Which St. Pete Tradewinds would you recommend, the Sandpiper or Grand Island, we will be traveling with 2 teens and an 11 y/o. thanks

I'm sorry fun2travel but I'm not familiar at all with the area!

Hopefully someone else will help you.

I lived in the area, but never stayed in either of the hotels. The general consensus is that the Island Grand is the better of the two. Is it enough better to warrant the price difference, I don't know. You can easily walk between the two on the beach.

Island Grand is a 4 diamond AAA..a very good rating, the highest rating any of the hotels in the Tampa Bay area gets. Sanpiper, because they don't put that in their website, I assume is not. It was getting to be quite run down, but they've had a renovation this year so should be up to snuff again. I suspect their diamond rating will change at their next review, but the Grand will always be the grande dame of the two of them. With the Sandpiper's renovation, you should be fine at either, and unless someone has stayed in the Sandpiper since the renovation was completed, their experience with it won't be all that helpful to you. How much extra is it? Remember...a FL vacation means being outside having fun and the room, IMHO, is secondary.

Hi fun2:
I've only stayed at Sandpiper for a night once and never at Grand Island. Being a relative local, I don't have the opportunity much but I have had friends stay at Sandpiper and it worked for them with teens. I ALWAYS trust OO's hotel recommendations.

...but coldwar has very good taste!

I stayed at the Island Grand two years ago while at a conference; some co-workers were booked into the Sandpiper when the Island Grand filled up. Their rooms were not as nice as the Island Grand rooms (I had a gulf front room, very pleasant), but certainly weren't bad rooms, just "tired" for lack of a better word. If Sandpiper has been renovated since then, that would be a good alternative to Island Grand.