New illustrated guide gives you insider tips on Palm Beach
Palm Beach has enticed outsiders since Henry Flagler opened his luxury resorts here at the end of the 19th century. In fact, Worth Avenue Association historian Rick Rose begins his new Palm Beach guidebook with a chapter on the Hotel Royal Poinciana and its companion beachfront hotel, which became The Breakers.
“Palm Beach: The Essential Guide to America’s Legendary Resort Town,” published this month by Globe Pequot, is the first comprehensive illustrated guide to the town, said publisher and part-time resident Jed Lyons.
The “illustrated” aspect is important. “A large element of Palm Beach’s appeal is visual,” he said.
With 172 pages and more than 100 photos, the guide certainly is comprehensive.
It includes sections on the MustSees and Dos of Palm Beach — The Breakers, the Flagler Museum, Worth Avenue, Town Square, the Lake Trail — as well as a Palm Beach driving tour and day trips south to Boca Raton and north to Jupiter. It also covers sports, beaches, nature activities, major annual events, shopping, spas, restaurants and lodgings.
All things you would expect in a guidebook.
But how many guides advise readers on local lingo and attire, and offer a suggestion for living out the fantasy of being a Palm Beacher for an evening?
“The intent is to show visitors how Palm Beach is unique and special — and how they can be a part of that,” Rose said.
If you’re wondering how visitors can play at being residents, Rose recommends buying a ticket to a charity gala.
Globe Pequot is an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield, which publishes many regional interest books and guidebooks.
Lyons visits book stores wherever he goes and asks the staff
what books they’d like to stock that aren’t available. When he strolled into Palm Beach’s Classic Bookshop, an employee told him what they needed was an illustrated guide to Palm Beach.
Lyons, who was familiar with Rose’s Worth Avenue walking tours, contacted him to see if he’d be interested in writing one.
Rose, who’s never written a book before, didn’t take to the idea immediately.
“My first reaction was that I didn’t have time,” he said. In addition to his work for the Worth Avenue Association, Rose co-owns the Grandview Gardens Bed & Breakfast and Palm Beach Vacation Rentals, a rental property management company, both in West Palm Beach.
But once Lyons convinced Rose, who serves on the board of Discover the Palm Beaches, that the guide would encourage tourism, he got on board.
To get started, Rose consulted other guide books and a guide he’d created for guests at his bed and breakfast, which serves about 1,800 patrons annually.
Lyons wanted a Palm Beach-centric guide.
“Ground zero for the book is The Breakers,” Rose said. Chapters begin with recommendations for activities in Palm Beach and emanate from there.
He tried to balance giving visitors insider information with respecting residents’ privacy. When he mentions historic houses, he doesn’t say who the current residents are — except for Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club.
He notes Hogarcito, onetime home to Marjorie Merriweather Post and E.F. Hutton, and La Claridad, once occupied by Clarence Geist, the utilities magnate who bought Addison Mizner’s bankrupt development company, but recommends viewing them from the entrance to Golfview Road, which is a private street.
His section on the North End beaches, which he considers the town’s best, informs readers they can only be accessed by bicycle, because there’s no private parking.
Resident Anka Palitz considers the guide an essential guest perk.
“I have it in my guest room and I make sure everyone who visits me gets a copy,” she said.
The book, which is in its second printing, is doing well for Globe Pequot. The publisher plans to update it every few years, Lyons said.