Miami Hotel

[MarineFam]

Cruising out of Miami for the first time in April and looking at hotel prices and not liking it lol. Any recommendations or thoughts anyone has, I'd love to hear them. Looking for something the night prior to the cruise. Thanks

 

[SuperCalGal]

I know the hotels near the port are quite expensive. There are hotels near the airport that are decently priced, but apparently near the airport is kind of a sketchy area. However, I've seen DIS members recommend hotels near the airport so I think it's kind of a toss up. I would check Trivago for airport hotels, and the Coral Gables area.

 

[MarineFam]

Thanks. Right now we are getting there about 4 days before the cruise but thinking about flying into Orlando (From Maine) and staying on property for a few days on points and then driving down the day before the cruise because of the price of hotels down there. Either that we will think about changing cruises or something.

 

[jrabbit]

I've stayed at a hotel on the beach that's just a little north of Fort Lauderdale called Beachcomber Resort and Villas. It's an older hotel with ocean front, ocean view and pool view rooms. We've enjoyed it both times there. The hotels restaurant is pretty darn good and reasonably priced. there are lots of good restaurants in the area.

It's about 45 minutes to the Port of Miami from here.

Here's the beach ...


Here's the view from an ocean view room (note that they have since built a beach/pool restaurant in the "green" area between the pool and the ocean.


Being from the West Coast I would say this is sunset, but on the east coast it's the sun rise (the timestamp on my picture initially baffled me)

 

[SuperCalGal]

Thanks. Right now we are getting there about 4 days before the cruise but thinking about flying into Orlando (From Maine) and staying on property for a few days on points and then driving down the day before the cruise because of the price of hotels down there. Either that we will think about changing cruises or something.

We're cruising in December, the day before we're flying into Orlando because flying directly into Miami is too expensive. We have no final hotel plans yet, probably going to wait until closer to the cruise. However, one of the top picks is Best Western Plus Kendall Airport, it's about 40 minutes from the port. Although the hotel website says it's only 17 miles from the port.

 

[egesicki]

Following. Researching hotels for our cruise next November. I am checking both FLL area and MIA area, two scenarios. something clean with WiFi breakfast and a shuttle if we arrive evening and just need to sleep. Was happy with Comfort suites Miami airport north last time. Hilton garden inn or Holiday Inn Express close to FLL seem to be OK choices. The other scenario is if we arrive early in the day, would love to see Sobe architecture and have some beach time. Thinking Stiles or Essex House or Edgewater or National. As soon as our airfare window opens I want to ready to pounce if I see a good deal.

 

[MunFam]

I know the hotels near the port are quite expensive. There are hotels near the airport that are decently priced, but apparently near the airport is kind of a sketchy area. However, I've seen DIS members recommend hotels near the airport so I think it's kind of a toss up. I would check Trivago for airport hotels, and the Coral Gables area.

I think areas North and East are sketchy. I drove all over that area because we stayed in the area (Blue Lagoon area near airport). It was all new development, clean and I even went out and walked a few places alone.

We stayed at Homewood Suites Blue Lagoon. They offered free wifi, breakfast, weeknight dinners with wine, and airport transfers. It was clean. The staff was wonderful and I highly recommend it. When we arrived, their shuttle was down and they paid for TWO cabs to get our family and luggage to the hotel for us. The food was also really good. They have a pool and nice lagoon views.

The other thing that made me choose this location was because there is a grocery store within a (long-ish) walking distance to get wine and snacks.

 

[JTBE]

We did a lot of research as well. The airport hotels we looked at were Comfort Inn, Best Western Premier, Homewood Suites Blue Lagoon, and Hampton Inn Blue Lagoon. For various reasons i.e. bed bug registry, cleanliness, the surrounding areas, we narrowed it down to Homewood Suite Blue Lagoon and Hampton Inn Blue Lagoon. We finally chose Hampton Inn for these reasons 1) free shuttle from airport to hotel; 2) free breakfast; 3) free wifi; 4) location to grocery stores-- literally across the street from a Publix, some fast foods, and CVS/Walgreens (not sure which one). We wanted to be across the street so we could easily walk and carry stuff over such as water, etc. Homewood suites is several blocks away and it would be difficult to walk heavy items over for our families (going with 6 families total). We got ours for less than 200 a night during the peak season in Jan/Feb. But it's imp to book in advance-- through a site that sells hotel rooms, even though it looked like the room was available when we tried to book it-- it was not available. So we booked directly.

FYI-- we also considered Hampton Inn at Brickwell in downtown. This was my first choice- but it was not close to a grocery store so the other families vetoed it. Plus, it was closer to 300, and the other families thought it was too pricy just to sleep for 1 night. This does not have a free shuttle from the airport. But from the airport there is a metro/subway that one can take and there's a stop a few blocks away from this hotel. This hotel is ranked as one of the cleanliness in downtown on one of those review websites.

 

[SuperCalGal]

I think areas North and East are sketchy. I drove all over that area because we stayed in the area (Blue Lagoon area near airport). It was all new development, clean and I even went out and walked a few places alone.

We stayed at Homewood Suites Blue Lagoon. They offered free wifi, breakfast, weeknight dinners with wine, and airport transfers. It was clean. The staff was wonderful and I highly recommend it. When we arrived, their shuttle was down and they paid for TWO cabs to get our family and luggage to the hotel for us. The food was also really good. They have a pool and nice lagoon views.

The other thing that made me choose this location was because there is a grocery store within a (long-ish) walking distance to get wine and snacks.

That's what I read online, that Blue Lagoon is the nicer area near the airport if that makes sense. I'll have to check out Homewood Suites, I had looked at Hampton Inn Blue Lagoon but not Homewood. I'm guessing Miami South is a good area. Fairfield Inn Miami Airport South is pretty affordable.

 

[mary0305]

We stayed at the Cambria Suites in Miami near the airport. It was near a Publix, Walgreens, McDonalds. We did not eat at the hotel. Free breakfast was not included. Nice hotel. Used points thru Choice Hotels so unsure of rates.

 

[melle]

we are flying into Ft Lauderdale next month and staying at the Hyatt Place, and then shuttle to the port the next morning

 

[2-pointdoe]

I found a decent hotel deal for the night before. We are just going to stay near the airport because we leave home at 6 am but don't arrive in Miami until 8 pm and will just be ready to sleep.
The Comfort Suites Miami Airport North includes free transportation from the airport and to the port along with free breakfast. Paid $135 including taxes and fess. We don't cruise until next May.

 

[anricat]

We are staying at Holiday Inn Port of Miami on Biscayne which is very close to the port. The rate was $150/night. What's your budget?

 

[egesicki]

2point, if you sign up for their loyalty rewards club they will also throw in free drink tickets. At least as our last stay they did.

 

[jimandami]

We had previously book the Holiday Inn as well (for around $190 I think) but last week I found the Intercontinental on Hotwire for $84...great hotel at a fabulous price!

 

[Donald & Daisy Duck]

How did you get the intercontinental for $84 ..... thats an awesome price

 

[jimandami]

It was on Hotwire. I went to better bidding and looked at the 4.5 star properties in downtown Miami and figured out that it was the Intercontinental.

 

[stickeymouse]

We are staying at the Wyndham Deerfield Beach Resort in November. It's north of Fort Lauderdale near Boca Raton, rated VERY highly, located right on the beach, very reasonable, and surrounded by restaurants.

 

[stickeymouse]

We chose this hotel because we are arriving early and wanted more of a relaxing beach stay than a downtown stay.

 

[AndreAggie]

We're staying at the Intercontinental Miami in March. My husband had a reward room available with IHG rewards. Thank goodness because we were looking to book with another family that's joining us on the cruise. They have Marriott points and we were looking at Marriott hotels and OMG!! Ridiculous! We booked this and told them we'll meet them on the ship!

And we plan on using Uber to get to the port.