Naples and Marco Island.............help!

[Debs Hill]

After the cold of this winter we are planning on heading over to Florida for Xmas next year........and are looking at renting a house in Naples or Marco Island through Virgin. Would love to hear from anyone who has been to either/both about the good, the bad and the ugly!!!! Also, how is the drive from Miami airport?
Thanks as always!
Debsxxx

 

[Clare D]

Hi
We visited Naples in Oct 05 and loved it. The shops are great and they have a great choice of restaurants.
We also visted Evergaldes City whilst there for an airboat tour which was fantastic, well recommended. The road to Naples/Marco Island from Miami from memory goes through Everglades City. We travelled to Naples from Orlando and it took about 3 hours but not sure how long it would take you to get to Miami from there.
I would highly recommend a trip to the Bubble room on Captiva Island it takes about an hour and a half to get there.
We stayed in the Registry which is now the Grande Resort so couldn't comment on villas but the beaches are beautiful and we will definatly go back.

 

[JulieSharp]

Hi,

We have visited Naples a few times though not for many years now.

The drive from Miami is very straight forward and you basically have 2 options, using the Tamiami Trail or Alligator Alley.
The first option is not my preffered choice, especially at night , which is exactly what we did when we went to the Keys , pitch black road and bugs & insects everywhere. On the way back we used AA, which is a slightly smaller version of a freeway. I highly recommend you use this route.
No need to worry about Alligator's by the way! Though my husband John did run over a snake, he still claims to have not seen it.

Naples itself we love, very classy and quiet - which back then was a great contrast to Orlando.
The beach is nice, there is a decent mall there:
http://www.coastlandcenter.com/html/index4.asp

I don't think I would stay there for more than 4 days, whilst it offers something different after a while it becomes a bit too quiet.

Marco Island we have never stayed at, although we have (again many years ago) had a look around - to be honest while it was a nice place, beach was fabulous again not much to do. Though back then like I say that was part of the reason for going.

http://www.naples-florida.com/
http://www.marco-island-florida.com/
http://www.marcoisland.com/

 

[Hilary]

We stayed in Naples for 5 nights in 2002 (?) and, whilst we enjoyed our visit, would not rush to go back.

We visited Marco for a day and felt it would be a bit too quiet for us to want to stay there.

Now, we are definitely not party animals who want razz-a-ma-tazz night life and entertainment on our doorstep! By "too quiet" I just mean not enough to keep us occupied for more than a few days - we're not good at sitting around a pool.

In Naples, we found the centre a bit too sedate (I remember mainly expensive antique shops and art galleries). However, we visited the shopping mall, Tin City, and went on an airboat ride in the Everglades (I highly recommend booking this - we thought there were so many places doing this that we'd be able to just turn up, but they were all fully booked and we had to return the next day!). One of the highlights was lunch in JT's on Chokoloskee - definitely not your average tourist restaurant! I also agree with the recommendation for The Bubble Room, although we went there a few months ago and it seemed toned down and a lot less 'interactive' than our previous visit (hopefully just an off day ).

On Marco we really liked the buffet lunch in The Snook Inn, overlooking the water.

We drove up to Naples from the Keys, and then went on to Orlando, so I don't know about the drive from Miami.