Travelogue – Boca Raton, Florida

We bookmarked our holiday in Qatar with fleeting visits to a couple of Florida spots that we hadn’t visited in a long while.

Boca Raton I was last in 20 years ago, and Coral Gables was a place we used to visit regularly but our last time there was pre-pandemic.

Boca as the locals call it is situated on the Atlantic Coast between Ft. Lauderdale and Trump country, Palm Beach. It is a city shaped by water bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and boasts an extensive network of canals and lakes within the city itself.

I remember it being a bit old and a bit neglected before, which is not uncommon in Florida beach towns, but this time I saw affluence and freshness among splashes of verdant green mixed within it’s renowned waterway inlets.

The original settlers were the people of the Glades Culture, who lived here for a thousand years before being driven out in the 1800’s by pineapple farmers and land speculators, the latter drawn there by the development of the intracoastal waterway, and the railroad. Around 100,000 people live here now but that number easily doubles in the winter.

Tree-lined roads are dominated by Spanish architecture which extends to the art museum and the signature City Hall. Mizner Park is home to 30 acres of Mediterranean Revival architecture, a bevy of high-end designer boutiques and chic department stores, an amphitheater and the wonderful Sloan’s where the carrot cake ice cream was delicious.

We stayed at the Boca Raton Resort, built by Addison Mizner and which began life in 1926 as The Ritz-Carlton Cloister Inn.

Michael Dell opened his wallet to the tune of $875 million in 2019 when he bought it. Then the 1,000 room resort went through a $200 million refurbishment only re-opening two years ago.

The hotel is divided between its original buildings known as the Cloister, the Bungalows, the Tower, the Yacht Club and where we had our room at the Beach Club.

It is a ginormous place with Lake Boca Raton running in between the different buildings and is served by a little ferry service. Known for generations locally as ‘The Pink Hotel,’ it has been painted white and although tradition has been restored there is a real injection of modernity too with rotating artworks, provided by the nearby Sponder Gallery.

On site there are two golf courses, a spa, 13 restaurants, a marina, 7 swimming pools, a lazy river, water slides and a Flowrider surf simulator. There was also the tennis and pickleball club where chasing match point to beat my daughter I sprained my ankle.

The Palm Court was a great place to get some ice for my ankle and a cold beer after though, as was the welcoming Living Room at the Beach Club where we played cards late at night whilst I had my foot up!

The highlight of our stay was our room. With views across The Atlantic it was bright, large and airy. I have no idea where she gets it from but my daughter does like to, ahem, collect things from hotel rooms, but there was so much free stuff in this room including a whole mini bar of goodies, that the chase was a little less of a thrill.

Beyond the room we went on a lovely little ‘Sorbetto’ boat ride, an adorable pink boat modeled after a Fiat 500 (photo). Our captain started by serving us champagne and then took us on an hours cruise along the Intracoastal and into Lake Boca Raton.

Unfortunately due to being out of season, and midweek, some of the hotel restaurants were closed including the highly recommended Japanese Bocce Club, but Marisol was very good and we also had two great meals out of the hotel at Motek and Saiko-i.

Just an hour north of Miami airport Boca Raton was a lovely little place to ready us for our holiday.