Located in the Faena District, the Faena Hotel Miami Beach, formerly the Saxony Hotel, is at the centre of this cultural neighbourhood that stretches between the Atlantic beachfront and Indian Creek. The five-star luxury hotel, with its 169 guest rooms, comes from the stable of Argentine hotelier Alan Faena, and is the perfect combination of decadent design and stylish sophistication. Filmmaker Baz Luhrmann and costume designer Catherine Martin, a husband-and-wife partnership, envisioned the opulent grandeur that recalls the hotel’s hedonistic days when it was a hang-out for Marilyn Monroe and Frank Sinatra. And to compliment that, art is prevalent throughout, with particular highlights including multiple murals by Argentinian artist Juan Gatti and Damien Hirst sculptures – the latter’s ginormous 24-carat gilded skeleton of a woolly mammoth graces the hotel’s gardens. This is where the extraordinary happens; where fantasy becomes reality. You enjoy the delectable food by award-winning chefs at Los Fuegos or Pao, relax in the sublime sanctuary of Tierra Santa Healing House – which has the largest hammams on the East Coast – take a dip in the palm-lined pool, experience golden-age glamour in the Saxony Bar and end the evening with a cabaret performance in the hotel’s very own theatre.