that will oversee the Colony, will perform innovative plays produced exclusively for the theater.
Cowshed Spa
Flagler Museum
The Beaux-Arts estate of South Florida developer and industry titan Henry Flagler is both a structural and social staple of Palm Beach. Now a National Historic Landmark, the once private home is a stunning public house museum that offers exhibitions highlighting all that is the Gilded Age. With gallery tours and children's activities, the museum evokes both nostalgia and awe, even to repeat visitors.
Four Seasons Spa
The 11,000-square-foot spa at the Four Seasons offers a long list of beauty treatments, including Kate Somerville facials. There’s a large dedicated men’s area, the Willow Room, modeled after a barbershop where gents can enjoy traditional hot towel shaves.
Golf Scene
Palm Beach County is a golf Mecca. You can’t go anywhere without encountering greens, fairways and people who are dressed for the course. Such golf greats as Ray Floyd and Jack Nicklaus live in the area and many first-class courses are here. The Breakers has two 18-hole championship courses, one par-70 on the resort grounds and another Rees Jones-designed course that lies a ten-minute drive away. If you’re staying at the Breakers, play a round at the Ocean Course, Florida’s original eighteen-hole course, for the historical value if nothing else. Most of Palm Beach's resorts can arrange privileges at various area clubs.
Golf: Trump International Golf Club
Donald Trump made a serious investment in his Trump International Golf Club, outfitting it with rolling hills and a lot of the over-the-top features (cliffs! waterfalls!) that you’d expect from Trump.
Indagare Tours: Historic / Architectural Palm Beach
Indagare's favorite Palm Beach tour guide quit a twenty-year-long career as a stockbroker to found a company specializing in architectural and historic tours of the city. All tours are private and by appointment only.
International Polo Club Palm Beach
This impressive facility is about a thirty to forty-five-minute drive west of Palm Beach, but the experience is worth the trek. During the winter, all the world’s serious polo players congregate here to participate in prestigious tournaments like the U.S. Open. The action is thrilling, and so is the social scene. Tailgates, brunches and charity luncheons add to the festive atmosphere.
LIV
Margulies Collection at the Warehouse
An outstanding private art collection exhibits photography that spans the early 1900s to the present, as well as video and installation art.
Miami Design District
Nightlife
Palm Beach is not known for late nights or avant-garde dance clubs. The night scene here is a bit subdued, with most of the after-dark action concentrated in the bars and lounges around town. The Brazilian Court is a fun scene as is the bar at Michael R. McCarty’s, which has the atmosphere of a traditional gentleman’s club, with tropical touches.
An older crowd congregates at the Leopard Lounge, in the Chesterfield, where the drinks are stiff and the music live. The outrageous décor of lipstick red and leopard prints has long been the talk of the town. For a cabaret reminiscent of Café Carlyle, check out the Royal Room, at the Colony Hotel. The room is intimate and the entertainment includes classic acts.
Norton Museum of Art
Holding one of the area's most prominent exhibitions of American, Chinese, Contemporary, European Art and Photography, The Norton Museum offers an extensive collection of work in a down-to-earth, family-friendly environment. With programs and events for all ages and interests, the museum has become a South Florida cultural institution not to be missed.
Palm Beach Art Fairs
As a new generation has started to buy and build full-time and part-time houses—both on the island of Palm Beach proper and in the vibrant West Palm Beach area—the art-collecting scene has evolved to elicit more passion and to encompass more interests than ever. Signs are evident in the kinds of art and furniture exhibited in local galleries along Worth Avenue and West Dixie Highway, in the more modern style of decorating in people’s houses and in the cutting-edge programs at such area museums as the Norton Museum of Art and Whitespace. But one of the best prisms through which to view the dynamism of this tropical retreat’s buying scene is to visit its series of winter art fairs.
In January and February, several major exhibitions stop in Palm Beach. The best ones to check out are the contemporary art Palm Beach 3 (www.palmbeach3.com), in January and Palm Beach Jewelry, Art and Antique Show (www.palmbeachshow.com) in February.
Palm Beach Bicycle Trail Shop
One of the best ways to experience the natural beauty, well-groomed gardens, historic establishments and majestic oceanfront mansions of Palm Beach is by bicycle. Top Cycle, the island's leading bike specialist, offers rentals, sales, and repairs on everything from Formigli hand-made bicycles to motorized Vespas. Couples and families who want to explore the island should stop in and say hello to shop owner Patrick, who has intimate knowledge of the product and a welcoming smile.
Par 3
Recently renovated and redesigned by Hall of Fame golfer Raymond Floyd, this oceanside par 3 golf course offers spectacular views of the Intracoastal Waterway and the Atlantic. The tropical setting and Paspalum turf make Par 3 one of the most fun golf courses in America. The course opened Clubhouse in early 2014, which houses the golf shop and men and women's lounges on the first floor and the much anticipated Al Fresco (from the famed Worth Avenue restaurant, Pizza Al Fresco) on the second floor.
Pérez Art Museum Miami
An impressive glass building on Biscayne Blvd opened in late 2013 and sent the art world chatter into overdrive. There were fascinating key players-- real estate developer Jorge Perez, the Miami municipality and curator extraordinaire Thom Collins-- a multi-million dollar fundraising effort (only a fraction of which was provided by the museum's namesake) and an important contemporary art collection emphasizing Latin American works.
Across three stories the institution displays paintings by Diego Riviera, sculptures by Joseph Cornell and installations with varied success. Some rooms work so well with their holdings it seems they were designed with them in mind. Other rooms have such depressing lighting and silly layouts that it's hard to imagine the building was created with the intention of displaying artwork.
The celebrity status of the institution has drawn important exhibitions, such as the Ai Weiwei show “According to What,” which famously attracted violence and headlines (in protest to the museum not supporting enough Latin artists, a Spanish man smashed a vase that belonged to part of a $1 million installation).
The most exciting part of the museum is the building's exterior, which rises from a nondescript sector in overtown, like a temple to all things cool. The architects took inspiration from nearby Stiltsville, the grouping of houses set on pilings located in the Atlantic a few miles east of South Beach. Huge columns of growing plants hang from wooden rafters like a modern day variation of the Gardens of Babylon. Go during sunset to experience the way the building changes with the light.
Remède Spa at the St. Regis Bal Harbour
Rubell Family Collection
Located in a converted warehouse, this collection features works by such contemporary artists as Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons and Takashi Murakami. Both venues are open to the public during the week, though you should call for the latest schedules. As with the Design District, galleries here hold an open house (and many serve free drinks) from 7 to 10 p.m. on the second Saturday of the month.
Society of the Four Arts
A destination in its own right, The Society of the Four Arts offers something inspiring and educational for all ages in mediums of art, music, drama and literature. Encompassing an art gallery, a concert hall auditorium, two libraries, and a variety of sculpture and botanical gardens, the historic culture center puts on a variety of exhibits, cultural talks, children's programs, and opera and theatre telecasts. Deeply rooted in the history of some of Palm Beach's founding families, this state-of-the-art facility makes a wonderful cultural addition to any Palm Beach itinerary.
Spa
The best spas in the city can be found at the high-end resorts, like the Four Seasons Splash Spa, a 50,000-square-foot space with ten treatment rooms. Both Ritz-Carltons have nice facilities: the one in South Beach is slightly smaller and offers treatments by therapists from Paris beauty house Carita; the one in Key Biscayne also has a top-of-the-line fitness center with classes that include Pilates and Tai Chi. The excellent spa at the Mandarin Oriental has seventeen treatment rooms, some with huge windows overlooking Biscayne Bay. There’s also a cool spa at Miami Beach’s Standard Hotel (featured above) owned by André Balazs, a peaceful, chic bathhouse that borrows from Roman and Turkish traditions. You can chill out in the sultry coed hammam or outside in the playful mud lounge. Acqualina's ESPA offers holistic treatments in sixteen treatment rooms. Unlike the gilded interiors around the hotel, the spa boasts a modern Zen-like design, with dimmed lighting, dark wood flooring and a sedate Asian ambiance that feels more Bali than Bal Harbor. Treatments range from simple manicures to half-day “journeys” dedicated to balancing charkas, purifying pores and eliminating jet lag (a common complaint amongst the hotel’s large contingent of European guests).