Rising from an enviable Ocean Drive location in Miami Beach, still dubbed “Millionaire’s Row,” the Carillon is an understated and refined haven of peace and style. It still recalls its former self with very few exterior updates as the Carillon Hotel Miami, which first opened in 1955. Designed by the father of Miami Modern style, Norman Giller, it played host to high-powered suits, glamorous socialites, cabaret shows, and lavish parties in that technicolor, smoke-filled haze of the sixties and seventies. Today, flanked by sisters North and South Carillon Tower condominiums in corresponding MiMo style, the once-dejected hotel refreshed and re-opened in 2007 after being vacant for a decade and a half. The real estate developers had partnered with renowned spa brand Canyon Ranch in introducing its first urban wellness retreat to the world in the original building’s first nine floors. But a Miami outpost for the storied wellness brand was not to be.
Past and Present
Just a glance, and it relays the idea that it was designed for those who work hard and play harder. On 750 feet of pristine direct-access beach, Carillon Miami Wellness Resort is a luxury all-suite property of 105 one- and two-bedroom apartments that, as hotel rooms, qualify as the area’s largest. They feature floor-to-ceiling windows enveloping neutral, open-concept living and kitchen spaces. Each boasts separate bedrooms and spa-like baths with deep soaking tubs. There are a few hints of color, like the blue mosaic mother-of-pearl tiles mimicking the blues of the Atlantic that field the balconies along with marble floors and backsplashes. Get the right suite (or purchase the right penthouse condo in one of the three towers), and it’s easy to be so blissed out by the ocean views one may wish never to leave. But the real attraction to Carillon is its 70,000 square foot spa, fitness, and health facilities which count as the largest on the east coast. Embracing traditional, alternative, western, and eastern medical therapeutics in addition to all manner of aesthetic treatments, the facility now ensures peace of mind and healing to the stressed-out and the burned-out, today’s version of chain-smoking, martini-guzzling mad-men and mad-women.
Hands On and Hands Off
This well-designed retreat pays particular focus on proper sleep, immune support, respiratory health, and mindful, active lifestyle, which includes healthy eating. The passionate spa experts at Spa Team International, a luxury consulting firm resort, medical, and wellness spas, surpassing even Canyon Ranch’s perhaps too-conservative mindset. Typical spa menus have been replaced with cutting-edge treatments. Forget the hot stone massages; virtually every method of preventative or health-building support is on offer here, from allergy-testing, acupuncture, color therapy, cryotherapy, and so much more. Now more than ever, the timing for this kind of integrative treatment is just right. But the spa’s focus is not just every fad that ends in -therapy or an IV drip.
New for today’s new normal are ”touchless therapies” that are individually completed by guests themselves. The ultimate in self-care, these are ideal for anxious executives, creatives, parents, and entrepreneurs, or anyone committed to renewal and recharging both body and mind. After consultation with a spa therapist, the aforementioned seekers of vitality can decide on halotherapy to re-invigorate COVID- , asthma- or allergy-ravaged lungs in a salt chamber that doubles as an infrared sauna. Those seeking muscle pain-relief can benefit from the Avacen Medical Palm Pain treatment which relaxes the entire body and dissipates pain just by placing one’s hand in a smaller than shoebox-sized compartment for fifteen minutes or so. The Vemi Suite provides an all-in-one acoustic, infrared, and electromagnetic technology employing healing sound frequencies and natural earth rhythms to recharge and detoxify the body with a mind-body-spirit experience said to be replicated only in deep meditative states. While guests might not completely subscribe to every single rejuvenating experience, it is said that if you cannot find a non-invasive treatment at this haven of next-gen wellness, then it doesn’t exist.
Commitment Therapy
But is it worth a visit? Even if guests are feeling fitter than fiddles, both service levels and amenities here have always been premium. There isn’t just one pool here, there are four. Pair those with an immensely popular rock-climbing wall, a gyrokinesis equipment room boasting ocean views, a well-maintained boardwalk for running/walking/biking, a rooftop hydro spa, and Miami’s only igloo? Check. Don’t forget the largest stretch of beachfront, it’s not where you might want to only overnight, but also a great place to settle, even if only seasonally. Today’s hyper-conscious wellness market has increased guests’ length of stay past the former standard three nights to five nights. With just over a hundred units, there’s sometimes difficulty finding both space as well as peace at Carillon Miami
Wellness Resort
But beyond the Carillon complex and its white-sand beach, what else is there? Blissfully, not much. This qualifies as a North Beach neighborhood. And that’s precisely what cars are for. Take the A1A north past Surfside to the alluring restaurants of Bal Harbour if the nutritional fare at Carillon’s food & beverage outlets is not to your liking. The retail therapy options in Bal Harbour Shops are even more alluring, so depart even earlier. Those nights when restful sleep is the furthest from your mind? Head fifteen minutes in the opposite direction to South Beach for an exceptionally vibrant time out. Or is an ultra-low-key night with high social distancing? Stay in and cook. There’s a supermarket right across Collins Avenue. Or hire a cook. The Carillon’s 24-hour concierge here. If you can want or imagine it and you can’t get it here, well, then likely it doesn’t exist.
