Pelican Hotel Miami Beach

This is truly one of the trendiest hotels in South Beach. Since its opening, this beach hotel, owned by clothing company Diesel, has been a popular spot for those in the music, film and fashion industries. It is air-conditioned and comes with a 24-hour reception, lift access, newspaper kiosk, restaurant and Internet access. Room and laundry services are also available. To stand out among Miami's luridly loud hotels, you have to come up with a pretty good gimmick. Hence Miami Beach's Pelican Hotel, brought to you by the Diesel clothing line.

Each bizarro room is custom designed to fit a particular theme, which either works as a pop-culture kitsch statement or ends up looking like a half-empty prop closet. In other words, everything is stuffed with so much character that almost nothing has character. Nevertheless, the Pelican marks a relatively pleasant change from the acres of pink stucco or heavenly white fantasia common at most other beachy properties. A pleasant casual resto and acceptable bar on premises make the hotel a net positive.