The Best Resort Hotels in Florida in 2016

Florida is rightly famous for its theme parks and beaches, but the state's upscale accommodations are pretty incredible, too. 

Among Florida’s most notable hotels are pedigreed resorts, sleek beachfront towers, and elegant urban retreats. You need no more proof than our list of the Sunshine State’s best.

Every year for our World’s Best Awards survey, T+L asks readers to weigh in on travel experiences around the globe — to share their opinions on the top hotels, resorts, cities, islands, cruise lines, spas, airlines, and more. In the hotels category, readers rated properties on their rooms and facilities, location, service, food and drink, and overall value. Hotels were categorized as resort properties based on their locations.

In Miami Beach, three hotels have our reader’s hearts. The Palms Hotel & Spa, which comes in at No. 10, offers chic rooms at an affordable price. Custom cocktails like the Painkiller, a mix of rum, pineapple juice, orange juice, cream of coconut, and nutmeg are an absolute hit on the beach. A few miles up the shore is the all-suite Carillon Miami Beach, whose blue-tinted windows overlook 750 feet of shoreline just 10 minutes from the heart of the city. “Carillon is unique because of its fitness class offerings and fabulous gym with a gorgeous view of the beach,” wrote one reader. “The spa has some unique services — I like the polar shower — you won't find anywhere else.”

The trendy Como Metropolitan Miami Beach is the place to be seen. The property has attracted celebrities for its pool club and private access to the beach.

This year, however, the top honor goes to the Gasparilla Inn, a 115-year-old bastion of gentility on the Gulf Coast. Guests can take a tennis lesson, sip sparkling wine on the beach, or tee off on the Pete Dye-designed golf course. The fluted columns and strict dress code bring visitors back to a more gracious age — or, as one reader put it, “simple elegance — the best of ‘old Florida.’"