Miami, United States

Life House, Little Havana

Price per night from$135.00

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (USD135.00), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

Art and soul

Setting

Salsa and cigars

Life House, Little Havana is a 1920's mansion in the beating heart of Miami’s trendsetting Cuban quarter. Local artwork and Afro-Cuban ceramics sit alongside tropical plants and House of Hackney wallpaper in the homely-but-highbrow interiors, and there’s worldly designer furniture by Wegner, Cassina and Jeanneret. While away balmy evenings in a hammock in the honeysuckle-lined courtyard or the lush rooftop bar with skyline views. Outside, you’ll find not the glitz and glamour of Miami Beach, but a vibrant community in an authentic, up-and-coming neighbourhood.

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A bottle of house wine

Facilities

Photos Life House, Little Havana facilities

Need to know

Rooms

31, including three suites.

Check–Out

11am. Check-in from 3pm, but flexible, subject to availability.

Prices

Double rooms from £138.95 ($175), including tax at 29.95 per cent.

More details

Rates don't include breakfast, an à la carte menu with options like yoghurt (and a vegan alternative), pastries, fresh fruit and orange juice. Coffee is free, and available all day in the library. The breakfast menu may change from time to time.

At the hotel

Free WiFi. In rooms: TV with RoomCast, Marshall Bluetooth speaker, Le Labo bath products, air-conditioning, snacks, free bottled water.

Our favourite rooms

Book a light-flooded King Suite for the extra (herringbone-wood) floor-space and your own private lounge. You’ve probably never seen a room like the Bohemian Suite – four double beds are tucked into double-decker sleeping nooks, and there’s a mini staircase leading up to the top ‘bunks’.

Packing tips

Bring a retro film camera, for snapping pics of this characterful pocket of the city.

Also

Wheelchair users will be able to access all of the common areas, and there's one ADA-compliant guest room.

Children

All ages are welcome with advance notice. Cots (free) can be added to all rooms with advance notice.

Food and Drink

Photos Life House, Little Havana food and drink

Top Table

Sit out in the courtyard at Parcela.

Dress Code

Free and flowing fabrics, to enhance your salsa spins.

Hotel restaurant

Lobby Café Parcela takes its name from an urban farming movement in Cuba, where enterprising parceleros convert underutilized land into small vegetable gardens (kind of like a Latin American allotment). The all-day menu is a blend of Caribbean and South American cuisine, made with spices and fruits from the kitchen garden and served in the sunny courtyard. Try the açaí natigela with banana for breakfast, the glass noodles with mojo verde later on, and an iced coconut Americano whenever you need to cool off. At Terras, on the rooftop, the menu is inspired by urban street food throughout South America and the Caribbean – ceviche, tacos and salted cod bacalaitos (fried fritters) are all on tap. 

 

Hotel bar

At Terras, daily special cocktails include herbs plucked straight from the rooftop garden, Cuban beats fill the air (sometimes they're live, from guest bands), and there’s even a swinging hammock on the terrace for soaking up the skyline views. 

Last orders

Parcela serves breakfast from 7am to 11am, then salads and sandwiches until 9pm.

Location

Photos Life House, Little Havana location
Address
Life House, Little Havana
528 SW 9th Avenue
Miami
33130
United States

The hotel is in the heart of Miami’s Little Havana neighbourhood, on mainland Florida.

Planes

You can fly direct into Miami International from dozens of major US and European cities; if you’re coming from London, your options include Virgin, Delta and British Airways. It’s a 20-minute taxi ride from the airport to the hotel.

Trains

Brickell station is just over a mile east of the hotel (five minutes in a cab, or 25 minutes on foot); from there, you can take the Metrorail all over the city. Florida’s intercity express – Brightline – departs from Miami Central station and runs north to Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, and Orlando.

Automobiles

In this part of the US, a car is rarely a bad idea. Here, you can use it to drive the Overseas Highway down to Key West or explore the alligator-laden Everglades. There are plenty of car hire companies at the airport and in the city; when you arrive at the hotel, it’s best to drop your bags at reception and ask concierge to point you in the direction of the free street parking nearby.

Worth getting out of bed for

After a leisurely breakfast, you'll find every reason to follow in the same vein for the rest of the day – there’s a hammock in the courtyard of Parcela that’s just waiting for you and a good book. There are yoga classes on the Terras rooftop each morning, and cocktails at sunset and beyond. For a flavour of Cuban culture, take a stroll down Calle Ocho, lined with vibrant restaurants and buzzing bars. Máximo Gómez Park is prime people-watching territory – it’s a favourite with the locals, especially the wise old fellas who while away sunny afternoons here, playing dominoes with friends and rivals. The Tower Theatre (1508 SW 8th Street) is an art deco icon – its doors were flung open in 1926, and it’s been screening Oscar-winners and arthouse indie films ever since. Even if baseball isn’t your thing, consider this: it’s basically an excuse to sit in the sunshine drinking beers and pigging out on comfort food all day. The Miami Marlins play at Marlins Park, a few minutes’ drive from the hotel. (In winter, go see the NFL’s Dolphins instead.)

Local restaurants

El Exquisito (1510 SW 8th Street) is the neighborhood’s no-frills favourite for classic Cuban food, served in typically oversized portions – go hungry, and order the steak sandwich or vaca frita (shredded garlic and lime beef), with plantain tostones and fried yuca on the side. For seafood, meet shrimp-specialist La Camaronera (1952 W. Flagler St), or make the trip to Aegean bistro Mandolin (4312 NE 2nd Avenue) for heavenly Greek food in the mood-lit courtyard.

Local bars

The Ball & Chain (1513 SW 8th Street) is a local legend, with live jazz and salsa all day and all night; tuck into tapas and load up on mojitos, then hit the dance floor with new-found friends. There’s acoustic jazz over at Lagniappe too (3425 NE 2nd Avenue), this time accompanied by barbecue meats, cheese plates, and your pick from the wine list scrawled on the blackboard.

Reviews

Photos Life House, Little Havana reviews

Anonymous review

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this boutique hotel in Miami and unpacked their cigars and ceramics, a full account of their Florida break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Life House, Little Havana in Miami…

In Little Havana, life continues apace. Salsa rhythms ring out of the bars along Calle Ocho, tostones are fried in fragrant kitchens, and dominoes clack onto fold-out tables in Máximo Gómez Park. It’s a far cry from the bright lights and exclusive club nights of South Beach, but that’s just the way the locals like it. Life House, Little Havana celebrates its neighbourhood’s heritage with artwork by Leandro Feal, Afro-Cuban artifacts and a menu of street-food favourites. There’s an air of colonial Havana in the dark-wood sideboards, chequered tiles and rattan armchairs, but the bold patterned fabrics and inventive new-age bunk-beds stop it a long way short of stuffy or uptight. You’ll have plenty of upscale comforts, too, in the form of Le Labo bath products, Diptyque scents, Marshall speakers and luxurious linens from Revival New York. Life House, Little Havana is a marriage of old and new: contemporary design is flourishing, but the trad Cuban spirit lives on.

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Price per night from $135.00