Handed $100 at a resort, what would you do with it—eat? Go to the spa? Eat at the spa?

We know that resort credits offered in hotel deals almost always get absorbed at hotel restaurants—and that's very smart, especially when you’re traveling with kids who love to order $7 sundaes.  The Sawgrass Marriott Golf Resort & Spa, located between Jacksonville and St. Augustine on Florida's Atlantic coast, is offering such a deal this summer for families: The Stay Together, Play Together package, where you’ll reeive a $100 resort credit per night, good at the resort's restaurants, golf course or spa. If you stay for three nights, for instance, you'll get a $300 credit.

And this is definitely a place where you'd probably use that credit on dining, since there's so much to keep you busy on-site.  The 508-room resort has a beach,  four pools, two golf courses, a kids' club, a beach clubhouse with playground and 350 acres of fishing-friendly lakes. It’s been named one of the country's Top 50 resorts by Conde Nast Traveler and acclaimed a great Family Beach Resort by Parents magazine.

But is the "Stay Together, Play Together" package the best you can do? The Marriott Sawgrass also has a Family Fun package, where kids eat free (one child per accompanying adult). Like the $100 resort-credit package, it promises a starting rate of $169 a night. But when we compared prices for some August dates, the price for a resort-view room with two queen beds and a  balcony was $149 a night with the "Family Fun" package but $219 for the "Stay Together, Play Together" package. 

If you figure that each children's meal is worth about $10, then the "Family Fun" package would deliver added value of about $60 a day ($10 x 2 kids x 3 meals).  If we also assume that two adults could eat for about $120 a day ($20 per meal x 2 adults x 3 meals), then lodging for three nights plus meals would come to about $807 ($149 x 3 nights + $120 x 3 days). Meanwhile, you'd pay $897 for three nights with the "Stay Together, Play Together" package ($219 x 3 nights + $180 x 3 days - $300 credit). The upshot: The "Family Fun" package would save you $30 a day, or $90 on a three-night stay.

Both offers are good through September 30. You can book the "Stay Together, Play Togther" and the "Family Fun" packages online or by calling 904/285-7777.