We truly enjoyed our recent vacation to the Gulf coast of Florida, namely Clearwater Beach. Me and James stayed for 7 nights and 6 days at the Sandpearl Resort, a classy hotel on the beach featuring 253 guest rooms and suites, 2 restaurants, a coffee shop, outdoor pool, full service spa and fitness center, outdoor fire pit and plenty of family activities.
Incidentally, in the state of Florida, all hotel patrons are automatically charged a $35 a day room fee. According to the brochure, our daily fee at the Sandpearl Resort covered the following:
2 in room bottled waters, Wireless internet, In room coffee, pool towel services at the resort pool and beach, beach chairs for use on resort’s private beach, fitness center, bike rental at the resort, daily newspaper, shoe shine, daily turndown service, business center for computing and printing needs, unlimited local calls and toll-free number access.
This same brochure also makes it quite clear that the daily room fee does not replace tips or gratuities (smile).
But I digress…on our very first day at the resort we ate at Tate Island Grill – one of the only two restaurants at the resort – mainly because we were over tired from traveling all day and hungry as Hell (smile). I devoured a grilled chicken salad with a large iced water while staring at the ocean in my street clothes.
On our second day we went to the Activities desk where we received 2 beach loungers and free towels but were charged $30 for the beach umbrella. We found out real soon that the sun rose early and stayed out late so the beach umbrella came in handy. Plus, if we felt overheated, we could always cool off in the baby blue ocean water just ahead.
Besides the beach, we found we also liked spending time in the hotel resort pool because the restaurant and bar were so close by, the beach loungers sat close to the edge of the pool and the cool pool water felt so good on my skin (smile).
As far as dining out, Caretta on the Gulf held the distinction of being “Clearwater’s Triple AAA Four Diamond Restaurant.” Lucky for us it was one of 2 restaurants on our resort. The sushi and sashimi we ordered our first date night there was so fresh and delish, we came back a second time later in the week for more.
Did I mention the sunsets at Clearwater Beach?!? They were truly an event. People came from near and far to Pier 60 where at a certain section of the pier you are charged one dollar to view the most stunning sunsets you have probably ever seen.
The restaurants outside the resort were yummy and delish as well. And there were so many to choose from, We ate breakfasts most mornings right outside the resort at Clear Sky Beachside Cafe. Our breakfasts were big and consisted of 2 eggs with cheese, Turkey sausage or Applewood bacon, grits and an english muffin. Thank God for Orangetheory Fitness Center back home (smile).
Most days of the week we usually skipped lunch (as we were still full from breakfast) and after a day spent at the pool or the beach, showered, dressed and headed straight to dinner. Whether on resort at Caretta on the Gulf or off resort at either Blinkers Beachside or Crabby’s Hideaway, the Clearwater Beach cuisine was def worth writing home about (smile).
After dinner we either walked along the bustling lively streets of Clearwater Beach or else strolled the beach at sunset with shoes in hand and sugary white sand between our toes.
