Hotel Hilton Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort ****
After Cancun, it is logical that you go to Miami for shopping, when you have travelled that far. 🙂 In 2011 we stayed at the Hilton Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort, which left me a great impression. We stayed in Oceanfront 1-bedroom suite that time. Though now we stayed in deluxe rooms. And wow we were so disappointed. I´ll write about the review for the suite in another time, but this time I´ll write about only deluxe rooms, because the opinions are way too different!
Overall, I think hotels in Miami and Fort Lauderdale are so overpriced and overrated. Especially the ones near the beach. You have to pay a lot for the room and basically you get medium class hotels.
Our choices were between the one we chose and Casa Moderna Miami Hotel & Spa ****. I don´t find their webpage anymore, may-be something happened to it? Anyone?
Now about the hotel:
General
| Reception and welcome | So, so. They were friendly but a bit snobbish and not in a good way. |
| Welcome drink | No. |
| Free upgrade | No, asked and was refused. |
| Valet and parking | Yes and yes. Parking was not for free. The staff there was really nice. |
| Concierge | Yes. |
Breakfast
| Sparkling wine | Didn´t go to breakfast. |
| Hot meal | n/a |
| In general | n/a |
The room
| In general | I cannot even say how disappointed we were. We tried to cancel the hotel, but they told that they´ll charge fully the price for all of the nights we had booked. The room looked dirty and small. It was also really dark. There was this weird door to a small room/closet in our room where the air-conditioning or sth like that was. The door didn´t close, therefore there was this huge noise, plus it all looked really creepy and spooky. I felt really claustrophobic in the room. Balcony was really dirty and I didn´t want to go there at all.We did have a small kitchenette there too, it was nice to have it. |
| Room type | Deluxe room:http://www3.hilton.com/en/hotels/florida/hilton-fort-lauderdale-beach-resort-FLLFSHH/accommodations/suites.html |
| Surprise in the room | No. |
| iPhone dock | Yes, for an iPhone 5 etc. |
| Blanket and the blanket case | Yes and yes. |
| Carped | Yes. |
| Amenities and bathroom | Basic. The bathroom was OK. Wasn´t that dirty. |
| Shower curtain? | No. |
| Are the TV speakers in the bathroom too? | No. |
| Bath salt and bath | No and no. |
| Slippers and robe | Hmm, I think there might have been. |
| Free WI-FI | No. |
| Air conditioning | Yes. |
Hotel area (spa, dinner etc.)
| Hotel area was so-so. We went to dinner to this restaurant, that wasn´t on the ground floor, but in the same floor where the pool was. The place looked spooky and not clean. We ordered meals, me and my dad ordered salmon. We had hairs in the food!!!! Yaiks, that was so disgusting! We were offered a glass of champagne for compensation, it wasn´t even champagne, but the sparkling wine, we had ordered before. Kind of rude was the staff about the hair, especially the manager. The waiter was really nice and friendly. Never go to eat there!!!! Pool area was nice, the jacuzzi was really hot and it was nice to spend our late evening there. That was cool. In the daytime it is really windy in the pool area, so we didn´t go there at all. But yes, our main goal was to shop in Sawgrass Mills, so it´s OK, we didn´t spend time in the pool area. |
Location In the beach, though there is a road between the hotel and the beach. It´s walking distance from the centre, still, it was quite far for me.
I visited In February 2014.
Would I go again? Never! May-be if I´d take the oceanfront suite, but still I doubt I´d go there again.
Value of money Poor.
Purpose of the trip Shopping.
Nights 3 nights.
Rating
| Luxury | 5 out of 10. I wouldn´t spend my vacation there. |
| Drive through | 7 out of 10. For one night… |
Webpage http://www3.hilton.com/en/hotels/florida/hilton-fort-lauderdale-beach-resort-FLLFSHH/index.html
Unfortunately I don´t have any pictures myself, so I took them from their webpage. The pictures look pretty decent, but now imagine the same rooms darker and dustier.
Only picture I took: the view from our room:
The photos do really look good but it is kind of sad to hear that it was disappointing anyway, especially after your nice experience in Cancun…
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Exactly, I was so sad, because the last time I really liked the hotel. But yes, I was really disappointed.
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