Welcome to Miami Beach and this tour of its wonderful collection of Art Deco hotels, presented by Insight Guides. My name is Katherine and I’ll be your guide. This tour takes approximately two hours to complete. You can stop at any time and start again at the same spot later. You can follow the route on your phone or simply listen as I guide you from one sight to the next. I’ll be giving you clear directions and the audio will automatically start playing when you get close to the next sight on the tour. Don’t worry if you need to skip a sight as the tour will pick up at the next location. One more thing before we get started – always be aware of your surroundings and be sure to obey all traffic signals.Ready to begin? Then let’s get started! Miami Beach is one of the few cities in the world where you really would want to do a tour of its hotels. This South Beach area of the city is blessed with over 500 Art Deco buildings, and some of the best and grandest examples are its hotels. In this city they're not just places you stay in, they're places you look at, and go in and visit. And they're free! Many of these have survived from the 1930s and 1940s, when the city experienced a tourism and financial boom. You don't need to know a thing about architecture to see that these are beautiful and unusual buildings. They're also historic landmarks, and are now legally protected. The fact that some of them were built with Mob money merely adds another dimension, and you do get to see where Al Capone went to play cards. So let's get started!