The Resort at Longboat Key Club, Florida

The Resort at Longboat Key Club, a 410 acre resort on the Gulf of Mexico, half an hour from the Sarasota/Bradenton airport in Florida, is on Longboat Key Island. All the suites have plenty of room for your family, with over 800 square feet of living, and including a king size bed, queen size sofa bed , full kitchen, washer and dryer, video player, CD Player, housekeeping twice per day and a private balcony. If you don’t want to cook, try the six restaurants at the resort. There are rooms, not suites, without the kitchens and additional amenities, which would be practical if you are bringing along grandparents or a nanny. The rooms look beautiful and well laid out. For those with more money to spend and wanting the space, you can reserve a deluxe two bedroom suite with up to 1750 feet of living space, which is huge for a holiday apartment. If you don’t want to be responsible every moment of the day for your child’s care, there is a Kids Klub for kids age five to twelve years old, and babysitting available upon arrangement. You can leave the car at the resort and take the shuttle, compliments of the resort, to the various shops in town, or bring your boat to the marina.

Kids Club – since this means a whole lot to a bunch of parents out there longing for a balanced vacation from their frazzled schedules, let’s focus on that for a moment. This club is for children ages 5 to 12, is year round, and is from Tuesdays through to Saturdays from 9:30 am to 3 pm at a cost of 50.00 per day per child extra. This cost however not only covers the child care and camp counselors, but also includes their lunch and admission to all the attractions they attend, include a marine laboratory, the Sarasota Jungle, the Gulf Coast World of Science, and movies at the theatre. The staff for the camp are screened, and trained in cpr and other crucial certificates you would want for your child’s safety. Babysitting services can be arranged through the concierge, and I would suggest calling about this ahead of time, to find out costs and availability, and whatever else is a concern regarding this.

Rates: A suite with two adults and two children for the Easter week of April 4 to 10 for the Club Suite Beach View would be $650.00 per night or the package rate for some nights would drop to 439.00 on discount nights. Not a great comfort for those on a tight budget, but I didn’t say this resort was cheap. Some people got much better rates depending on where they booked through.

The beach is sublime, there are tennis courts and a tennis academy, a fitness center, spa, a mind and motion studio, a championship golf course and golf instruction, and much more. You can become a member of this resort and club.

There are rooms for people with physical disabilities.

Reviews: water shower pressure not the best, rooms great for the most part, free wi-fi, everything expensive including a massage starting at 100.00. Girls Get-away package was excellent value for the services available to them. People love the 9000 foot spa, someone didn’t appreciate their bed and asked to be re-located, the gym closed at 6 pm which is early for probably a lot of people, kayak use costs a fee as does everything, the pool is smallish, walk to beach means elevator, and 50 yards to the beach from the pool, on a boardwalk.   Would I stay here? Well, even though this place was rated Number 1 out of 7 resorts on Longboat Key it bothers me the range of satisfaction to discontent indicated. I know they were renovating the place and the rooms are consistently great overall, but I would want to read more reviews before I make up my mind on this one. When I read that the pool is tiny, the elevators always slow, the outside exterior not so great, and a variety of staff attitudes, I would wonder why I’m paying so much. One tip – book a suite on a higher floor so you can have a good ocean view. Speaking of tips, be willing to pay the young men who are setting up and removing chairs, umbrellas and cabanas for you. It sounds like they are working towards big improvements at this place so keep reviewing in the future if this place sounds worthwhile to you for Florida family beach vacations.

Address: 301 Gulf of Mexico Drive, Longboat Key.

Longboatkeyclub.com
Driving directions are clearly explained on the site coming from several directions.