In South Beach, a destination renowned for high-octane sexuality, Tantra is the unparalleled standard bearer for hedonism, exhibitionism and free flowing champagne. And Monday night is Tantra's bold challenge for the title of wildest party of the entire week. About 11 o'clock, when other restaurants are quieting down, the two-season-old Tantra is being subtly transformed into an intimate pleasure palace. Promoter Monika Gaba, a rising star on the Beach, serves up the town's most beautiful, extroverted and scantily-clad young babes for an ever-hungry audience of rich, gregarious playboy-types from all over the world. The feeding frenzy is a spectacle not to be missed, whether you're an observer or participant. On a good Monday night, Tantra is so over-the-top, even Caligula himself would blush. 

Want to see a bevy of models in their natural habitat? Want to compete for the biggest game left on the range for the serious hunter? This is the model's last refuge, the only place on South Beach where the town's most mythically significant endangered species still congregates. Their tattered jeans and Birkenstocks are clear symbols of their rejection of the rest of the South Beach scene, observes legendary promoter Michael Capponi. Consequently, do not engage in club-style small talk. Go directly to the philosophical implications of Dostoevsky or the intriguing increase in openly bisexual activity between models. And don't be fooled by their well-cultivated patina of ennui -- it's just their way of testing your mettle -- or your patience. Win or lose, you're in a gorgeous beachfront setting, surrounded by beautiful women richer and taller than you are. Beehive Monday is a quintessential South Beach experience.

Veteran South Beach promoters Carmel Ophir and Mykel Stevens definitely know how to throw a party, and Back Door Bamby at Crobar, in the club's glass-enclosed upstairs VIP room, is among the duo's crowning achievements. Strangely enough, the peculiar draw of the eclectic Bamby is that it is largely populated by locals -- who don't go out much during the rest of the week. A big element of the party's appeal is that there is no dress code that determines admittance. In fact, you can come dressed as you please, whether that's in shorts or cellophane. Want to dress in drag for the first time? Go right ahead. Back Door Bamby is all about self-expression, South Beach style. And the music is wonderfully original, from the theme of "Hawaii Five-O" to the Supremes. Even the quirkiest hipster can feel at home here.

Lola Bar, another new addition to the South Beach landscape during the pivotal 1999-2000 season, bills itself as a neighborhood bar for the world's hippest neighborhood. The simple space, former home to a gay bar and with a certain Gothic elegance that includes lots of candlelit white-on-black motifs, draws a decidedly eclectic crowd, from artists and writers to strippers and drag queens. God should bless Lola for its efforts in trying to merge good music, art, literature, media and the requisite beautiful people into a neo-Bohemian stew worthy of the South Beach gene pool. Lola, on Tuesday night, is "where the locals come out to play" -- and appear on cable TV with the "scenestress."

The acronym stands for beverages, entertainment and dining -- and everything is done in plush king-sized beds piled high with pillows and separated by sheer white drapes. Like Tantra, B.E.D. is a restaurant that transforms itself into a sensual lounge at about midnight and lures a loyal customer base of hedonists and exhibitionists. And just as Tantra rules Monday night, so does B.E.D. dominate Wednesdays. That's thanks to premier promoter Michael Capponi, whose roster of party girls includes the most beautiful and alluring young women in town. For good measure, Capponi's entourage always includes plenty of young pretty boys with lots of cash. On Wednesdays, all concerned let it all hang out until the wee hours of the morning, when the party -- and usually Capponi himself -- head for The Living Room. 

The ubiquitous Milon brothers, who have interests in The Living Room, The Strand restaurant and the highly-successful Cafe Tabac, have debuted a new sushi bar-cum-lounge that rivals Tantra and B.E.D. for late-night action. Awash in reds and textured fabrics, Opium is a metaphor for the sensual seduction that makes South Beach glitter. Talented promoter Monika Gaba, creator of the now infamous Monday night sex parties at Tantra, is at the helm of Opium on Wednesdays, when she pits her stable of A-list babes against Michael Capponi's girls who are partying the night away at B.E.D., just a few blocks away. Both venues, happily, draw plenty of paying male customers with stratospheric credit card limits. Best of all, everybody wins. Capponi is the prince of parties, Gaba the princess. The Opium-B.E.D.-Living Room trifecta is becoming the all-night rage. Be prepared to sleep late.

Despite the unprecedented upheaval in South Beach club land last season, with huge new venues Level and Crobar coming in and virtually cornering the market, The Living Room has tenaciously held onto its longstanding reputation as the reigning sex palace, where the richest playboys come to stalk the sexiest, most gorgeous females of the species. Now that pioneering owner Eric Milon has unburdened himself of business responsibilities by selling out to G-Spot proprietor Shawn Lewis for a cool $1.4 million, he can concentrate on what he does best -- holding court in tight black leather pants among the international jet set. And nobody does that better than Milon. Throw in the quirky "living room" setting, more reminiscent of "Arsenic and Old Lace" than South Beach chic, and a wonderful, edgy, European mix of music, and you've got a winning formula. Especially on Wednesday nights.

Although the vast "three-clubs-within-one" Level rocks five nights a week, it is the Thursday night "Couture Miami" party that best exemplifies the Level "entertainment facility" concept. Veteran promoter Tony Cho, who earned his stripes at Tantra and Groove Jet before assuming his present responsibility as VIP Director at Crobar, fuses fashion, art, music and entertainment into a spectacle he calls "the fashionable place to be on Thursday nights." On any given Thursday, you can be part of a CD release party for a major recording artist or a corporate event that includes free drinks and gifts. There is always a fashion show, and supermodel Niki Taylor recently hosted one. This summer, Cho is focusing on more live music and DJ's such as Angel Moon and Luis Diaz. For a real taste of the glitz and glamour that still defines South Beach, don't miss Level on Thursdays.

Up the grand staircase at the far end of Club 320 is rapidly becoming one of the most exclusive VIP destinations in all of South Beach thanks to owner Michael Capponi's diligent attention to detail and first class approach to nightclubbing. This modus operandi apparently exists in the Capponi family genes, as Michael's father and grandfather both operated some of Europe's most exclusive nightclubs throughout the 1940's and '50's. Lofty VIP areas that surround 320's upper level allow a unique view of the main dance floor and twin bar areas, and if your gold MasterBlaster can stand one more $5,000 hit, you can take over the super-VIP room that includes joystick-controlled video cameras for some real high-tech voyeurism, with half-time refreshments of champagne, caviar and sushi included. Numerous special house parties at a cost of $50,000 a pop are coming to 320 this season, and if you're lucky enough to be in town for one of them, we promise, you won't forget it.

Lord knows, the early bohemian days of South Beach -- when many people still felt it worthwhile to combine good conversation and emotional intimacy with the requisite wild partying -- are long gone. But if you want to capture an essence of what the scene was like back then, check out The Marlin, owned by Island Records mogul-turned-hotelier Chris Blackwell. On Thursdays, promoter Tico Quinn hosts a Deep House Lounge party that brings hip-hop to a fresh new environment, where cynical media pros and fresh-faced models congregate amicably with European tourists and out-of-town salesmen. It's a hoot, a one-of-a-kind evening in a comfortable, intimate setting. It also attracts its own cast of party girls who quickly become Tico-worshippers, known as Deep House Lounge regulars.

Friday night is gay night at renowned Level, where the Federation 1235 party is the apex of the week's social calendar in the gay and lesbian communities. The event is particularly significant in the context of current sociology, which is seeing the historically important leadership role of the gay community in South Beach withered away by commercialization that is prompting a demographic shift. Level's marketing partner, Gerry Kelly, is a celebrated haute couture designer very prominent in the gay community. His Friday night soirees at Level are his way of giving something back to his community -- pure, unadulterated fun.

Your first view of Pearl Restaurant & Champagne Lounge will leave you speechless.  Entering Pearl’s main room, you are surrounded by voluminous waves of fur-lined curtains and soon become totally engulfed an orange neon glow. Created by French designer Stephane Dupoux, whose credits include Opium, Café Tabac, Touch, Nikki Beach Club, The Living Room, and The Strand, Pearl has a vibe all its own, with an off-beat DJ playlist to complement the sensually retro design. 1960s French yeye, new romantic, and electronica fill the air as Pearl’s guests bask in an eerie light reminiscent of 2001: A Space Odyssey. The sunken Champagne Bar ($12 a glass) and open-air, ocean-view veranda are perfect settings for a romantic South Beach interlude. Pearl --must see, must do.

When your first weekend in South Beach rolls around, just make sure your nocturnal travels take you to see the new kid on the block --Opium Garden. Miami Beach visionaries Eric and Frances Milon, who previously established the Living Room as a glamorous tropical waypoint for east-coast A-listers and European jet-setters in the early '90s, now present us with a nightclub that has become the prime weekend destination for the hippest crowd in South Florida. The roofless, open-air nightclub, previously a torrid gay hang called Amnesia, is a natural extension to the adjacent and wildly successful Opium supper-club, also owned by the Milon brothers. Part dance club, part lounge --Opium Garden is a place made for enjoying the best South Beach has to offer in the way of sensual delights.

With 44,000 square feet of space and six bars on three floors, the Art Deco masterpiece Level continues to be the scene of the wildest and most creative theme parties on the Beach --not the least of which is Gerry Kelly's Level 54. Blowing through town every month or so, these parties are a tribute to Studio 54, Disco and South Beach's anything-goes party style. Outrageous costumes and great live performances abound at these Gerry Kelly/Maxwell Blandford productions. But, even if it's just a regular old Saturday night, Level is a must-see in South Beach.

First there was Ibiza, with its drunken, hedonistic beach parties that begin as afternoons of recovery in the sun and quickly devolve into long nights of debauchery much like any other. Now, there is Nikki Beach Club, South Beach's own version of the sand-and-sex formula that has driven resort culture since the stone ages. Nikki Beach Club, which includes nice sensual touches like private tiki huts, hammocks and teepees, is the creation of Eric Omores, owner of Bash, the longest-running club in South Beach, and journeyman promoter Tommy Pooch. Although the place is open for lunch and dinner all week, it is the Sunday afternoon beach party that sets it apart, with lots of beautiful, half-naked women, good music, the beach and the blue sea. And for the record, the Asian-influenced food is excellent, the bartenders skilled. Who could ask for more?