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Best resort in pompano beach?

Cdn Gal

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Which would be the best beachfront resort to stay during Christmas on the beach? It would be just 2 people, but we would like someplace on the ocean/beach with activities close by. Thank you! :)
 

jaygould

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The best Wyndham beachfront resort is Royal Vista, but there is nothing available for Christmas. The other Wyndham property in Pompano with direct beach access is Sea Gardens, which I think is a close second to Royal Vista. It straddles the beachfront road. The units on the beach side of the road are all studios, numbered 100-112, 200-212, 300-312, 400-412. There is availability for Christmas week right now, but that may all disappear soon, so book now.
 

vacationhopeful

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And when booking via points fails ... PM a fixed week owner like me.

PS this coming XMAS/NYE has a week 53 ... thus Christmas is Week 52 this year.

And the beachfront Wyndham's only have FRI and SAT checkin day...
 

Vacationfuntips

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We enjoyed our stay at Wyndham Santa Barbara over the Christmas holiday. You can walk over to Wyndham Royal Vista a block away and across the street. Very, very close. Wyndham Royal Vista shares amenities with Santa Barbara (sister resorts). I've never stayed at Wyndham Sea Gardens - it is much further down. We drove down to see where it was. I preferred the location of Wyndham Santa Barbara and Wyndham Royal Vista much better. But that is just me. The Sea Gardens Ocean Palms building (newer) is set further back from the other buildings across the street.

Wyndham Santa Barbara has free Coffee in the lobby. Game room, Fitness Center, Outdoor Pool, pool bar, outdoor HOT TUB (Royal Vista does not have a hot tub). It is a small resort property - no snack food or cafe. Stingers Restaurant is in the shopping center next door and their subs, sandwiches and pizza were great! They have breakfast too, but we usually had our breakfast in the condo. Wyndham Santa Barbara is the closest Wyndham timeshare in the direction to Ft. Lauderdale. 8-10 minutes down the street by car. Yes, you do need a car in Pompano Beach!

The rooms are the largest for the points. A 1 bedroom has 1200 SQFT and 2 full bathrooms. It was recently renovated and rooms were decorated very nicely. The sleep sofa was the most comfortable. In a 1 bedroom - there is a sleep sofa in the bedroom and another in the living room.

Additionally, directly across the street is a walk path to the beach in between two condo buildings (not Wyndham).

We would go again to Pompano Beach and the Ft. Lauderdale area too.

Cynthia T. :)
 

OutSkiing

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We enjoyed our stay at Wyndham Santa Barbara over the Christmas holiday. You can walk over to Wyndham Royal Vista a block away and across the street. Very, very close. Wyndham Royal Vista shares amenities with Santa Barbara (sister resorts). I've never stayed at Wyndham Sea Gardens - it is much further down. We drove down to see where it was. I preferred the location of Wyndham Santa Barbara and Wyndham Royal Vista much better. But that is just me. The Sea Gardens Ocean Palms building (newer) is set further back from the other buildings across the street.

Wyndham Santa Barbara has free Coffee in the lobby. Game room, Fitness Center, Outdoor Pool, pool bar, outdoor HOT TUB (Royal Vista does not have a hot tub). It is a small resort property - no snack food or cafe. Stingers Restaurant is in the shopping center next door and their subs, sandwiches and pizza were great! They have breakfast too, but we usually had our breakfast in the condo. Wyndham Santa Barbara is the closest Wyndham timeshare in the direction to Ft. Lauderdale. 8-10 minutes down the street by car. Yes, you do need a car in Pompano Beach!

The rooms are the largest for the points. A 1 bedroom has 1200 SQFT and 2 full bathrooms. It was recently renovated and rooms were decorated very nicely. The sleep sofa was the most comfortable. In a 1 bedroom - there is a sleep sofa in the bedroom and another in the living room.

Additionally, directly across the street is a walk path to the beach in between two condo buildings (not Wyndham).

We would go again to Pompano Beach and the Ft. Lauderdale area too.

Cynthia T. :)

We love Santa Barbara too. Great views of the ocean (across the street) and the intercoastal. Really nice big rooms and our 2 bedroom lockoff had 2 separate ginormous wrap around balconies to make viewing wonderful.

Royal Vista would be great if you can get an ocean front from VacationHopeful but there are a LOT of room there that are just Ocean view or even parking lot view.

Haven't stayed at Sea Gardens but only the studios seem to be Ocean view / kind of Ocean front. Maybe some in the new tower as well (farthest from the Ocean). Sea Gardens seems like a big risk of not seeing much ocean from the room.

Bob
 

Sandy VDH

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For Beach
1. Royal Vista (but hardly any availability)
2. Santa Barbara
3. Sea Gardens (but not all units)
4. Palm Air

For unit size and upgrades
Reverse the order.
 

rapmarks

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For Beach
1. Royal Vista (but hardly any availability)
2. Santa Barbara
3. Sea Gardens (but not all units)
4. Palm Air

For unit size and upgrades
Reverse the order.

but Palm Air is really a distance from the beach
royal Vista ont he beach, but they are doing beach refurbishment now. Santa Barbara, short walk to Royal Vista, a nice smaller resort. Sea Gardens, stuios on the beah, others a bit of a long walk to the beach.
 

vacationhopeful

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...
Royal Vista would be great if you can get an ocean front from VacationHopeful but there are a LOT of room there that are just Ocean view or even parking lot view.

....
Bob

Bob, you are so funny ....

I have stayed ONCE in a "00" (double zero) unit...my first visit in RV in late April... 3 night stay. It was my Birthday Party Week with all my siblings and most of their spouses; we all moved onto 2 other resorts for several more days. It was a great trip ... 8 of us sitting all morning on the balcony in our PJs, with sunglasses on and drinking coffee for hours.

I had one guest called me .. he owned a lot of Royal Vista points and stayed many times at Royal Vista .. .rented a week 52 unit and calls me on his CELL ... HE finally was staying in the "00" oceanfront building ... he was excited and ask me HOW I got it for him. I was in staying in Ft Lauderdale .. I came down to meet him and rave about his view. I was dumbfounded, too. He loved it.

3rd time I had a Canadian daughter who booked 4 February weeks for her sick (Parkinson disease) father and her mother. I had 3 weeks in 1 bedroom units at the different resorts but the 4th week, had only a 2/2 unit at Royal Vista ... the daughter paid MORE for a 2/2 unit to keep her dad in warmer Florida (almost cut the trip short; I cut the rent slightly); she pleaded for any 1 bedroom but that was the only unit left. I got a call from the daughter in Newfoundland (their home) while the parents were still in FL. She asked if I could book them for next year, 6 weeks in that Royal Vista unit. Her dad was just glued to watching the ocean, its waves and sounds from inside the living room in his chair ... loving it. She spoke English (French is their native language) ... but that unit made the trip... just being on the beach. The hours he spent watching the ocean. The closeness and the sounds and the smell. The daughter was so pleased that her parents got such a unit ... I don't think the daughter could have predicted how much any oceanview could impacted her father... she just wanted them warm with sun. I never heard back the following winter about booking any weeks ... I figured he was unable to travel that following winter ... I hope they had pictures and lots of memories.
 

Vacationfuntips

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I would now ALWAYS chose the beach locations BEFORE Wyndham Palm Aire. I really did not care for the location of Palm Aire or the surrounding area. Wyndham Palm Aire had the nice updated rooms in the Areca Palm building which was close to the pools and main area.

However, Wyndham Palm Aire was right next door to a grocery store and strip mall, across the street was a horse race and casino facility and there was also a Walmart within walking distance.

Wyndham Palm Aire did not compare at all to Wyndham Bonnet Creek in Orlando. Very, very different.

Here is my list:

1. Wyndham Royal Vista - Clean, and has most amenities that you would expect at a beach front property. This is not a huge property. There are 2 outdoor pools, a large and nice beach bar for drinks, a fitness facility, computer station, and a small onsite eatery (they were remodeling while I was there - so we went across the street for take-out lunch food at Stingers). A 1 bedroom has 1 or 2 baths and has a washer/dryer in the room. Not all units have a view of the ocean. I did not like the beach chair rental thing that you pay extra for to get a lounge chair or umbrella. It would be nice if Wyndham provided this service at no additional charge to guests at their resort.

2. Wyndham Santa Barbara - a smaller property, but clean and nice (older building but larger rooms, nicely updated and very comfortable sleep sofa (was like a bed with thick mattress - no uncomfortable bars) our 1 bedroom had 2 of them - one was in the living room, one in the bedroom. 2 full shower baths + whirlpool tub. Rooms are large and a 1 bedroom is a whopping 1200 sq ft (exact same size as the 2 bedroom). There is no washer/dryer in the units. There was a washer and dryer near the elevators on each floor. We had a corner unit with a wrap around balcony plus a 2nd balcony. We could see both the ocean and the pool. The marina was on the opposite end with boats. The pool area was smaller and clean but nice and it felt private. There was a small beach bar for drinks. One night we received free strawberry margarita drinks that they passed around to guests. I liked the outdoor hot tub (Wyndham Royal Vista does not have an outdoor hot tub - but you can use Santa Barbara's since it has shared amenities with it's sister property). The lounge/game area was a nice touch. My family would go down and play chess, pool, watch t.v. use computers, etc... Wyndham Palm Aire has a resort beach shuttle - by reservation to go over to Wyndham Royal Vista which has very limited space and schedule times.

That's it for me. I never stayed at Wyndham Sea Gardens but drove by - it was further down and Ocean Palms was set back further from the street and beach. If I was to stay, my family would need larger than a studio so Wyndham Ocean Palms would be my ONLY choice over there. It is further away from Ft. Lauderdale Beach, shops and restaurants than the other two.

I would go back to Pompano Beach and the Ft. Lauderdale area. We had a really nice family vacation. The weather was perfect in December.

Cynthia T. :)
 
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