• The TUGBBS forums are completely free and open to the public and exist as the absolute best place for owners to get help and advice about their timeshares for more than 30 years!

    Join Tens of Thousands of other Owners just like you here to get any and all Timeshare questions answered 24 hours a day!
  • TUG started 31 years ago in October 1993 as a group of regular Timeshare owners just like you!

    Read about our 31st anniversary: Happy 31st Birthday TUG!
  • TUG has a YouTube Channel to produce weekly short informative videos on popular Timeshare topics!

    Free memberships for every 50 subscribers!

    Visit TUG on Youtube!
  • TUG has now saved timeshare owners more than $24,000,000 dollars just by finding us in time to rescind a new Timeshare purchase! A truly incredible milestone!

    Read more here: TUG saves owners more than $24 Million dollars
  • Sign up to get the TUG Newsletter for free!

    Tens of thousands of subscribing owners! A weekly recap of the best Timeshare resort reviews and the most popular topics discussed by owners!
  • Our official "end my sales presentation early" T-shirts are available again! Also come with the option for a free membership extension with purchase to offset the cost!

    All T-shirt options here!
  • A few of the most common links here on the forums for newbies and guests!

Sea Gardens vs Santa Barbara

Fiona1

Guest
Joined
Apr 2, 2019
Messages
54
Reaction score
25
Resorts Owned
Wyndham
Anyone who has been to Sea Gardens or Santa Barbara in the last couple of months? I am looking into a vacation in September and I am looking into one of the 2 resorts (Royal Vista will be closed then =(...). There are a bunch of really bad reviews on Google and Tripadvisor for Sea Gardens, so I want to see if anyone here have any opinions?
Thanks!
 
If you want beach access and amenities, just book the ocean palms building in the back of sea gardens. The building is only 20 years old. I was there in Nov and had a nice time.
1000000984.jpg
1000000982.jpg
1000000981.jpg
 

Attachments

  • 1000000983.jpg
    1000000983.jpg
    77.2 KB · Views: 14
I'll second @cybryne1174's recommendation. Before we moved to Florda we always liked staying at Sea Gardens and stayed in the Ocean Palms building. If there's just you and another person those studio deluxe units in the Ocean View buildings are a good option. We weren't keen on staying at Palm-Aire because it's not on the beach. Now we like it for a staycation because there's more to do there.

The pool at Santa Barbara gets shaded by the tall buildings next to the resort. Although that might not be such a bad thing in September. We live about 20-25 minutes from the resorts. August and September are the two worst months for heat and humidity. If Royal Vista was open to walk across the street to use their nicer pools for variety, staying SB would be okay.
 
I prefer Sea Gardens too. Ocean Palms is the nicest, in my opinion.

Keep in mind though, Santa Barbara is a converted hotel and when they re-did it for timeshares, they took 3 hotel units and made them into either a 1BR Deluxe or a 2BR Deluxe and 1 hotel unit is Suite or Studio, forget what they call it.

Anyway, what i'm getting at is the 1BR Deluxe units at Santa Barbara are HUGE, and have 2 bathrooms.

The resort was damaged a few years ago in a hurricane, so most, if not all the units were remodeled as a result. The units are nicer at Santa Barbara, but the entire experience at Sea Gardens is much better. It's a real resort, not just a place to stay.
 
I prefer Sea Gardens too. Ocean Palms is the nicest, in my opinion.

Keep in mind though, Santa Barbara is a converted hotel and when they re-did it for timeshares, they took 3 hotel units and made them into either a 1BR Deluxe or a 2BR Deluxe and 1 hotel unit is Suite or Studio, forget what they call it.

Anyway, what i'm getting at is the 1BR Deluxe units at Santa Barbara are HUGE, and have 2 bathrooms.

The resort was damaged a few years ago in a hurricane, so most, if not all the units were remodeled as a result. The units are nicer at Santa Barbara, but the entire experience at Sea Gardens is much better. It's a real resort, not just a place to stay.

Santa Barbara's one bedroom and two bedroom units are made from two of the hotel units, not three. Hence, 1BR/2BA and 2BR/2BA units, which are the same size. They made the second BR by taking some of the living area and some of the first BR. Since there is a sleeper in the BR of the 1BR unit as well as in the living area, the 1BR units have a max occupancy of six, just like the 2BR units.
 
Top