Thunderbird Hotel, Miami

Advantages: Dirty unsafe hotel, unhelpful staff
Disadvantages: that was the good bit !

We stayed in the Thunderbird Hotel in "Sunny Isles", Miami (north of Miami Beach, in a "safe" area...) in December 2000. The hotel was described in the Virgin Holidays brochure as having been recently renovated, but I can tell you from personal experience, this only went as far as the reception area to lull unsuspecting guests into a false sense of security :-) We were given a room at the far end of the hotel on the ground floor, with a nice sea ...
...lovely so far... The room was mirrored on most sides (badly I might add, much of it didn`t look "straight"), and it had it`s own little kitchenette area. The general feel of the room and it`s bathroom had us thinking "it needs renovating and a damn good clean". All rooms were supposed to have coffee making facilities, and being caffeine addicts, we were disappointed to find although they provided a "coffee maker", they did not provide coffee, milk, ... Read review

Advantages: None at all, it was a horrible place
Disadvantages: Everything!

My partner and I went to Miami in September 2001, following a 3-day break in Las Vegas. Obviously we were excited about the chance of a week at the beach and had booked a room at the Ramada, South Beach overlooking the sea. When we first arrived in the evening it stuck me as odd that we couldn't get anything to eat as our hotel had no restaurant. We ventured outside to find a local bar or restaurant only to be faced with a gang of youths hanging ...
...a bar and went inside. After waiting for a good 5 minutes to be served in an almost empty bar we gave up and ended up eating at the Hilton (which was actually very nice). The next day we went exploring, but as it was chucking down with rain didn't get too far. The public transport system was ok, but the locals seemed very suspicious of us. The atmosphere seemed very threatening and we soon decided that we would spend our time in the hotel where ... Read review