JW Marriott Marco Island Review: Beachfront Luxury
Looking for luxury overlooking the ocean and within steps from the beach? Consider staying at the JW Marriott Marco Island. This resort is part of the Marriott chain, so if you collect Bonvoy points, it’s a perfect spot to use your points or your free night if you have the Bonvoy Brilliant card.
This is one of the few chain resorts located in Marco Island, the other one being a Marriott timeshare resort, and a Holiday Inn hotel. The rest of the high-rises are condos or non-chain hotels.
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The JW Marriott Marco Island Resort
Since this hotel is considered a resort, expect to pay a daily amenity or resort fee (around $30 per night). This is on top of the parking fees you’ll have to pay if you drove a car ($20 for self-park, $45 for valet). That is a total of around $50 a night on top of your bill, if you chose the self-park option.
The self-parking lots are across the street, so you will probably need to park your car near the front doors for a bit, tell the valet you are checking in, and go straight to the front desk area when checking in. This allows you to more easily load your bags in the room from the lobby.
There are three different towers, each accessible with their own elevators. You have to be mindful which tower your room is in, as there may not be a connecting walkway between the towers.
There are shops lining the lobby area, catering to souvenirs, sundry items that you may need (or may have forgotten) to bring on your beach vacation, as well as quick bites and coffee. Because of the virus situation when we checked in, these shops close early (4pm), except for the jewelry store.
The Pool and Beach Area
The resort is beachfront, so steps away from the buildings and the pool area is the sand, the beach chairs, shells, and the sea. There are three main entrances from the hotel to the beach area, so it was not at all crowded.
The beach is a really long stretch of sand. You can walk from one end to another if you have the stamina. However, if you prefer to lounge around, note that the beach chairs were being packed up by the resort at around 5PM. Not sure if that’s also due to the virus situation or the fact that there was a thunderstorm brewing with dark, ominous clouds when we happened to be by the beach.
You can collect shells within the beach – they’re free to pick up as long as there is no creature living inside. If there is, please put them back down.
There’s lots of birds hanging around the beach area – seagulls, sandpipers, an occasional osprey, pelicans, and terns.
The pool in the JW Marriott is quite big, however, we opted to skip going there on this trip because it was too crowded. We preferred our beach walk from JW to Tigertail Beach and back.
The Room
We got a room upgrade because of our Marriott status. We initially booked a tropical view room (read: a view of either the parking lot or the top of a building), but we ended up with an oceanview king room.
The view…. the view. I can’t say enough of the oceanview room – the view is just amazing. Whenever I opened the curtains and looked outside, it was just heavenly, looking out on the ocean and the bright, white beach. We do have to be conscious about the people who are living in the condo opposite though, I’m sure they can look inside our room if they wanted to.
The room was fairly big, it had a mini fridge, a comfortable bed, and a desk to sit on. Our favorite part was the balcony, where we can sit comfortably outside and watch the beach or use it to dry wet swimsuits or clothes.
The bathroom only had a shower, with bigger sized amenities that smell so good. The sink is located in the middle, between the toilet and the shower areas, and has a lot of counter space for toiletries and towels.
The bed was really comfortable and the decor of the room had a relaxing feel. Our room was away from the elevator, but the hallway was very plush and well-lit.
The Restaurants
We only went to one restaurant, Quinn’s on the Beach. We opted to have a more relaxing time by having dinner beach side. However, we arrived when it was close to sunset, so by the time our entrees arrived, it was a bit dark and there were no lights by the beach. Whoops.
My husband mentioned that it was a bit too dark to actually enjoy our dinner, and there were a few mosquitoes ready to have dinner as well. The menus were disposable, and the choices were slim compared to the full service menus they had pre-virus. There were a few people sitting by the bar, but most of the customers were all seated outside.
It was an OK meal, leaning toward the expensive side, but we were tired and wanted to eat by the beach. You can opt to buy food and eat in your room/balcony as well.
Another restaurant we were considering eating in was 400 Pazzi’s, an Italian/pizza place. We did not have time to actually eat lunch there, but it would have been a solid option to do takeaway on.
Overall Thoughts about the JW Marriott Marco Island
Overall, our stay had been very pleasant. It is a very relaxing and luxurious resort with an amazing location, Marco Island, and has a lot of amenities that you won’t get as bored.
It is a good staycation place for Florida residents. Is the JW Marriott Marco Island worth it though? At the price point of high $200s to $300s a night without the resort fees and parking, it is a bit on the expensive side. While there are more frugal options out there like staying in an Interstate hotel closer to Naples and just paying the parking fee in the beach, we did like the service and the ambiance of the hotel to justify the cost.
It also helped that we had a free night to burn courtesy of our Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant card, so it was a good place to use the free night (worth $300!).
Are you considering a stay at the JW Marriott Marco Island?
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