Set on 125 acres along the Gulf of Mexico, the
newly-renovated Naples Beach Hotel & Golf Club has a lot to offer families.
For starters, there’s the beach: seven miles of pristine white sand that’s
perfect for sandcastle-building and seashell-hunting. There’s also a $5-million all-new pool complex, supervised
kids club, spa, championship golf course, tennis courts, and a killer location in the
heart of Old Naples’ shopping district.
To increase the appeal to families, the resort has kicked off a Family Fun Package, which includes two nights of accommodations and a line-up of extras. The advertised package prices starting at $1,040 between now through April 11. But for real value, wait until summertime; the price drops by 50% if you travel between June 1 and October 2. That sounds like substantial savings, but is this package really a good deal for families? To find out, we crunched the numbers for a summer stay.
The Family Fun package includes:- two nights in a deluxe resort-view room (in June, worth $179/night x 2 nights = $358)
- daily reakfast buffet for two adults and two children (worth $15.50 x 2 adults x 2 days + $9.50 x 2 kids x 2 days = $100)
- daily beach chairs for each adult ($6 x 2 chairs x 2 days = $24)
- daily kids' club for two children ages 5-12 (always free)
- sand pail for each child (worth, let’s say, $3 x 2 = $6)
- daily newspaper (always free)
- nightly turndown service (always free)
- afternoon tea and cookies (always free)
- golf clinic on Thursday afternoon (always free)
- Tuesday morning tour of the resort’s Orchid House (always free)
When we test-booked this package for a family of two adults and two children on a late-June stay, we found a package price of $400 (even less than advertised), which averages out at $200 a night. If the components of the two-day stay were purchased separately, the total tab would come to $488 ($244 a night). But we think it's unlikely that a typical family would opt to purchase all of these components on their own. (As a matter of principle, we hate the idea of paying to rent a beach chair at a resort.) For comparison's sake, it's more important to know that the package rate costs $21 a night more than the room-only rate.
Deal or no deal? A lukewarm deal at best. The crucial question boils down to this: Would your family normally be willing to pay $21 each morning for the buffet breakfast? Remember that if you book the room only, you still get nearly all of the other package elements (newspaper, turndown service, kids' club, tea and cookies, golf clinic). All things considered, we figure that the package is probably the way to go; your family can enjoy the breakfast buffet for a reasonable price of $21 and then enjoy using the sand pails and beach chairs for free. But is this a tremendous savings? Nah.
You can book the Family Fun package online or by calling 800/237-7600.
