The Most Romantic Hotels in Florida, USA

The Ritz-Carlton brand is synonymous with class, and its Fort Lauderdale outpost is as luxurious as they come: a beachfront beauty in the yachting capital of the world. Guest rooms and suites have ocean or Intracoastal Waterway views. Decor is as zingy-fresh and life’s a beach with a spa treatment on the sand, before punchy cocktails and seafood at the Burlock Coast restaurant. End the night on your balcony overlooking the water, utterly in love.

Check in to a bubble of pure Asian style beside the ocean in the Art Deco District of South Beach, Miami. The hotel occupies a classic 1930s building, which spreads into a contemporary tower, ensuring a perfect pairing of heritage style and modern spark. Black-granite showers and sliding doors make for romantic rooms – which you’ll want to leave to dine together in-house at Indian-accented Jaya, where the menu sizzles and steams its way through thali platters and prawn curries – a very spicy space.

Bought as a home by Gianni Versace in 1992, Miami’s Ocean Drive landmark still epitomizes South Beach pizzazz now that it’s a luxury boutique hotel. It’s more like a royal residence, each suite adorned with the extravagant decor that defined the Italian designer: marble, trompe-l’oeil ceilings and lashings of animal print. The Thousand Mosaic Pool, rooftop lounge and Onyx Bar whistle you back to the 1990s of Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell and Madonna.

Leaving South Beach and heading south, you find Brickell Key and the Mandarin Oriental Miami. It’s a five-star pad with all the polished bells and whistles, from the exotic day spa to its private infinity-edge pool, blending with skyscrapers and marine-blue horizons. This is an idyll surrounded by sea, too. Rooms unite eastern and art deco with displays of orchids, rich woods and curvaceous lines. Dinner at La Mar by Gastón Acurio is on many bucket lists for its fresh Peruvian food.

With a heritage rooted in the 1960s, this Fort Lauderdale icon has had a glittery cast over the decades: you’ll walk the same halls as Marilyn Monroe, Joe DiMaggio and Robert De Niro. The signature Blissful Beds were made to waylay romantics – but be sure to head out to the resort’s Wreck Bar. The mermaid show is a wow, as sirens of the sea cavort beyond underwater windows. Add two pools and private beach access and it’s an A+ romantic getaway.

Passions will be fully ignited at Miami Beach’s most exclusive spa and shore club. So reinvigorating are the treatments – salt float gravity therapy, cryotherapy and Botox-alternative Jeuveau – it’ll be as if you’re meeting again for the very first time. Don’t worry – if all you need is a little vitamin sea, you’re welcome to skip more than 20 fitness classes and spend your days relaxing on the beach together. It’s a fabulous stretch, too, with skies fiery at sunset.

This laid-back lodge in Islamorada, in the Keys, attracts romantics for good reason. There are adults-only pools and a spa ready to pamper you. There’s also 27 acres (11ha) of verdant gardens to sneak off into together, too. If this is the kind of romantic break you couldn’t leave the kids behind for, no problem – drop them at Camp Cheeca (ages five to 12) to learn about sand and shells, while the two of you order another round at the Oceanfront Tiki Bar.

Romantic getaways aren’t always aided by right-royal surrounds – you might just want a cozy getaway with porch rockers by the ocean. Enter Sunset Key Cottages, in Key West, a retreat as carefree as sand between toes – with just a beach and a bar to vie for your attention. Although it’s made for lovers, there are larger cottages sleeping up to nine guests. But we say do it à deux, with spa sessions and memorable dinners of scallops and Key West pink-shrimp carbonara.