Palm Beach is one of the wealthiest small towns in America. Sitting on a narrow barrier island between the Atlantic Ocean and Lake Worth Lagoon, it faces its larger, scruffier sibling West Palm Beach across the water — and the contrast could not be more deliberate.
The town's population is under 10,000, but in season it swells with the ultra-rich arriving from the north to escape the winter. More Rolls-Royces per capita than almost anywhere else in the world is the local boast. Worth Avenue, the main shopping street, is lined with couture boutiques, art galleries, and restaurants that require a reservation and a budget to match.
What makes Palm Beach interesting to visit, even if you are not shopping for a Bentley, is the architecture. Addison Mizner arrived here in the 1920s and invented a Mediterranean Revival style — Spanish tiles, arcaded courtyards, stucco facades — that gave the town its look and feel. The Breakers, the grand beachfront hotel, is the showpiece, but the residential streets are full of his work and that of his imitators. The single best museum is Whitehall, Henry Flagler's 75-room Gilded Age palace, now open to the public.
The beach itself is public and free. The Atlantic side is open to anyone willing to pay the parking fee.