George Merrick laid out Coral Gables in the 1920s with coral rock entrances, plazas and a rule book for facades the city still enforces. The result looks planned because it was. Wide streets, banyan canopy, a golf course in the middle, and our rental houses on the blocks between them.
The Biltmore Hotel's tower is the tallest thing in the Gables and the easiest way to orient yourself. A few blocks north, the Venetian Pool was carved out of a coral rock quarry in 1923 and is still fed by an artesian well. Miracle Mile runs four blocks of shops and restaurants east of Douglas Road, ending at the city hall rotunda.
The University of Miami campus sits south of the Coral Gables Waterway, and the Shops at Merrick Park cover the higher end of the retail. Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden is fifteen minutes down Old Cutler Road.
Gables houses run large: Mediterranean Revival originals with barrel tile and arched loggias, plus newer builds along the golf course and on the waterways in Cocoplum and Gables Estates, where the canals open into Biscayne Bay. Lots are deep enough that pools sit well back from the street.
Jatina Group manages these properties year round, which is why the linens, the pool service and the landscaping hold up between guests. Stays include pre-arrival stocking, housekeeping and a manager on call. Chefs, drivers and boat days are added separately, with departures from Coconut Grove or the Gables waterways ten to fifteen minutes off.
Almost everything here is a drive, but a short one. Miracle Mile to the Biltmore is five minutes, Coconut Grove is ten, Brickell fifteen. Miami International sits about fifteen minutes north on Le Jeune Road, which makes this one of the easiest neighborhoods in the county for an early flight.
The beaches are the trade-off. Key Biscayne runs twenty-five minutes by way of the Rickenbacker, and South Beach closer to thirty-five. Metrorail stations at Douglas and University handle trips downtown without parking. Meters on Miracle Mile are enforced, so the garages behind it are worth the two-minute walk.
Roughly thirty-five minutes to South Beach in ordinary traffic, using I-95 and the MacArthur Causeway or the Julia Tuttle off the Dolphin Expressway. Key Biscayne is closer at about twenty-five minutes. Guests planning several beach days often add a driver rather than deal with Miami Beach parking twice a day.
Most sit within a ten-minute drive. The campus is south of the Coral Gables Waterway between Ponce de Leon Boulevard and US-1, with its own Metrorail station. Families coming for graduation or move-in weekends book early, since those dates fill the city's hotels and our houses months in advance.
Mostly single-family houses with private pools, from restored 1920s Mediterranean Revival properties near the Biltmore to modern waterfront homes in Cocoplum and Gables Estates. Bedroom counts run from four to eight. Each one is under our property management, so maintenance and housekeeping come from the same team year round.
