Last week I finally had the opportunity to travel to a part of Florida I’d never been to before—Palm Beach.
My dad and I went to Florida for four days and we stayed in West Palm Beach right across from Palm Beach.
It was our first father-daughter trip and we planned it around Mets spring training, meaning our trip took place in late March.
While baseball was our primary focus, we also had a great time exploring both West Palm Beach and Palm Beach and ate some fantastic meals along the way.
Here’s my Palm Beach guide based on my favorite things that we did!
Palm Beach Guide: Palm Beach vs West Palm Beach
I think one of the biggest questions I had going into this trip as someone who has never visited before was, “what’s the difference between Palm Beach and West Palm Beach?”
Essentially, Palm Beach is its own island on the coast that is connected to the mainland by a few bridges.
Palm Beach has a rich history of…well…rich things!
From glitzy estates to designer stores that line Worth Avenue, it is the preferred vacation destination for some of the wealthiest people in the world.
I actually own the Palm Beach Assouline coffee table book and love flipping through the beautiful photographs that I think capture the vibe perfectly.
West Palm Beach is also very nice, but it feels a bit more casual with a younger crowd compared to Palm Beach.
We ultimately chose to stay in West Palm but we were constantly back and forth between the two—one of our dinner reservations in Palm Beach was only a 5 minute Uber from the hotel.
Where to stay
My dad and I ultimately chose to book rooms at The Ben West Palm Beach.
The main reason we chose to stay here for our trip was because a lot of our baseball-related activities were easier to get to from West Palm Beach.
This is a Marriott hotel and it was really nice! It had a gym, restaurant, rooftop and other amenities.
The rooms themselves were super nice and spacious.
My room also had a safe, a steamer (this is so rare why don’t more hotels do this!!) a hair dryer and coffee maker.
One thing that I’ll mention was that I had a Marina View room and because I was on the second floor I overlooked the restaurant right across the street.
On the Friday night of our stay the noise from the restaurant was really loud and went pretty late after 10pm.
I was also right above the drop-off area in front of the hotel and could hear noise happening one floor below.
If it weren’t for my white noise app, I’m not sure how much sleep I would have gotten, so I would ask for a room that doesn’t face that way.
I did also look at a few hotels in Palm Beach including White Elephant Palm Beach, The Colony Palm Beach and The Brazilian Court Hotel.
I think those are better hotels for couples—for me and my dad it was more cost-effective to stay in West Palm Beach since we each had our own room.
Where to eat and drink
In addition to sampling hot dogs and chicken tenders at the ballparks, we had some wonderful meals on our trip too!
Here is where we ate and drank in both Palm Beach and West Palm Beach:
Palm beach restaurant recommendations
BiCE Palm Beach—upscale Italian restaurant
Swifty’s at The Colony Hotel—perfect poolside lunch spot
Meat Market Palm Beach—classic steak house
West Palm Beach restaurant recommendations
Civil Society Brewing Company—craft brewery (food trucks onsite)
Pura Vida Miami—chain restaurant serving all day breakfast
Pro tip: I did make sure to book reservations for all of the Palm Beach restaurants, as they tend to book up, especially on weekends. We were able to walk into all of the West Palm Beach spots mentioned.
What to do in Palm Beach
Go shopping
The walk down Worth Avenue featured lots of designer shops from Ralph Lauren to Brunello Cucinelli.
There were also stores like The Real Real, Free People and other cute boutique shops.
Explore the sights
One of my favorite ways to visit a city is simply by grabbing a coffee and walking around.
There are lots of pretty sights to see in Palm Beach including the Clock Tower and the Flagler Museum.
Attend a spring training game (seasonal)
If you’re visiting the area in February or March, you should definitely look into attending a spring training game!
West Palm Beach has a stadium called Cacti Park, shared by the Houston Astros and Washington Nationals.
So we actually saw the Mets play an away game in West Palm Beach, since their home stadium for spring training is in Port St. Lucie, about an hour north of there by car.
Buy tickets online for any team you want to see.
Getting around Palm Beach
Here are some ways to get around Palm Beach:
- When in doubt, Uber and Lyft are both available in the area
- Walking—once on Palm Beach island, there is a lot you can walk to in the main area
- Bikes—our hotel offered bike rentals, which is worth noting
- Shuttles—Some hotels have shuttles that you can utilize to get to the beach or downtown
Pro tip: Palm Beach is also about an hour away from Miami so you may be able to see two cities in one trip.
What to know before you visit Palm Beach
- Palm Beach is a splurge, whether it’s hotels, shopping, restaurants so just be prepared for high prices wherever you go (for example, my sandwich at Swifty’s for lunch was $39)
- Weather can be unpredictable at times so be prepared for showers
- It may be more crowded during the winter months when snowbirds flock south or when spring training is in session
- Check the dress codes at the restaurants so some require jackets
What I’d check out on my next visit
Since this was a short trip, we didn’t end up getting around to everything that I had thought would be cool to check out.
Here are some other things I saw recommended that I’d love to check out if I’m ever back in the area.
Have you ever visited Palm Beach? Tell me about it in the comments!
yours,
Austen
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