A BEACH hotel in the UK that has been compared to the coast of Florida is getting a multi-million pound makeover.

Found on the Southend-on-Sea coastline, the Roslin Hotel revealed plans to extend back in 2022.

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The hotel on the sandy beach of Thorpe Bay Beach is often compared to places in the US.

One guest wrote on TripAdvisor: “We could have been staying on the Florida Keys”.

It’s not the first time Southend-on-Sea has been compared to the US either.

In 2023, Tory councillor Daniel Nelson told the Southend Echo that tourism events played an important role “in the reinvigoration of the city and that Southend has the potential to become a Miami-on-Thames.”

The hotel extension – set to cost £10million – will demolish the hotel and build a three-storey extension.

Work is yet to start, with plans for later opening hours finally approved.

At the moment, the main hotel can stay open until 1am for non-guests, but planning permission for the new extension plan states they must leave by 11pm.

The previous bid to extend the hours on Fridays and Saturdays was rejected over worries about noise complaints in December 2024.

Moving forward, plans have been scaled back to open until midnight every day and 1am on New Year’s Eve.

These received support from planning officers and councillors voted in favour.

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Scaled back plans to stay open until midnight every day and 1am on New Year’s Eve received support from planning officers, and councillors voted in favour.

But when Brits do want to stay, there will be some huge changes inside.

Currently, the Roslin Beach Hotel has 37 bedrooms, but with the extension would have an extra seven new rooms.

They also want to add a spa facility, new wedding venue, extend the back of house servicing, improve parking and update the existing hotel fabric as well as outdoor restaurant facilities.

The resort town also has festivals and events like City Jam (a street art festival), the Lazydays Festival, the South East Dance Festival.

The Halloween Parade and the city’s seafront fireworks are also give hints to Miami.

With beautiful sandy beaches, beach huts and on a sunny day, blue waters, it’s not too hard to see a hint of Miami on the coast of England.

A room at the Roslin Beach Hotel starts at £31.75 pp and a luxury sea view room costs £175 per room per night for bed and breakfast.

One of our team even took a trip down to Southend-on-Sea to see if she what she made of the ‘British Miami’.

What can you do over a weekend in Southend-on-Sea?

Here are our top things to do in Southend-on-Sea…

Ever taken a train ride over the ocean? Southend Pier juts out one and a quarter miles into the sea and features its very own railway that will transport you its entire length. An adult return ticket is £7.50 and concessions are £4.

If you have stuck around the Southend area, then the Blue-Flag-winning Three Shells Beach is next to the pier and close to the soft-play areas, whirling rollercoasters and classic arcade games on Adventure Island.

The beach itself is perfect for families, with shallow lagoons that mean kids can go for a dip year round — and it’s dog-friendly too from October 1 to April 30.

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