Trip Report #1 - Marco Island, Florida

Marco Island's huge beach

We visited Marco Island, Florida in the fall of 2015 and we loved it. 

Planning:

We wanted to have a quick fall getaway.  We chose Marco Island because we heard so many good things about it from family and friends.  We also picked mid-September because it was before Lincoln turned 2 on September 25^th  and he could still fly for free.   I used Tripadvisor.com to choose a hotel.  The Marriott Marco Island Beach Resort (recently Re-branded as a JW Marriott Resort) had a great kids pool, huge beach, and many kids activities.  The location of the hotel was great too.  It was within walking distance to many stores, restaurants, and ice cream shops.  We decided on a four night stay – Thursday to Monday.

Marriott Marco Island, Florida

Flights:

Marco Island is South of Fort Myers.  We flew Southwest Airlines into Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW or Fort Myers).  Since Lincoln was under two years old we only had to buy three plane tickets.  We first bought our award flights in March 2015 for 17,972 points each.  As I always do I checked the prices every month or so.  In June, the price went down to 17,438 points so I changed our flights and the 1500 points or so I saved were returned to my account. 

**Remember it is free to change or cancel any flight on Southwest Airlines.  If you paid cash, the amount spent for the ticket will be held under your confirmation number to reuse for one year from the date of booking.  But when booking with points you can cancel and the points are returned back to your account with no strings attached.  The taxes and government fees will also be returned directly to the credit card you paid with when booking with points.     

In July, I checked the flight prices again and luckily they were down to 12,360 points per ticket.  I quickly rebooked to lock in the savings.  In the end we spent 37,080 SW points and $33.60 in fees/taxes total for our family to fly nonstop to Fort Myers.  Credit card points are awesome!

Car:

We always rent cars when traveling with our kids.  It just makes getting around easier and safer.  You can find some really good deals off season at RSW airport.  We ended up using ACE Rent A Car this trip.  ACE is an offsite company which means you have to take a shuttle a mile or so away but it is worth the savings in my opinion.  Our Kia Optima cost $74 for the entire 5 day four night rental.  That is way cheaper than paying for a shuttle or taxi to and from the hotel and airport.  Once we landed I headed to the rental shuttle while Kim grabbed the bags off the belt.  By the time I was back with the car Kim was waiting at the curb to be picked up.  I ended up using my Capital One Venture cash back balance to pay for the rental car.  You can read more about my Capital One Venture experience here. 

Hotel:

Common areas - this hotel was spotless. The lobby was beautiful and has a great view of the pool and ocean. The shops inside have anything you might have forgot to pack. The store prices were similar to any other resort I have been too. 

Pools/beach - With two kids ages almost 2 and 4 we spent most of the time at the kid’s pool. The zero entry area is awesome. There are spray features galore. Our kids did not want to get out. We had no trouble finding chairs close enough to keep an eye on the kids. The food and beverage service poolside was expensive but very convenient. 

Hotel Pool

Beach - We spent most of the mornings on the beach. The beach is very wide and soft. Some people mentioned you needed to wear sandals or water shoes because of the shells. However, we did not have any issues with the shells. The beach service hut was very helpful. Each morning we visited the hut exchanged our pool towel cards for towels and requested beach chairs and an umbrella (part of the resort fee). Within five minutes or so the umbrella and chairs were set up in a location of our liking. They even gave us extra chairs for some friends we had visiting for free. We utilized the drink cart a few times on the beach (think golf course drink cart). 

Room: 

We had a standard updated two bed room. The resort provided a pack and play which seemed brand new. The beds were very comfortable and had many options for pillow type. The bathroom was nice with the sink located outside of the bathtub/shower combo and toilet area. Our ninth floor balcony had great northern facing ocean views. It was nice to put the kids down and enjoy and evening drink on the balcony. 

Kids activities - The kids staff was outstanding. Every day they hand out freeze pops at the pool(I think it was around 1:45pm). It was a great touch. My kids took part in the face painting (free), magnet painting (free), and stuff an animal ($15) activities. This was a just a small portion of the activities. 

Building bears in the hotel kids area

Food - we only ate at Quinns and the coffee shop. Both were very good. The portions at Quinns are huge in my opinion and the ocean view cannot be beat. 

We did not use points to book the hotel.  We paid the cash rate.  It was roughly $250 per night including taxes and resort fees.  The rate included a $50 per day food and beverage credit. 

Overall we loved this trip and plan to go back.  It is on our 5 year travel bucket list.  Do you have a travel bucket list?