Best Hilton Resor in Florida?

[JLCEA]

I have checked the Hilton Gran Vaction Club web and I have found so many great looking resorts at the beach (Marco Island and Sanibel).
I haven’t visited anyone, and I am looking for a good one to spend a week in summer (I will spend another one on the Atlantic coast, at Marriott's Ocean Pointe).

Any recommendations?
We are traveling with our two daughters (4 and 6 years old) so it should be a children friendly resort.

Many thanks!!!

 

[JLB]

HGVC is far and away the cream of the crop in SW Florida. Actually, HGVC is the only TS company that has put a bit of effort into SW FL.

Alright Hyatt fans! They have a nice resort too, but only one.

The last I looked, these were the HGVC resorts there:

Ft. Myers Beach
Seawatch on the Beach

Captiva Island
The Cottages at South Seas Resort
Planatation Bay Villas at South Seas Resort
Plantation Beach Club at South Seas Resort
Plantation House at South Seas Resort
South Seas Club at South Seas Resort

Marco Island
The Charter Club of Marco Beach
Club Regency of Marco Island
Eagle’s Nest Beach Resort
The Surf Club Resort

Sanibel Island
Casa Ybel Resort
Hurricane House Resort
Sanibel Cottage Resort
Shell Island Beach Club
Tortuga Beach Club Resort


You ought to be able to find discussions about them since folks like to compare, say, the Marco resorts, whether they like the smallness and intimacy of Club Regency or the bigness of Eagles Nest.

Seawatch is far and away the nicest resort on FMB, the others being a collection of also-rans, some likeable but none Gold Crowns.

Unless you are extremely picky, you would not be unhappy with any of them. What it normally boils down to is which one you can get into.

Of course, it is different in the summertime, as opposed to snowbird season--January-April, but there is a sign in the office of little SW FL resort we trade into that reads Unattended Children Will Be Sold Into Slavery . I don't know how many have been, but, generally speaking, the Mouse is no big deal there and it is not like Orlando, resortwise.

We had youngins at OLCC in Kissimmee Christmas week, with all the yelling and screaming, and it did not seem out of place. The following week we were with another couple at the SW FL resort and there was a family with small children renting a unit. They had more occupants than the limits and another family or two with little kids came to visit one day. The group was very obvious and pretty much ran the old folks off. The kids were jumping around on the picnic tables and lawn furniture, and broke some of it.

The rowdiest area of SW FL is FMB, that area being less exclusive than Captiva, Sanibel and Marco. Seawatch is a nice place for a beach vacation.

I would encourage you to beg, borrow, steal, or rent a pontoon and go out on Estero Bay, to spend a 1/2 day with the dolphins or to run it up on a beach and just enjoy yourself.

I'm not anti-kid; just reporting the facts, Maam.

 

[JLB]

PS: I know they switch-hit and trade internally through HGVC, but if you want to go this summer through RCI, you had better know something that I don't.

 

[atlanticwatergate]

PS: I know they switch-hit and trade internally through HGVC, but if you want to go this summer through RCI, you had better know something that I don't.

I just bought Charter Club at Marco- I don't want to go the week I have, it is also a flex week1-14 and 17-51. JLB you seem to quite the expert on SW FLA. How do I get Easter week, President week, or Veterans day week. Go through HGVC or RCI ? I am going to join Hilton for $299.00 will this help ?

Thanks

 

[JLB]

Ask Cali-hockey/Cali-Dave. He is in HGVC and has let me play around with his account to find stuff I can't find through RCI.

My sense of it is that more HGVC owners trade through them than through RCI, but I don't have real facts about that.

I believe I can say with confidence that you will not get the snowbird weeks, 1-16, through RCI. Even those who shoot straight at RCI will tell you that.

Veterans Day is the time of year I do see HGVC resorts through RCI, it not being that popular and it being late hurricane season. Even at that, it is not something you can just go find any time you want.

Right now there 23 SW FL resorts available for October and November of this year and none of them are HGVC. There are 16 resorts available for October and November, 2008, and two of them are HGVC, Club Regency and Tortuga. There is just one unit at each place and they are for the same week, Week 49, the first December check-in date.

I just bought Charter Club at Marco- I don't want to go the week I have, it is also a flex week1-14 and 17-51. JLB you seem to quite the expert on SW FLA. How do I get Easter week, President week, or Veterans day week. Go through HGVC or RCI ? I am going to join Hilton for $299.00 will this help ?

Thanks