Healthy & Beauty in Key Biscayne

Chris and Karen Williams combined more than 25 years of optical experience when they created Specs Appeal Optical and furnished it with designer frames and experienced eye-care professionals. The boutique's hand-selected licensed opticians and sales staff treat each pair of eyes that wander in through the door with absolute care and attention. The team works together by first providing eye exams and then helping direct clients to the frames best suited to their face shape and personal style. Customers select frames from among such sought-after brands as Chanel, Gucci, Prada, Ray-Ban, and Oliver Peoples. Those interested in contacts can park themselves at attractive rosewood stations where they can get fitted with contacts or evaluate their ocular swag in the desktop mirrors.

A white sail propels a 50-foot sailing catamaran out into Biscayne Bay. The wind-powered watercraft belongs to Playtime Watersports, whose captains narrate ocean sailing tours or host private and corporate events as sunsets paint the sky. Elsewhere on the bay, wave runners and pontoon boats—two of Playtime Watersports' other rental watercraft options—churn up water as they drag race with thrill-seeking dolphins.

Despite its name, Playtime Watersports doesn't limit itself to on-water revelry. The staff hosts corporate outings such as Beach Olympics, with events including beach volleyball, sand sculpting, and scavenger hunts.

Through the concentrated use of infrared light, LA Tans & Aesthetic Center helps clients reach their health apex through internal cleansing treatments. Take a seat in the sauna, a steam-free booth filled with infrared heaters waiting to saturate the skin in radiance as powerful as the sun's, minus the damaging ultraviolet rays and obnoxious ego. The infrared heat targets fat cells, lifts them head over heels, and shakes their pockets loose of contaminants in the form of perspiration. Infrared sessions are thought to increase circulation and stimulate tissues, which may be useful for treating arthritis or limbering up for a strenuous jazz-hands performance.

Valu Auto Care Centers' ASE-certified technicians look under the hoods and slide beneath undercarriages to identify and fix automotive maladies. The centers keep cars rolling smoothly and efficiently through several services, including air-conditioner tune-ups, muffler repair, state inspections, and oil changes. Valu Auto Care Centers has repaired cars for the past 20 years at locations in both Florida and western New York.

Most people seldom visit a bank to forget all their troubles, but Salon 701—tucked into the lobby of the Bank of America building—changes all that. With crystal-strewn chandeliers hanging throughout, the glamourous space would feel just as at home inside a luxury hotel or one of Donald Trump's storage spaces. The stylists and aestheticians provide everything from hair styling to professional make-up application to eyelash extensions, and go out of their way to make each experience feel luxurious. They might serve a glass of champagne with a mani-pedis, for instance, or recommend an intense moisture treatment to transform damaged hair into strands that feel soft, rich, and healthy.

The doctors at Paraiso Cosmetic perform their treatments amid high-tech gear and sterilized surfaces that would not seem out of place at a hospital. They also recognize, though, that working toward aesthetic goals is best done in the calm of a spa. For that reason, the team pairs massages and facials with medical treatments including rhinoplasty and Juvéderm applications. Each of the doctors has a distinct specialty, allowing them to flawlessly complete surgeries or make an empty lab coat really look like it is dancing. Potential patients discuss their goals during a complimentary consultation, at which point the procedure and its costs are explicitly detailed.