The Confidante Miami Beach: Great Hotel, but Not Great for Families with Kids

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My daughter and I recently spent two nights at The Confidante Miami Beach in early March. This hotel is popular with miles and points enthusiasts because it costs 15,000 World of Hyatt points and is eligible to book with the WOH credit card’s free night certs.

My stay and review are based on my experience with my 9-year-old daughter and coming from the perspective of family travel with kids. While I liked many aspects of The Confidante, I can’t in good conscience recommend it to most families. The hotel really makes an effort to be kid-friendly, but the actions of the other guests in the hotel and in the surrounding area are not suitable for kids. I’ll explain this in more detail throughout the review.

Arrival/Check-in/First Impressions

Our flight arrived mid-afternoon, and we took a short Lyft ride to The Confidante.

Upon entering the lobby, we could immediately tell that this hotel was unique. My daughter loved the flamingos at the front desk/check-in queue. The lobby had an old-school, art-deco vibe.

Throughout the hallways and outdoor patios there are a lot of art and paintings.

In the front of the hotel, there are beachcomber bikes available to explore the area.

Aside from a few curse words on the paintings and artsy naked photos (which my daughter was sure to point out each and every time), we really liked the décor of the hotel. It’s definitely interesting.

Our Room at The Confidante

At check-in, I asked if there were any Explorist upgrades available. We got a room on a higher floor with a partial beach room. That works!

Two queen beds:

Cool light fixture:

Our beach view if we looked out our window to the left:

The bathroom sink didn’t have much counter space, but was fine for the two of us:

The shower (note that regular rooms don’t have bath tubs, which may be an issue for families with younger kids):

The desk had four sets of earplugs. I thought that was odd because we weren’t close to the airport. In the middle of the night, I realized why the rooms had earplugs after hearing a chorus of “Woo!”s from drunk people outside.

Food at The Confidante and Nearby

The Confidante has one restaurant as well as quick service for the pool and beach areas. At check-in, I asked if there was anywhere in the hotel to just grab a muffin or quick breakfast. The hotel rep said no, there was only sit-down service in the one restaurant. The breakfast buffet was $32 for adults, and kids under 12 could pay their age.

Since there was construction in front of the hotel, I couldn’t see the nearby Primo Café and Market. So, we ate at the hotel restaurant on the first morning. I decided to splurge on the buffet since it was only the two of us (instead of my entire family of five). We were both really disappointed with the breakfast buffet. It was very small and had less than the typical Hyatt Place breakfast buffet. Plus, even for the two of us, the final bill was over $50.

The next morning, I noticed the bar had a few types of muffins/breads for sale. Next time, we would just get something there.

We ordered lunch at the beach, and the food was tasty and convenient. No complaints.

For dinner, I did some research on the best kid-friendly restaurants in Miami Beach. We decided on the News Café since it has outdoor seating and was recommended for kids.

Dinner was interesting. My daughter saw things pass by that she will unfortunately never forget. She sat wide-eyed at dinner and kept pointing things out to me. And this was at 5 p.m. on a Thursday night, not even during prime spring break weeks. To be more specific, she saw naked body parts, lots of twerking in thongs and shenanigans of groups of young adults as they walked by or rode by.

Overall, the food at the hotel and in the area is very expensive (as is expected for the area).

The Beach

We spent the majority of our second day at the beach. Both my daughter and I LOVE the beach, and it’s the main reason I booked this hotel.

It rained in the morning, so the beach was deserted. When the rain stopped, we walked to the hotel’s stand on the beach. We were among the first to arrive.

The hotel provides two beach chairs per room for free, but we opted to pay $22 extra for an umbrella. If I could have a do-over, I would pay even more for a beach bed with a better shade. I got so burned that day, despite wearing sunscreen.

The hotel had a section in the sand with kids’ toys that guests could borrow.

In the late morning, the beach wasn’t crowded. We made our way to the water and fell in love with this beach. The water was clear, and the waves were gentle. We spent hours in the water bobbing in the waves. My daughter said it was like a gentle wave pool.

We ate lunch on the beach, and then the chairs started filling up with the young adults staying at the hotel. There were several wedding parties as well as bachelor and bachelorette parties while we were there. With them came the profanity. Normally, I wouldn’t have a problem asking people to tone down their language in front of kids. However, I felt very outnumbered and like we were the ones out of place. We decided to head to the pool.

We did return to the beach at sunset for one last glimpse. By that time, most people had moved to the pools or bar.

Pools

The Confidante has two pools, one adult pool and one family pool. They are identical and just steps apart.

We went to the towel stand to get new towels and to be assigned some pool chairs. I figured since we were going to the family pool, we’d be separated from the rowdy behavior.

Unfortunately, the adult pool was so crowded that the adult groups were also assigned to the family pool. There was only one other family with kids in the pool at the time. My daughter bopped around the pool while I attempted to relax on a chair, but the language and smoking bothered me.

Overall Thoughts

The hotel itself is really lovely. And, it does try to be family-friendly with its separate family pool and sand toys at the beach. Service was good, and my daughter and I loved the ocean.

However, because of the behavior of the wedding/bachelor/bachelorette groups, I can’t recommend this hotel for families. Maybe we were just unlucky with our timing. Perhaps if we were staying during a more popular spring break week, there would be more families and less party groups.

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