Overall: A majestic hotel that transports you back in time.
Pros: Luxury turn-of-the-century resort that’s been well-maintained; great rooms and amenities
Cons: As with any resort property, expect resort prices and relative isolation
Paid: $360/night with taxes and fees for a King room.
Could have paid: 36,000 Amex Membership Rewards/night including taxes and fees, a $100 credit, and breakfast
I was traveling for work, so my employer picked up the tab on this beautiful property during an employee retreat. The Breakers Palm Beach Florida is normally a lot more expensive, but end-of-summer in South Florida is notoriously hot and humid, so it’s on sale! The rest of the year, room rates can easily be $800+ per night.
How to stay here without paying full price:
- Plan to stay here during the off-season, or the dead of summer.
- Get an Amex Platinum credit card.
- Hit the minimum spend required – as of this writing:
- $5K in 3 months of getting approved.
- Wait for your bonus points to become available.
- Use the Amex Travel site to search for nights that are a good value. Book online.
- When you arrive, make sure you take advantage of the Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts benefits.
Full review – The Breakers Palm Beach Florida Hotel:
This hotel is absolutely huge, your quintessential resort property. Unlike your run-of-the-mill massive resort, though, it has a ton of character, having been built in 1890.
The property is in Palm Beach, FL, but it’s definitely isolated from anything else. You’re not going to be able to walk from the resort to a reasonably-priced dinner!
The public areas of the property have beautiful architecture, very turn-of-the-century and well-maintained.
I took some detailed photos of the wallpaper, wainscotting, and ceiling in the common areas of the hotel because I’m a nerd:
As with all older hotels, the rooms are a bit smaller than average, but lovely. The bathrooms are wonderful, and this resort definitely doesn’t skimp on providing plenty of fluffy towels.
The views from most of the rooms on the resort are pretty incredible, and mine was no exception. The Breakers really has the little details down, such as the real orchid that was on the table in my room.
More evidence of their attention to detail: They provided a turndown service with yummy (and different!) chocolates during the two nights I was there.
Review – Amenities at The Breakers
The Breakers Palm Beach Florida has a number of pools, including some that are adults-only and some that welcome children. My colleagues and I took advantage of the beautiful seating areas around the various pools on the property. The hotel sits on a huge stretch of white sandy beach with plenty of provided lawn chairs, so there’s no shortage of things to do outdoors.
I got up at dawn one day to walk along the charming cobbled pathway and watch the sunrise along the beach:
Otherwise, most of my activities were pre-planned for me, since this was a work retreat. As such, I took note of the costs of everything. It was all super-expensive, which would’ve been hard to swallow.
There were a half-dozen restaurants on the property, and all that I experienced were good – but expensive. I know, this is a resort, and it shows. You must take an Uber/Lyft or a taxi to get from here to pretty much anywhere else, so you’re a captive audience.
I had a pre-dinner cocktail with colleagues at the Ocean House restaurant. We each had one (excellent) pina colada in an actual coconut. Each cocktail cost $24, so the four of us ran up a bill of $121 with tax and tip.
I ate breakfast at The Circle, where my Two-Egg breakfast with a choice of meat cost $35 with tax and tip.
Everything was really tasty, and service was always great everywhere.
That said, oh my goodness expensive. An Uber to pretty much anywhere else costs about $15, but trust me, you’ll easily save more than that if you get off the property.
How to stay here for free
The Breakers Palm Beach Florida is a non-chain property. Unless you live in Palm Beach and want to become a “member” of the property, there’s no Gold or Diamond status or elite benefits here.
However, if I hadn’t stayed here for work, I absolutely would’ve used the Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts program. As an Amex Platinum cardholder, I have access to Amex FHR, which gives me a number of elite-like benefits at both chain and non-chain hotels. FHR hotels are truly the nicest hotels everywhere, and The Breakers is an FHR property.
Benefits include:
The $360/night my employer paid for me was the same cost I would’ve paid through the FHR program. It was $360 per night including taxes and fees. Note: You can sometimes find cheaper rooms through other sites such as Booking.com or Hotels.com. However, you won’t get the benefits of the FHR program then: Room upgrades when available, a free daily breakfast for two people, late checkout, and $100 during your stay.
You can either pay the daily rate with your Amex Platinum and get 5 Amex Membership Rewards points per dollar paid, or pay $0 in cash and use your Amex MR points entirely. In this case, you would’ve paid 36,000 points per night, which would give you almost 2 nights free with the 60,000 point Amex Platinum bonus.
Bottom line
I really enjoyed The Breakers Palm Beach Florida and would go back if I got a great cash rate. I would absolutely take advantage of the Amex FHR program if I were paying for it myself, and I’d be sure to go here in the dead of summer to get some cheaper rates. I’d just be careful to budget some extra cash for those $24 poolside cocktails and Uber rides away from the property.
Check out my other reviews of some non-chain properties, including Turtle Bay Resort on Oahu, Hawaii and The Langham Chicago!
