We had a quick visit to South Florida last weekend. In addition to spending a couple of days with my mom and seeing some friends in the Fort Lauderdale/Palm Beach area, we first made a pitstop on the west coast of Florida.

If you’ve read a few of my prior beach area reviews, you’ll know my wife loves shelling. She doesn’t even do much with the shells, but she loves the thrill of the hunt for a rare or unique shell. Anyway, we decided to fly into Fort Myers late Friday night after work and rent a car, hit the beach Saturday morning on Marco Island, then head across Alligator Alley to my mom’s house near Fort Lauderdale for the rest of the weekend. We flew home from Fort Lauderdale.

I needed to find a hotel for Friday night near Marco Island that wouldn’t break the bank in terms of points or cash. Normally, we stay at the Hilton resort, but it would be a waste for this trip as we would only be at the hotel for about 8 hours.

I had a free night certificate for IHG that I needed to use this year and did not have any other planned use for it. My search turned up the newly built StayBridge Suites Naples/Marco Island and the hotel was going for about $175 or 25,000 IHG points. My certificate covers up to 40,000 points and it’s from a credit card with a $49 annual fee (you can’t get this card anymore but I was grandfathered in).

The hotel was about 40 minutes from Fort Myers Airport (RSW) and right on the direct route to Marco Island. Parking and breakfast are free and there is no resort fee.

We arrived around 11pm and our room keys were ready for us as I had checked in using the IHG app. We were given a one-bedroom suite on the 4th (highest) floor. I believe this is the standard room for these type of extended stay hotels.

The room had a full kitchen, living area, separate bedroom and bathroom with a walk-in shower. Toiletries were in refillable bottles as is becoming standard at many hotels. The room was clean and everything worked fine. We went to bed pretty much right away and had time for a quick breakfast the next morning.

The breakfast buffet included mini omelets with cheese, sausages, waffles, fruit, yogurt, pastries and other baked goods. There were juices and coffee along with flavored creamers, etc. as well. Overall, I thought it was perfectly decent for a mid-range hotel. I believe the hotel also serves dinner Monday-Thursday like other similar mid-range extended stay hotels like Residence Inns.

I grabbed a quick picture of the outdoor pool as well. It looked like a nice pool for families with a kiddie splash area and even a tiki bar out there.

We checked out in the IHG app right after breakfast and hit the beach by 8am. It took about 20 minutes to get to Tigertail Beach State Park where I’m told the best shells are to be found.

This was a perfect hotel for our needs – a quick overnight before hitting the beach and driving across to Broward County. While I wouldn’t base myself here for a longer beach vacation, it could be a good way to save some cash or points on your first or last night in the area if you have a late arriving flight in or early morning flight out.

If you enjoyed this post (or have questions), let me know in the comments or send me an email at emptynestermiles@gmail.com. If you are thinking about opening a new credit card, please use one of my links.