For years, the luxury hotel map of South Florida bent heavily toward Palm Beach and Miami, leaving Fort Lauderdale to its yachts, its beach, and "the vibrant energy of the city". Then, in early 2022, Four Seasons Hotel and Residences Fort Lauderdale opened at 525 North Fort Lauderdale Beach Boulevard — a 22-story curve of glass and walnut along the Atlantic — and the city's coordinates quietly shifted.
The first thing you feel here is the pace. The lobby opens onto Honey Fitz, the all-day cafe and bar named for the Kennedy family's presidential yacht, where the floors are warm terrazzo and the millwork curves like a ship's interior. The yachting metaphor runs throughout the property — polished brass, walnut joinery, rounded silhouettes, a tower arcing along the beach like a luxury cruise liner mid-passage — and even the most stationary moments here, checking in or ordering a morning espresso, carry the unhurried cadence of being on water.
Hotel rooms are some of the most generously sized in South Florida. Entry-level Lauderdale-View Kings begin at roughly 440 square feet — noticeably larger than the genre's typical luxury standard — and Prime Ocean-View rooms run to 675.
Suites scale up steadily from there: the Corner Ocean & City Suite, the Intracoastal Room with its curved walnut built-ins, and at the top, the Birch Oceanfront Terrace Suite, named for Hugh Taylor Birch, the philanthropist who gifted miles of Fort Lauderdale beachfront to the public. The Birch unfolds across 1,632 square feet with separated bedrooms (a third can be added on request), expansive indoor and outdoor dining areas, and a wraparound terrace where the Atlantic feels close enough to touch.
For families turning a stay into a Fort Lauderdale staycation, the Ocean-View Two-Bedroom Residential Suite sleeps up to six across two bedrooms, with two full bathrooms, a fully equipped kitchen, and indoor and outdoor dining tables — purpose-built for a longer stay where the hotel begins to feel like a residence.
The third floor is where the hotel opens up. Two horizon-edge pools — one reserved for adults, one designed for families — sit on the Ocean Sun Deck overlooking the Atlantic, framed by striped daybeds, private cabanas, and a cocktail bar that runs all day. Just below, the beach concierge curates the perfect beach day exclusively for Four Seasons guests, staffed by attendants who set out loungers and chilled towels, deliver poolside drinks, and quietly produce jumbo Jenga sets, beach basketball, and water toys for kids and families alike.
To go further afield, the hotel will hand you the keys to one of its signature canary-yellow electric MOKEs — a fleet of open-air island runabouts ideal for cruising Las Olas Boulevard, the Intracoastal, or up the coast at sunset.
Fort Lauderdale earned its first Michelin honors here. MAASS, the lobby-level chef's counter from Chef Ryan Ratino — already a two-Michelin-starred talent in Washington, D.C. through his flagships JÔNT and Bresca — holds one Michelin Star of its own, with a wood-fire tasting menu inspired by the techniques of Europe and Japan, served at a horseshoe-shaped counter facing an open hearth.
Evelyn's Fort Lauderdale, the oceanfront Eastern Mediterranean restaurant led by Executive Chef Brandon Salomon, was named to the Michelin Guide's Recommended list for its six-course chef tasting menu, peak-season ingredients, wood-smoked signature dishes, and an award-winning wine list with over 300 selections showcasing Old World varietals and biodynamic wines. The pool deck has its own kitchen too, and it punches well above its station: lobster rolls, tuna tartare cones, a Wagyu burger that quietly draws regulars, and a chilled towel placed on your shoulder between courses.
The building itself is the work of Miami-based Kobi Karp Architecture & Interior Design, with interiors by London's Tara Bernerd & Partners — both of whom have shaped some of South Florida's most recognizable recent hotels — but the more lasting impression is the service. It arrives so consistently, so quietly, that you nearly stop registering it. A glass refills before you reach for it. A casual mention of paddleboards becomes a pair on the beach pad twenty minutes later. A child's stuffed lion left in the lobby is returned to the room, freshly laundered, with a handwritten note. It's the Four Seasons standard executed in a setting designed to give it room.
Inside tip: for summer stays, ask about the hotel's Experience More, Spending Credit — a property-wide credit that layers across dining at MAASS or Evelyn's, the spa, and pool cabana service, turning a few of the experiences above from extras into the included parts of the trip.
For now, Four Seasons Fort Lauderdale is the only Five-Diamond address the city has ever held. In a market long known more for its marinas than its hotels, that has begun to feel like a destination unto itself.