• 1. Where to Stay
• 2. Where to Eat
• 3. What to Do
• 4. Insider’s Tip
• 5. An Oddball Day

Sleep next to the water at the palatial Don CeSar.   (Photo: Courtesy of Don CeSar)

Sway between palm trees on a hammock at the Postcard Inn (from $99), a mod 1957 Travelodge converted to a high-design hideaway in 2009, with spacious rooms featuring longboards and pinup collages of surfing photos.

Watch a Gulf sunset from your room at the Don CeSar (from $199), an Old Florida palace on St. Pete Beach that’s ornamented with Moorish chimneys and dramatic double-arched windows. The massive, pink Jazz Age hotel that once hosted the likes of F. Scott Fitzgerald and FDR underwent its most recent renovation in 2010; it now boasts an $11 million spa with treatments like orange-blossom-and-sand foot scrubs and juniper-and-citrus wraps (90 minutes, $225).

Cozy up in a wicker rocker on the breezy veranda at the Vinoy Renaissance (from $259), a lavish property where visitors come to moor their yachts on the 74-slip marina and take advantage of the exclusive golf course, heated pools, and tennis courts.

Published on Feb 3, 2011 as a web exclusive.