stever

Originally we were going to go to Naples and South Beach with our daughter in March, but it looks like I'm going to win a trip at work to Los Cabos in Mexico (Dreams Resort and Spa) instead during part of that period, so we have to reschedule for when she's out of school to June 23-July 1, the low season.

This is the season we can actually afford to stay at our dream hotels, hotels we could never afford during our usual peak season visits. We were thinking of "cheaping out" to save money and stay at the Inn on 5th for $117 a nt for the first 3 nights in Naples, but I checked out the Ritz Beach hotel rates:

http://www.ritzcarlton.com/resorts/naples/

and they are $279 a night (including valet pking and breakfast for 2 a day). It's not substantially that much more, figuring in the great American breakfast and parking. Usually it's over $550-600 a night in season when we can't afford to stay at the Ritz Carlton.

The Golf Ritz is $30 a nt less but we thought that since our daughter loves the beach, shuttling between the 2 hotels to use the beach isn't really that convenient. If she wanted to take a quick walk on the beach in the morning or evening, we'd be stuck at the golf hotel, far from the beach. You only go round once, right? And, neither Ritz has those obnoxious resort fees of around $12 a day.

June 23, 2007
BED AND BREAKFAST PKG: 279.00 per night.

So, it's the Ritz beach hotel vs the Registry, La Playa, or Hyatt Coconut Point. The Hyatt isn't on the beach though and that's kind of key for us. We don't golf, drink, or snorkel, but our kid loves the beach and we swim in the water and read books in a chair there. The Hyatt is $254 with breakfast so it's not that much cheaper than the Ritz in the end.

It seems that the Ritz might offer more for the money, especially with a kid that lives for the beach. Thoughts?

Then it's off to South Beach,

http://www.ritzcarlton.com/resorts/south_beach/

for 5 nights and the Ritz there has a "deal" for $319 a nt with no view or balcony ( but includes breakfast for 2 American style and the $30 valet pking included. It would have been great to get a killer ocean view, but it's $349 nt for partial view which becomes a bit of a deal killer for us at that price. The extra $30 on top of going above our $250 limit as it is doesn't work for us.

Is the Ritz no-view room really that bad in each of these hotels? Anyone stay there with thoughts on the el-cheapo rooms there? We've done the Loews and Royal Palm before and loved them, but they are VERY expensive at this time of year believe it or not. $299 for a no view room at the Loews, no breakfast or parking included. We wanted a change of scenery.

The Mandarin Oriental South Beach with no beach is over $400 and the Marriott South Beach is still $299 for no view. We'd never be able to afford the Ritz again as we'd probably never go back in the summer. It's our decision, we know, but is it worth it for no view though and no balcony?


Quality Room >>
319.00 (USD) per night Rate rules
Reserve a Room
Re-Connect Package Deluxe Room, No view,No balcony,1king/2dblesIncludes Buffet breakfast for 2, valet, & more.

What would you go with? Worse hotel with view, or killer luxe Ritz hotel with city view? Unless, of course, they take pity on us when we arrive and upgrade us to a nicer room, which they say they don't do.


Thanks in advance,
Steve R
Silver Spring MD

emd

stever, I hate to break it to you buddy, but I think your post suffers from "too much detail" like the one you did on your Philly hotels.

Your only questions that I can see are whether the Ritz Naples offers more for a teen than the other Naples hotels you listed, and asking for input on room types at Ritz South Beach. You've given us way more than we need or probably want to know. Be more specific and less rambling on the questions, and my guess is you'll get responses.

But I am topping for you in case someone can get through all the info and come up w/some advice.

GoTravel

The Mandarin Oriental does have its own beach but you can't access the ocean because it is on a bulkhead.

Is your 13 year old comfortable with a topless beach? South Beach is topless and you will see many women sans top. My stepkids were fine with it because they are a little older and have been to topless beaches before.

My personal opinion that the Ritz-Carlton Key Biscayne would be a much better choice. They have fabulous kids programs and a fantastic beach.

GoTravel

One last thing, if you decide to stay in South Beach, because the beach is so wide, very few hotels have ocean views. You have to be on the fourth floor or above because of all the mature palm trees so I wouldn't worry about an ocean view.

stever

Sorry for the rambling message. It was late last night and I tried to cram in all the stuff I could in my question.

I'm sure our 13 y/o will be OK with topless beach people. I hope so at least. I"ll look into the other Ritz on Key Biscayne, but I think my wife kind of wanted to put us in the middle of all the action of South Beach. She likes to be able to walk to shopping and restaurants and hates driving to all of creation in Florida as I get lost alot, and there's bad traffic.

Also good to know that the non-view rooms might be perfectly fine in South Beach and Naples. We're not going to spend a ton of time in the room, but we're used to having decent views. Sometimes city view can be really interesting if it's not noisy, too.

Cheers,
Steve R

Ann41

Steve, while our traffic is bad here in SW FL, it doesn't even begin to compare to the DC area.

Anyway, another option in Naples is the Naples Grande (formerly the Registry). I've stayed at both the Grande and the Ritz (gulf) recently, and given the difference in price, I'd choose the Grande over the Ritz. I loved both hotels, but they're not very far apart in terms of luxury and service.

stever

Thx Ann41. I appreciate the info on Naples Grande. I checked out their website and the rooms do look great, but for about the same price as the Ritz Beach hotel in Naples, I think we'd rather just try the Beach Ritz.

Steve R