I’m heading to SoBe next week for 1 night only ;(. Looking for a hotel I can walk from my room to the beach in just a thong/g-string.  I have no issues walking on crowded ocean drive or in a lobby.  Also want to be on/near lummus park.  Also like somewhere I can spend the evening at a pool (late).  I was thinking Congress or Breakwater, and I’ve read a lot about those here.  The Victor looks nice too, it has a clothing optional coed sauna :). Anyone stayed there?  I haven’t read a mention of that hotel here yet either.  Any other recommendations?

Richmond hotel or South Seas hotel. Pool at the Richmond is open till midnight, and the South Swas is open 24 hours. They are next to each other on 18th street. No issues walking to the beach from hotel room in a thong.

Hopefully things won't change at the Richmond. I was there last March and it was very thong and topless friendly. I am planning to be there in November so I would be curious to hear anyone else's experiences.

Beachguy:  The big change is now it's not called the Rich!mond, but rather both hotels are under the South Seas umbrella and when booking the reservation you'll need to specify the Rich!mond building or South Seas building. Also they locked the back gate of the Rich!mond permanently. They were getting too many freeloaders and homeless people sleeping in the pool area late at night, so yesterday they locked it for good. So now  you have to go through the South Seas gate to get to the beach. The one positive change is that the Rich!mond pool & hot tub are now open 24 hours just like South Seas, whereas before the Rich!mond pool only stayed open till midnight before they would kick you out and closed the rolling doors in the back of the hotel. Other than that it's still the same atmosphere.

M456: I see lots of women wear thongs in the pool area. In fact I don't think a day went by when I haven't seen at least one women in a thong at the pool. I've never seen topless in the daytime at the Rich!mond, but I don't think anyone would be asked to cover since the Richmond is now under the South Seas umbrella and they specifically allow topless (though I've never seen topless at South Seas in the daytime either, but reading reviews back to 2005 it seemed prevalent back then). Other than myself I've only seen one woman (no men) go skinny dipping. She was with her boyfriend. She ended up having sex with him in the pool (he pulled the front of his suit down). I've seen two gay guys pleasure each other in the Richmond pool with their hands and have seen two lesbian women pleasure each other in the same manner. In those cases they pulled down their suit bottoms down to their knees so technically it wasn't skinny dipping. I've also seen a young lady of about 25 go topless at night and a boy of about 9 or 10 go naked at night with his parents taking video of him jumping in and out of the pool. One of the workers came out to straighten the chairs and walked right past the kid without saying anything, so after he left I dropped the towel I had around my waste and went skinny dipping myself. The German parents didn't care at all. Note these were the rare exceptions. I went skinny dipping this morning for about 30 minutes just after 6am cause that's when the security leaves for the night. Also went skinny dipping for a half hour last night around 1am just after security did their rounds. Both times I would walk form my chair to the hot tub naked and then from hot tub to the pool to do about 20 laps. Great times. There have been a handful of times in the past where a guest came down while I was skinny dipping, but while they were surprised they didn't rat me out except for one time when a woman raised a stink with the manager but there were no repercussions. The one security guard that works their (big black guy wears a white shirt) is very cool and nice. I don't foresee any problems if seen by him.

Were any of these at hotels in Miami Beach? If so, which ones did you have good experiences at?

Sunday night and Monday morning was the end of my trip. Hotel wasn't crowded and there was nobody using the pool. Sunday night I'd spend several 15-20 minute sessions walking to the hot tub and then to the pool for laps nude. In between those short sessions I'd just chill out on the lounge chair with a towel around my waist reading and web surfing. Monday morning was checkout so I was more bold. Got to the pool at 6am and it was still dark but I swam nude and walked to the hot tub & back several times for over an hour! By 6:45am it was starting to get light and by 7:15 am it was fully light when I decided to get out & dry off. I swam for over 100 laps with pool lights on and with at least the last 15 minutes of which in broad daylight. It was the longest period I've ever used this pool nude. Oh, and Sunday afternoon I did swim at the pool in just my Skinz Roman g-string with no issues. So this hotel is very thong/g-string friendly.

Couple other notes about the Rich!mond hotel is that there seems to be a different security guard every third night. That is they each worked two consecutive days before a new guard came in for the next two days. So I got to see 3 different ones during my trip. The first guard was a ballbuster, asking people around the pool if they're staying at the hotel, confirming their room numbers and/or asking to see their keys. This was a short hispanic guy. The other two guards were really cool, one a heavier set black guy and the other a very pretty black lady. Both were as nice as can be and would only make 1 or 2 passes through the pool area the whole night. I don't see any issues with those two if caught skinny dipping unless someone complained in which case they'd probably just ask you to cover politely.

Also, while the staff at the South Seas starts cleaning up the outside areas around 6am, they stay over on the South Seas pool area. The Rich!mond workers don't start to clean up the Rich!mond pool area until around 7:30am.