Boca resort is oasis from everyday life

The historic Boca Raton Resort & Club will make you feel like royalty, or at least the Vanderbilts.

By Susan Thurston, Times staff writer
Published December 23, 2007

IF YOU GO
Boca Raton Resort & Club
Room rates start at about $230 a night, plus an $18 per day resort fee and a $26.63 valet parking fee. No self-parking available. Check for specials and the AAA rate. For more information, call toll-free 1-888-491-2622 or go to www.bocaresort.com.

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BOCA RATON - We chose the Boca Raton Resort & Club out of curiosity. Where haven't we stayed in Florida, my fiance and I asked each other? What's close to home yet feels far away?

Pulling into the tree-lined driveway of the pink beauty, we knew we had found what we were looking for: a holiday escape without the planes, security lines or weather delays.

"Welcome," chirped the bellman unloading our grocery bags of Pringles and diapers as if they were crystal-filled Louis Vuitton valises. "Let me show you around."

The 1,043-room hotel sits on 356 acres in the heart of Florida's rich and famous. It has a private country club, conference facilities, two 18-hole golf courses, tennis courts, a spa, swimming pools and a croquet field. Across the Intracoastal Waterway on the Atlantic Ocean is the Boca Beach Club, which is under renovation but still open. Usually, you can get there by boat shuttle. During construction, you must take a bus.

The Boca has a full range of bars and restaurants for hotel guests and country club members only. Our favorite was the Vetro bar on the 27th floor of the Tower building.

The bar, with its floor to ceiling windows, has amazing northern views of the city and water. The sleek, white leather furniture inspires us, at least temporarily, to redecorate our entire home in Tampa.

Feeling festive, I order the Cielo Spring Punch with black currant infused vodka and champagne with fresh blueberries, raspberries and strawberries. A kick with definite class. We could have stayed there for hours had it not been for our 11-month-old daughter, who found crawling under the tables more interesting than crowing over the view.

The Vetro is connected to Cielo, which opened this year. Pronounced like the string instrument, the menu ranges from prosciutto-wrapped monkfish to braised beef short ribs.

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Staying at the Boca resort is as much about history as it is about service. It was the idea of Addison Mizner, a self-taught architect who loved exotic pets, and opened the hotel in 1926 as the Cloister Inn. The extensive gardens, barrel tile roofs, archways, mosaics and ornate columns reflect Mediterranean, Moorish and Gothic influences.

Mizner died in 1933 but remains a huge figure throughout Boca Raton. The Royal Palm Plaza, which has a small Saturday farmers' market, has a statue of him holding a monkey. At the resort, reminders of him are everywhere, from Mizner's Monkey Bar to the evening housekeeping service. A card left nightly on your pillow tells of Mizner greeting guests in his silk pajamas with his pet monkey Ethel.

It's interesting, but also kind of weird.

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A trip to Boca Raton shouldn't end at the resort. Check out Mizner Park, an outdoor shopping and dining area about a mile away. We've got many of the same stores around here, but the people-watching and car-watching are primo.

A short drive north of Boca are Highland Beach and Delray Beach. Magnificent doesn't begin to describe the waterfront mansions along Ocean Boulevard. Look for metered parking lots across from the beach; waterfront parks charge up to $18 a day per car on weekends.

Deerfield Beach south of Boca offers a more affordable alternative. Oceans 234 and JBs on the Beach are great spots for grabbing a bite and a drink.

After that, stroll along the beach boardwalk. For a buck, it's worth going out on the Deerfield Pier. Fishermen actually catch edible stuff. Surfers catch waves below.

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Back at the Boca resort, we settle in for the evening on our balcony overlooking a quaint courtyard and mosaic fountain. The in-house TV marketing pitch murmurs in the background: "It started with one man's dream . . . where no want would go unsatisfied, no wish unfulfilled."

That was our plan.

Susan Thurston can be reached at sthurston@tampabay.com.

[Last modified December 20, 2007, 12:04:56]