A Week at The Breakers: Sun, Seafood and the Art of Doing Nothing

PALM BEACH, Fla. — Sometimes the best vacation is the one without an itinerary.

Matthew Cox and his wife, Jessica Bell, recently traded their normal schedules for a week at The Breakers Palm Beach, the historic oceanfront resort that has been synonymous with Palm Beach luxury for generations.

Built on the Atlantic and founded by industrialist Henry Morrison Flagler, The Breakers combines old-world grandeur with the kind of resort atmosphere that makes leaving the property seem unnecessary. For Cox and Bell, that was largely the point.

Their days settled into an uncomplicated routine: mornings overlooking the ocean, afternoons divided between the beach and pool, leisurely meals, and absolutely no pressure to accomplish much of anything.

The couple spent much of their time stretched out near the water, moving between the resort's pools and private beach. Lunch was often just steps away at Ocean House, The Breakers' casual oceanfront restaurant overlooking two of the resort's southern pools. The restaurant is designed for exactly that sort of afternoon—guests can leave the pool, enjoy lunch and cocktails, and return to their chairs without ever really interrupting the day.

One afternoon, Cox and Bell were joined by their friends James and Katie for lunch at Ocean House, turning an otherwise quiet pool day into a long afternoon of food, conversation and ocean views.

Evenings were equally relaxed.

The couple ventured a short distance from the hotel to Henry's Palm Beach, another restaurant in The Breakers' collection. Located on Royal Poinciana Way at Via Flagler, Henry's specializes in elevated American comfort food served in a casually elegant setting.

Back at the resort, they occasionally stopped for drinks in the hotel's grand lobby area, enjoying one of the pleasures for which Palm Beach is famous: people-watching over cocktails. HMF, just off the lobby, occupies the historic Florentine Room and remains one of the property's signature gathering places.

But some of the week's best moments required almost no effort at all.

Their room overlooked the beach, and more than once an afternoon movie turned into an afternoon nap. They would wake up, look out over the Atlantic and eventually decide whether it was time for dinner—or perhaps another drink downstairs.

There were no packed sightseeing schedules, early alarms or frantic attempts to experience everything Palm Beach had to offer.

For Cox and Bell, the luxury of The Breakers wasn't simply the architecture, restaurants or oceanfront setting. It was having an entire week in which there was almost nothing they had to do—and nowhere else they needed to be.