That's true. Especially this vacation was incredible expensive. Too expensive if I think about it.

On the way back I wanted to stop at the Ancient Spanish Monastery. However, I had underestimated the traffic and so we arrived at 16:35. Since they closed at 5pm, we could not get in. There remained only a few glimpses from the outside.


What I missed now? I do not know. The guidebook said that the rebuilt monastery is very impressive even for experienced travelers from Europe. However, I am not 100% sure about that.

On the way back to the hotel, a little hunger showed. In the end, we decided to stop briefly at the Bal Harbour Shops. Unfortunately, fast food is very rare there. In the end we went to Gelato Bianco.

We could not discover any prices in the store. GF then took a scoop of ice cream and a brownie. I opted for 2 scoops of ice cream. Can not cost the world.....
Wrong thinking. When the price was called, a shock hit me.

The best thing is to tip as well, after all, someone makes the ice cream scoop in the cup. Is hardly included in such bargain prices. Of course, I decided against it.
That's what I got for my money:

Not bad, but not special either. For the price just a rip-off.

Forget Sweden, forget Switzerland, the real expensive country is in Miami and environs.

Seems so..... But please don't tell, Switzerland always wants to be at the top

This is not a joke. I live in Los Angeles and was in Switzerland for the holidays last December and always felt like I was getting my money's worth over there. Those gelato prices I looked at honestly seemed standard here in LA, Miami, NYC.

It is also limited a joke on my part. When I research American cities, the prices blow me away. I wanted to visit the 3-star restaurants in California the other day. When I look at the prices, $1000 for 2 people without wine seems rather on the low end of the range to me. If you consider that even the hotels like to start in the range of 2000 $, so I would put for 14 days certainly without flights easily $ 40,000 on the table. That is not normal! Sure, that is then top level, but there I have in each case certainly not the presidential suite. In places like the Post Ranch Inn probably the cheapest room and that is definitely not great. I found it already overpaid with $ 600.
Aman NYC is just crazy, with $ 3000 for an entry room.
Switzerland is then still quite far at the top in Europe, especially for restaurants. It is synonymous with exorbitant prices. But yes, reasonable compared to Miami.
When I think of Miami I look forward to Italy in October, there I get tasting menus in Michelin stared restaurants for under 100 €. That's perfectly fine and regularly they cook much better. It's very rare to find crap like the Amuse Bouche at the Surf Club.

Miami has a restaurant with 2 Michelin stars, the Joel Robouchon. Of course I had to try it out.
The restaurant is located in a mall. Downstairs is the one star Le Jardinier, upstairs is the 2 star Atelier.


In the restaurant you can choose between seats at the bar, tables and the terrace. I really did not feel like being grilled at the counter, besides I find it not very comfortable. Since the tables inside were fully booked, it went to the terrace.



I wouldn't call the terrace mega attractive now. If you consider that two people can easily spend four-figure sums here, it's borderline.
The menu:


The prices are without question steep. I actually wanted to take the Tasting menu, with 305 � + service that already haut purely. Since GF wanted to take it only me to love and me partly also interested in certain dishes, we chose in the end a la carte. Maybe I just did not want to get rid of $ 900 with service on the terrace today.
First there was bread with butter. No matter in which Joel Robouchon I was so far, the bread was always excellent. Also very good here, no comparison to the stuff that was offered at the Four Seasons.

Amuse Bouche

Mocktail

Black cod with miso and tamarind, braised daikon, beets and lime condiment

Langoustine


Eggplant

Scallop served in cilantro broth, coconut emulsion and calamari

Artichoke

Cod

Guanaja chocolate cr�meux, white chocolate ice cream, Oreo cookie crumble

Black Forest chocolate cr�meux, cherries and Kirsh Chantilly

Petit Fours

The bill

It was definitely once the best meal I had in Miami. Everything was of good quality and for me definitely on 2 star level. So I am glad that I tried it.

After checking out, we still had time. Since we had not managed to visit the Fairchild Botanical Garden on the last days, it should be now. In retrospect, I would not do that again. This is not because of the garden itself, which is beautiful as you can see in a moment. No, in the end we had to hurry quite, the garden is quite large. In addition, it was very warm, not necessarily the right preparation for a flight.
But now to the garden. There is a lot to see, besides fancy trees there is a very nice orchid collection. The whole thing is complemented by a butterfly house, you can also meet free-living iguanas and crocodiles.

You Sir have really done us all a great service in highlighting these terrible hotels! I am very surprised at the standards of the Belmonds in particular. You must have the patience of a Saint as at those prices I would have been complaining dramatically (the blood on the sheets!) I am glad the FS room was nice and at least Robuchon gave you an excellent meal, despite the ugly terrace. I hope you hurry back to Europe where in my experience when you are paying the highest prices you have a much better chance of receiving what you have paid for! The gorgeous beaches and sunsets of the Caribbean do look wonderful but the general run down nature of the infrastructure is at odds with that. If I were to go I might rather do it much more cheaply, where you feel more at ease without the thought of being ripped off. Hopefully the warmth and friendliness of the locals mitigated the standards a little for you. Thanks again for such a long and illuminating report!

Yes, Europe is waiting. In October we are going to Italy, my favorite holiday destination. I must say, however, the prices have unfortunately also risen dramatically recently.

The prices from your Covid bunch of Italy trip reports are unfortunately long gone

at least we can be sure of one thing, gelato will be cheaper and better than in Miami.

(speaking of Italy, I am looking at stopping by in Milano in September, could do with a nice lunch, one star level probably. Any recommendations?)

Indeed, much better and much cheaper!

Believe it or not, I never ate at a 1 star restaurant in Milan. In fact I only stayed 4 nights in the city, otherwise I visited on day trips. So my experience is very limited.

Huh! I'd expected more, seeing as Milan is an easy to reach regional hub. But, it does make sense in a way.

Yes, it is easy to achieve. But for many years it was out of the question because my ex-wife thought it was a very ugly city not worth visiting. Well, she wasn't always right either and wasn't as hyper-intelligent as she thought herself. Then, during Corona, Milan was practically completely closed for a year. Today it's always an attractive destination, but there are so many others.
For October, a stay in Milan is still "in the draw". However, the prices are totally crazy, I pay partly more than at Lake Como. Since I have nothing acute to do there (a visit to La Scala would be relatively stressful because of the journey), I will probably not do it.