Visiting The Breakers In Palm Beach, Florida

I visited The Breakers Palm Beach Resort in Palm Beach, Florida this past Saturday afternoon for the first time in many years. There is a fairly small parking lot for non-guests, and through a small miracle someone was leaving right as I was about to exit the lot. The alternative would have been to leave my 2014 Hyundai Accent with the valet, which I was loath to do. Although if I did, I would be able to use Eddie Murphy's famous line from Beverly Hills Cop: "Be careful with it - all this shit happened the last time I was here." In any case, I took the photograph on the left of the front of The Breakers as I walked toward the entrance.

 

I must admit, I was kind of disappointed with the interior of the hotel. The lobby area seemed kind of dark, and I could not find a corridor that led directly to the ocean side of the building. I was hoping to locate a restaurant that fronted the Atlantic, hopefully with an outdoor bar and pool area. I headed outside to the "Ponce Promenade," seen in the photograph on the right, and headed toward the ocean. And when I got close, I saw that there was a gated entry to the pool and beach area, where, I found out later, there is a restaurant called Ocean House which overlooks two pools and the Atlantic, as well as an open-air bar between those two pools called The Surf Break. However, only guests and club members are allowed to access that area. I also learned that a restaurant called the Beach Club, located in the main building, is being renovated and will open in December, offering oceanfront dining. But once again, only for hotel guests and club members. I did find a walkway accessible to the general public between the main building and the beach, but it was amazingly bland, and frankly, kind of depressing.

Okay. If I really insisted on accessing that pool area, how much would it cost to stay at The Breakers for a night? When I got home, I looked it up, and the cheapest nightly rate during the month of November is $1,090. If you want to stay Thanksgiving night, it is close to $2,000. That is a lot of money to have a beer and look at the ocean. Granted, The Breakers is a very nice hotel, with lots of amenities for its guests, but seriously, $1,090 for a night's stay? Not to mention taxes and fees.  And so why do people stay here? Is it a prestige thing, or is it because they are so wealthy it doesn't matter what it costs? It makes me think that we truly are living in a second Gilded Age.