February 2009

The Wall Street Journals LAURA LANDRO wrote a great piece on Vero Beach Florida.

Singer Gloria Estefan made her first foray into Florida hotels in 1992, when she bought the landmark Cardozo on sizzling South Beach’s Ocean Drive. She’s opened her latest resort on an Ocean Drive as well — in an unlikely outpost about 150 miles north: sleepy Vero Beach, with little sizzle but plenty of old-style Florida charm.

Far from the bustle of overbuilt South Florida, Vero Beach lies on a stretch of Atlantic turf aptly dubbed the Treasure Coast, in a transitional climate zone where oak trees and pine forests thrive alongside the palms and colorful tropical flora of balmier points south. Indian River Lagoon divides the city into sections on the mainland and a barrier island. It all makes for spectacular fishing, kayaking, bird-watching and boating, as well as miles of white sand beaches where you can walk for a long time and encounter no one.

But one can also dive into a Mickey Mouse-shaped pool and have pancakes with Goofy and friends at a Victorian-style Disney time-share resort a few miles out of town. (It’s on a real beach, as opposed to the ersatz ones at the Orlando flagship.) Closer to town, Ms. Estefan’s new Costa d’Este Beach Resort, with its whitewashed façade and elegant cascading entry fountain, sits next door to the quirky, historic Driftwood Inn, a time-share resort known for its weathered timbers and antique artifacts, some salvaged from old mansions and hotels. Elsewhere on the island, the Vero Beach Hotel features West Indian décor in a more low-key upscale hotel-condo managed by Kimpton Hotels.

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