Marco Island Marriott, the Best Florida hotel.



Over Thanksgiving, I decided to get away for a few days.  I've been to Marco Island a few months back and stayed at the Hilton Hotel right on the beach.  It was a great property.  During that stay, we walked down to the Marriott Resort and we were 'wowed'.  Without a doubt, I was going to do my best to stay at the Marriott my next trip to Marco Island.  (Marco Island is on Florida's South-West coast...just outside of Naples.)

Of course with such a nice resort (I'll go into some of the selling points of the property below), it comes with a price tag slightly above the Hilton.  I am an 'Honored Guest' member for Marriott and received an e-mail special rate of $250 per night in Marco Island.  I jumped at the chance and requested a high floor and the room-type was 'pool and gulf view'.  (Don't forget to see a video of the trip in this post...scroll down.  You can't miss it.)

   
(Sunset on Marco Island Marriott's beach.)

The resort just completed a MASSIVE renovation.  I hear it's actually the biggest renovation any Marriott Hotel has gone through at a whopping $130 Million.  They did an amazing job since this resort looks like it was only built recently.  This resort is geared to the family market along with singles, married couples and the occasional spring breaker.  Well, the low-key Spring Breaker.  There are so many activities you can partake in, it can make your head spin.  It's almost like a cruise ship on land.  Any kind of water sport you can think of...they have (for a fee of course).  Activities for the kids are at every turn.  Nightly movies by the pool will let Mom & Dad have a quiet dinner at the restaurant.  You can even sign up for contests (for the kids).  The property consists of two towers of rooms, two 'lobby' buildings, a spa and 'lanai' rooms that are like villas that are steps from the beach.

Of course, you can choose not to partake in any of the massive activities and just lounge by the pool.  There are 2 pools and both are heated in the winter months (the Gulf temp was actually a bit cold, at least for us Floridians).  One of the pools has a slide and some water features for the kids.  The other is the larger main pool that has plenty of places to kick back and relax.  There are even a few cabanas to rent if you choose.  They even walk around the pool and pass out frozen grapes a few times a day to cool you off in the hot sun.  Really nice touch.  The beach is within a few steps and Marriott does a great job raking the sand.  There are TONS of sea shells on Marco Island and you have to be sure to get up early at low tide to go shelling.  It's AMAZING on how much sea life you can see.  We saw sea urchins, horseshoe crabs, sand dollars, so many starfish I lost count...and some crabs.  If your lucky you might see a dolphin too.  If you make it out at low tide, it's almost like going to Sea World.  We felt like we rescued so many little sea creatures that were on the sand (waiting for the tide to take them back out).  I'm sure they would have been fine, but we still picked them up and brought them to the deeper water.  This was the most sea life I've seen on a Florida beach in quite some time.  I don't really recall seeing much on Ft. Lauderdale/Miami's beaches...except for the occasional jellyfish or shark.


(Cool sponge we found on the beach in the morning.)


(One of the many starfish we met on Marco Island Beach.  Yeah...he's alive.)

There are quite of few places to eat as well.  You actually don't have to leave the property.  Quinn's on the Beach is next to the main pool and has beach-side dining.  It's a casual place that serves typical lunch food.  At dinner time, the menu expands a bit and offers a few bigger entrées. 

400 Pazzi's is located in between the two pools.  It's their pizza place.  They have sandwiches, appetizers and the food was really good.  You order at the counter and they bring you the food when it's ready...so you don't have to tip as much (if at all).  Oh....they also offer a 'blue cup' for unlimited refills for soda during your stay here.  It's a plastic travel mug kind of cup and well worth the price at $6.95.

The Tiki Bar is located at the smaller pool and they don't have much food.  Burgers, hot dogs and chicken finger kind of stuff.  The burgers smelled great though.

Tropiks is their casual restaurant and offers breakfast, lunch and dinner.  They offer a breakfast buffet daily (along with regular menu items) which was GREAT.  It even blew away most of the breakfast buffets in Las Vegas.  The food quality was high and everything was fresh.  It was a bit pricey at $19.95 but it was well worth it.  You have to get it at least once during your stay.  They also were serving a dinner buffet each night.  The Thanksgiving Buffet was really good as well.  Turkey was moist and tasty and they took very good care of the buffet tables.  I give it high marks.  The second night we had the Seafood Buffet.  It seemed to be worth the $22.95 price going in...but it kind of fell flat.  The seafood offerings were not what I expected...maybe I was just 'buffet-ed' out though.

Kurrents is their more 'upscale' chop house.  I have read good things about it on line, but we didn't go.  It was just a little out of the budget.

Rookery Steakhouse is located on their golf course.  It's not directly attached to the property so we didn't get a look at it.

Café san Marco is their answer to Starbucks.  They serve coffee and specialty coffees along with freshly baked pastries and sandwiches.  Sodas, snacks and more that I probably missed as well.  This is a great place to pick up something light for breakfast. 

Now...onto the rooms....


(We stayed on the 8th floor (high floor just like I requested...there are 11 floors on each tower).  The view from the balcony was perfect)

The rooms look brand spanking new.  Bight colors and modern elements work well with the beach atmosphere.  I'm so glad they decided not to do the 'Golden Girls' decor like every other Florida resort.  The TV has been swapped out with a LDC HDTV and this is actually the first property I know of that offers HD channels.  I hate when hotels have a LCD TV and don't offer HD channels. 

There are two mini-refrigerators. On the left you have the mini-bar or 'overpriced items that you have to be crazy to buy them' fridge.  On the right is an empty mini-refrigerator for your use.  I'm so glad they have this in every room.  It's prefect if you are trying to stick to a budget.  Stop at the grocery store and you can save some money on food.  Just remember this refrigerator is SMALL, so don't go crazy and buy huge amounts of things.

There is a coffee maker, which seems to be standard today.  There is also a 'data' center with internet connections, extra outlets and A/V hookups.  For $12 a day, you can get internet access for your laptop (or portable device) and you have access all over the property.  Cell phone usage was exceptional here.  I had ALL bars on my AT&T service.  They even called me when the room was ready (we checked in a bit early and housekeeping was not finished with the room yet).

The bathroom was well appointed with coconut scented soap and high end shampoo and shower gel. 

The balcony is large and we had the best view.  We got to see the sunset every night from the balcony.  The windows were thick and seemed soundproof.  We couldn't hear any pool noise....which even on the 8th floor was a possibility. 

The thermostat worked like a charm too.  I love to turn the A/C down as low as it will go when I stay in a hotel.  Yeah, I know it's not environmentally responsible...but oh well. 

See some pictures of the property and of the beach...click on the play button on the picture below-



I can't recommend this property enough.  Everyone was extremely nice and helpful and I can't wait to go back.  I only hope I can get a good discount again.  But you know what...it's worth every penny...even if that means only a 2 night stay.  This property rivals some of the upscale properties on the Las Vegas Strip.

Posted by Mark B at 11/30/2008 2:59 PM
Categories: Beach, Marco Island, Hotel
 

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