While elegant, moneyed Palm Beach will always have more than its fair share of Lilly Pulitzer prints, pearls and purebred poodles, it’s the idyllic temperatures, breathtaking beaches and glamorous social scene that make it the ultimate winter getaway. Sure, this is the land where Howard Stern drops $52 million on a third home, and Russian billionaires like Dmitry Rybolovlev buy — and then demolish — Donald Trump’s $95 million, 33,000-square-foot oceanfront mansion. But you certainly don’t have to be rich to enjoy all of Palm Beach’s fabulous spoils.
STAY
Don’t be fooled by The Breakers’ fancy Italian-Renaissance architecture and its family-friendly amenities — it’s sexier than ever thanks to famed designer Adam D. Tihany’s recent makeover. Tihany tackled both the resort’s Flagler Steakhouse and its historic Florentine Room — now the wildly popular restaurant and lounge with a sultry, “Mad Men” feel called HMF (named for Breakers founder Henry Morrison Flagler). Throngs wait for tables (reservations aren’t accepted) at the bustling bar before sitting to dine on an eclectic menu that’s at once Italian, Japanese and gourmet-food truck. Daytime, hit the beach, pools and lavish spa, play tennis and golf, and bike or walk a mile to the luxury and designer boutiques on perfectly manicured Worth Avenue. (From $579)
EAT
Great old-school island haunts (Ta-boo, Chez Jean-Pierre, 93-year-old Testa’s and 76-year-old Green’s Pharmacy, where you can still open a “house account”) coexist alongside a handful of relative newcomers that are consistently packed (Chef Clay Conley’s Imoto and Buccan; a new outpost of the Nashville-based BrickTops chain; and Surfside Diner — the breakfast and lunch joint that replaced Hamburger Heaven this fall) and the fine French menu at chef Daniel Boulud’s 11-year-old, white-tablecloth Cafe Boulud. A few delicious new gems on the West Palm Beach mainland (Kitchen, by Tiger Woods’ former personal chef, and Hullabaloo, an Italian gastro-pub) regularly lure a horde of Ferrari- and Rolls-Royce-driving locals over the bridges. Sundays, splurge on the unbelievably decadent brunch at The Circle at The Breakers — replete with free-flowing champagne and all-you-can-eat caviar, prime rib and lobster — as a harpist serenades each table ($90 per person, plus tax and tip).
DRINK
Happy hour in Palm Beach starts right after lunch. Beginning at 4 p.m., order half-priced drinks at the intimate lobby-side lounge at The Brazilian Court’s Cafe Bouloud, or the busy bar at the almost spookily dark Ta-boo, bedecked in wicker and palm-frond prints. The post-dinner party crowd and whatever celebrities and billionaires are in town do late-night drinks and dancing at Italian restaurant Cucina Dell Arte and/or Michael R. McCarty’s, a society hotspot where fresh-faced trust funders in boat shoes and blazers mingle with sun-kissed heiresses and those who want to be.
DO
The 11th annual Palm Beach Jewelry, Art & Antique Show — the largest of its kind in the US — is one of the county’s annual highlights. It runs Feb. 14-18 at the Palm Beach Convention Center, and attracts top private art and jewelry collectors, museum curators and interior designers. New York’s Hirschl & Adler, Philip Colleck and Kwiat, and London’s Butchoff Antiques are among this year’s first-time exhibitors. Tickets start at $20, but $100 buys you entry to Feb. 14’s vernissage, where you just might rub shoulders with past guests Bill Koch, Jack Welch, Rudy Giuliani, Steven Schwartzman, Beth Rudin DeWoody and Baby Jane Holzer.