Help with clearwater beach/st. pete beach hotel questions
 

We are taking our children (6 and 9) to Busch Gardens in December and we decided to stay a few extra days to explore the Clearwater/St. Pete area. Some of the things we hope to do - the Dali museum in St. Pete, boat trip to Shell Island, snorkel on Egmont Key, Florida Aquarium, eat and shop and St. Armands, and the Mote Marine Lab. The question is where should we stay??? We are looking for a great, family beach, preferably a higher end beachfront property, boat activities a plus, walk to restaurants/shops. From reading posts on Fodors and Tripadvisor I narrowed the choices to these hotels and I am including the prices I have gotten so far. I checked out the Don Cesar but there are only two double beds in a room and since there are four of us we need either two queens or a rollaway. They could not do a rollaway in the room. I have not been to the area so I would appreciate any thoughts you have. Thanks!

Tradewinds Sandpiper (St. Pete) $303/night
Sheraton Clearwater Beach $189/night
Bilmar Beach Resort $179/night
Lido Beach Resort $389/night

We stayed at the Sandpiper with kids and we all liked it. Moreover, we used the shuttle that takes you everywhere in the area each day and never had to drive, except to Busch Gardens. I have never snorkeled anywhere in Florida that was worth a separate trip. The water is too murky- nothing like the Caribbean or further south of the keys. I would skip that excursion. My kids really liked all the casual seafood restaurants around there....particularly the ones on water where they could feed the fish from the tables! Have fun...for an easy family beach vacation, St Pete is a real winner.

Thanks for the reply. I forgot to include the Tradewinds Grand in my list as well. That rate is $230 for a parlor room or $270 w/beach view. Is one Tradewinds property better than the other?

It sounds as if you plan on doing more activities in St Pete, than in Clearwater. Have you looked into staying at the Don Cesar, on St Pete Beach? It's a much easier and shorter drive to downtown St Pete than Clearwater would be.

I like the Tradewinds proper because of the separate bedroom arrangement. I haven't stayed at the Sandpiper. I recently received a mailing from the
Don Cesar promoting their Beach House Suites. You might want to check out www.beachhousesuites.com.

I looked at the Don Cesar Beachhouse Suites but the reviews on Tripadvisor were not too good. I know that sometimes Tripadvisor's reviews are a bit over the top but there was more than one negative review on that property. Does anyone have any personal experience there?
Hubster, the rooms at the Don Cesar Hotel hold only 2 doubles and there is no room for a rollaway. We are 2 adults and 2 kids and a double is too small for two of us to sleep in. We tried it once and it was not fun. le

We stayed at the Tradewinds Island Grand with our kids in March and liked it a lot. It has a great beach (so does the Sandpiper). They are very close to each other but Island Grand definitely has more to offer kids your ages. We walked down to the Sandpiper while there with the kids and they said they were glad we chose the Island Grand.

Forgot to add that while at the TI Island Grand we had adjoining Parlor rooms with beach view. I loved looking out on to the water in the morning and watching the action on the beach all day, you'll have to decide if the extra $$ is worth it, it was to us.

Thanks fun2travel I am leaning toward the Tradewinds Grand parlor room with a view of the pool/beach. I was just about to book it and then I saw a $25 daily resort fee. That's pretty steep. It still is my front runner but I am going to search a little more for a better rate.

Lexie, are you going through the resort or a 3rd party booking ? Try www.kayak.com and see if you can snag a better rate. You may be surprised! As far as the resort fee goes, that's common in FLA, because they have no state tax. You always have to read the fine print, I've seen that many times. If you think that's bad, try to understand the car rental fees....geeezzzz.

FYI I decided to call the Don Cesar myself a few minutes ago and ask about a rollaway in the room. They said they will put a rollaway in a room with 2 doubles. It will be very tight but its just for sleeping. Originally we had called Lowes First reservations and they told us no rollaway. I am glad I checked. Although I think the Tradewinds would have been great I am going to go with the Don. We have perks with Loews (late check out, upgrade, fruit and water, etc..) and I love the history of the Don. Plus my daughter will get a kick out of staying at a gigantic pink hotel. Thanks everyone for your help!

GREAT!!! I LOVE the Don. Have a wonderful time.

You'll love the Don, we've been there too. As for the resort fee, the Don also charges $10 per person per night, not to exceed $20 so as said before the extra fees are common. Maybe with you're Loew's perks you can work something out. Have fun!

Consider the Holiday Inn at Indian Rocks Beach about half way between Clearwater and St. Pete. Across the street from the beach. Beautiful pool. Half the rooms are canal front, great view. Prices are often very competitive. Excellent restaurants nearby.

Can anyone suggest any of the boat rides for dolphin encounters? My guide book recommends the Captain Memo Pirate Cruise and the Dolphin Encounter both off of Clearwater Beach. I believe there is also one off the St. Pete beach pier but I don't know if that is as good. Is there a better time to go - morning or sunset?

Captain Memo's is a pirate ship that caters to families with younger children. They actually play games, have watergun fights, pass out pirate hats etc. Kids your age would like it. It is very cheesy but fun for the little kids. We went on the sunset cruise and did see dolphins at one point but definitely not the majority of the time. We saw more dophins off the coast of our hotel (near where you're staying) on our morning beach walks. This was in March so not sure how December fares for dolphins. We also did the aquarium you mentioned. I don't know where you live but it is the same as most aquariums in the country, nothing really special about it, it was nice, just not different from any of the others we'd been too.

Stop at Frenchy's Rockaway Grill on Clearwater Beach for food, drink and eclectic beach atmosphere.

Keep in mind that Clearwater Beach is not exactly a few minutes away from the Tradewinds; with December traffic, you are looking at 30-45 minutes in slow moving traffic on Gulf Blvd. That said, both the Pirate ship and Frenchy's Rockaway are great!

Thanks for the suggestions! I think my son would love the pirate cruise so I will keep it on our to do list. As far as the aquariums my daughter is very interested in marine life and we like to encourage her interest. There are a few aquariums in the area - the Marine Aquarium in Clearwater, the Mote Marine Aquarium in Sarsota and the Florida Aquarium in Tampa. We live in South Florida so my kids have been to the Miami Seaquarium and Sea World quite a bit. I was hoping for less showtime more hands on and educational. Would the Mote be the best bet?

Sorry I also forgot to ask about the Manatee boat tours on Crystal River. Has anyone had any experience with that? I was wondering if it was worth driving to.