For the Key West portion of our trip we stayed at Casa Marina Resort, the diamond of Key West. The resort is celebrating its 100th anniversary and I always look for originals like this when choosing a hotel! Casa Marina is located about a mile from the “action” of Duval Street and Mallory Square, which we also loved traveling as a family.
Changes in Latitude: Fun in the Florida Keys
Islamorada: Celebrating Easter & Pierre’s
Islamorada: From Ocean to Table
Islamorada: Cheeca Lodge Resort & Spa
Islamorada: Island Eats
Key West: Snorkel and Sunset on High Tide
Key West: All the Touristy Things
Key West: Island Eats
Key West: Casa Marina Resort
The lobby was welcoming and featured arched windows looking straight through to the Atlantic. Off of lobby is a lounge, store and bar / coffee shop.
The true “diamond” of Casa Marina is the outdoor area! The resort is situated directly on the beach and, in fact, has the largest private beach in Key West. We loved the chairs for coffee and al fresco dining by day. By night, you will find live music, twinkle lights and a pretty happening party scene. We listened to the music from our room!
Generally speaking, the Keys are not known for being great beach destinations. This one offered white fluffy sand and sublime views, but was still too rocky for swimming in my opinion. There were watersports and charters available through the resort at an additional cost.
Honey and I spent early mornings at the adult pool before the boys woke up. It was pretty busy by 9AM and stayed that way all day. I’d recommend a cabana if you are traveling with just adults.
On the flip side, the family pool was pretty quiet! I’ll speak to this later, but Key West is definitely more adult oriented, and the resort mirrored that sentiment. We did enjoy a great day at the family pool watching the Master’s and swimming! The cabana rental here was not entirely necessary and we thought about cancelling until they realized they could watch golf. It came with fruit, a stocked fridge, safe, shaded and sun seating AND a whole host of party crashing iguanas!
One of our most memorable moments was when I leaned over to take a bite of my fish tacos and felt something leap on the sofa behind me. Lo and behold if it wasn’t a GIANT iguana! I myself leapt about another 10 feet and, miraculously, didn’t spill my food. That big boy came and went for the rest of the day at his leisure. We were also visited by a couple of smaller friends AND a rooster. Whit, my animal lover, was in hog heaven.
Speaking of roosters, if you’ve been to Key West you will know that you always let the chicken cross the road AND you will awaken to the crow of the rooster each morning! We loved this mama and her babies that we saw each and every day.
Casa Marina did have food, but we only ate lunch during our pool day. The seating was all outdoors with fantastic views!
We had a king suite for our lodging. The room was large, clean and dated. I think these photos make it look better than it felt in real life – or maybe I was overly critical??. There were little details like chipped tiles, scuff marks, etc. that made it feel worn. But it was clean and that’s what I value most.
Regarding the property overall, the lobby and common areas were wonderful. The rooms felt dated but were clean. The actual room buildings were in need of a LOT of maintenance on the exterior. There were rust stains, chunks of stucco missing, pieces of the building literally sagging. This certainly didn’t have a huge impact on our stay but I was admittedly a little concerned walking to our room.
I mentioned that Key West had an adult-vibe overall, and the resort did too. The resort did not have anything for the kids, outside of the pool. This leg of the trip was all about the tourist destination, not the resort life, and we expected that and were fine with it. We were excited to bring our kids here and are so glad we did. It almost feels like the New Orleans of beach vacations. :-) It was a memorable week! Thanks for following along and always let me know if I can assist in booking either Cheeca Lodge or Casa Marina for your fmaily!
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I appreciate this thorough and honest review. We will hopefully be going on a reward/business trip to Casa Marina next year, and I had read awful reviews on Trip Advisor. Most reviews complained about the overall condition of the rooms and buildings. Surprising for a Waldorf-Astoria property. They also mentioned all the stuff in the hallways, but I know that’s due to Covid and the staff not servicing rooms while they’re occupied. But the grounds, pools, and beach look gorgeous, and it’s in Key West so I’ll go there if I can! I’ve enjoyed your reviews of Key West!! Thanks for sharing.
We didn’t see stuff in the hallways, so that’s a relief. The grounds are gorgeous! And hey, a reward trip so you can’t beat that!