Florida's hidden resorts and beachfront hotels
by Lucy Komisar
OK, you know about Miami, but do you know about Florida's hidden resorts
and beachfront hotels? This year, I decided to do a little investigating and
check some of them out.
Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club
I flew into Tampa in the early evening, and it was dark a half hour later
when we drove into the Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club on the Gulf Coast. I
say "into" with good reason. Innisbrook is a village unto itself, with a few
dozen two-story creamy gray clapboard residence and activity buildings
scattered along curving roads and situated in 900 wooded acres of green
hills, lakes and even a nature preserve.
Our apartment was beautiful and spacious, with high ceilings, a full
kitchen, and a balcony. In the morning I would discover a calming verdant
view of one of the four championship golf courses that surround the
buildings. We slipped out for a night cap at one of the club bars.
Exploring started in the morning. We walked along those curved roads
which make the resort feel like a woods community. There's lots of foliage
and bright flame colored plants.
 First destination was the Tennis Center which has 11 perfectly maintained
Hartru clay courts, 7 of which are lit for night playing. Will Rhame, the
center director, explained that they are flooded at night and rolled in the
morning. There are also three indoor racquetball courts, two outdoor
practice walls and a ball machine. Will's staff of pros is from around the
world, including Croatia, Japan and England, teach private and group
classes. For kids of 5 and 6 they use a new "quick start" teaching style
that uses larger colored balls with different compression, so they are
easier to hit. "They learn and love it and pick it up quicker," he said. I
thought, I could use that advantage too!
Seems a good and protected place for families. We saw kids also playing
basketball, miniature golf, and wooshing down the slide at the Lock Ness
Monster pool. One of the six heated swimming pools, Lock Ness has sandy
beaches and a poolside grill. It's a good place for adults, too. There's a
camp for kids and a lap pool that's free of them. I'm not a golfer or a spa
buff, but I checked out the facilities. Among Innisbrook's championship golf
courses featuring 72 holes is famed Copperhead Course, host to the PGA
Tour's Transitions Championship every March. There are three golf
clubhouses. A large driving range, of course. If you don't care to walk or
drive to the spread-out destinations, a dial-a-tram will pick you up and
carry you where you want to go.
And then it was time for lunch. There are four restaurants and three
bars in Innisbrook! We chose the Turnberry Pub garden patio in the Island
Club House overlooking the golf course. (Well, almost everything is
overlooking a golf course!) Lunch was terrific: peppercorn brandied chicken,
grouper sandwich, even the chicken noodle soup was special. All washed down
with the house white, an excellent Trinchera Chardonnay.
Since we're onto food, dinner that night on the terrace of the Osprey
Clubhouse Market Salamander Bar was a spectacular aged and flavored Rib Eye
steak with brown sauce (just $22!), delicious arugula salad with a balsamic
dressing enhanced by blue cheese, and a fabulous chocolate cheese cake. This
is top quality food. We stayed on to enjoy the live music, a singing jazz
trio.
 After lunch, we took a walk in the wildlife preserve, entranced by the
hanging Spanish Moss and water fowl. Then my companion went home for a nap,
while I crossed the road to the spa and fitness center.
“Indaba” is Zulu for “gathering place.” The Indaba
Spa and Fitness Center sprawls over 20,000 square feet of mind and body
attention. There are 12 treatment rooms, including private outdoor terraces,
and a couple’s treatment room with a fireplace and shower. Outside, I
wandered along the meditation labyrinth, the paths lined with small green
shrubs and red azalias, which is designed to be a way to slow down, reflect
as you walk and quiet the mind. Pretty, but too slow for adrenalin-spiked
me!
Innisbrook is owned by Sheila C. Johnson, who this
year was nominated by President Obama as a member of the
President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. She is a classically
trained violinist who began her career as a music teacher. Beyond that, she
is quite an extraordinary woman: co-founder of Black Entertainment
Television; a documentary film producer; and the only African-American woman
to co-own three professional sports teams. When she took over Innisbrook in
2005, she ordered a total renovation. That adds a whole new dimension to
saying there.
Naples Beach Hotel & Golf Club
From Innisbrook, we drove south to Naples a few hours down a coast.
The Naples Beach Hotel & Golf Club is a 125-acre resort set on a long
stretch of white sand on the Gulf of Mexico. It is made up of several
buildings of different eras, some two-story clapboard buildings with
balconies and terraces around a grassy expanse, then a newer 8-story yellow
building with balconies overlooking palms and the Gulf. We were in that one,
and it was quite magical, waking up, opening your eyes, seeing palm branches
waving in the wind as if they were planted in the sea while the waves lapped
softly against the shore. The room had been redone with a hint of art deco,
a love seat in green and blue, a king bed, a desk and sink and coffee nook.
We got there in time to relax a bit and then go out to the Sunset Beach
Bar where at about 5:30 pm you see the most astonishing red and orange
skies. The mood was casual and "down home." A guitar player was singing
country and western songs. People at the bar and inside tables sat with
plastic cups of wine and gin and tonic waiting for the sunset. Others kept
vigil outside on the long porch at the edge of the beach. Soon, we were
rewarded with the natural color show that made everyone stop looking at each
other and look up and over the sea.
We had dinner at HB's, a cozy room with white rattan chairs and red
flowers, windows looking out to the Gulf. Alas the view to the water was
dark, though you can come there for lunch. It's a white (actually gold)
tablecloth place with white rattan chairs and a menu that features half a
dozen kinds of fish, plus a wine menu (including by the glass) as good as in
any big city. There's a terrace for outside dining in warm weather.
After dinner, we ambled over to the large lobby filled with comfortable
couches and chairs, and heard a pianist sing traditional piano bar music. A
few people lounged around the fireplace.
In the morning, we discovered happily that the lobby of our building had
a complimentary continental breakfast, along with the major national
newspapers.
Then, we repaired to an hour of tennis on excellently kept Hartrue
courts. There's a tennis center with clinics and lessons. There's also an
18-hole par 97 golf course with a PGA-certified golf school, driving range
and putting green. And a spa with skin care, massage, body treatments, wraps
and salon services. Plus a fitness center with exercise equipment and
classes. Also a program for kids.
 The next day, we tried the breakfast buffet in the Everglades Room. The
view of the beach and Gulf was fine. We took a few steps off the porch to
trudge along the sand.
Later, looking for light fare, we picked up some gourmet nibbles (salmon
in dill sauce, spinach pies, wine) at the local supermarket and had lunch on
our private balcony, the heat beating down, a view of the waving palms and
the sea.
The town of Naples itself is quite charming, about half a dozen blocks of
restaurants and shops, but I must admit that we were so content with the
hotel, that we never left! Till it was time to drive east along Route 75 a
few hours to the Atlantic coast and Hollywood.
Marriott Hollywood Beach Hotel
 And another gorgeous beach. Out the window of the Marriott Hollywood
Beach Hotel, we could see a long stretch of sand dotted with palms. At
sunset, looking past the Inter-coastal Waterway, we could see the fiery ball
dip behind distant buildings. From our room, we saw the sunrise just before
7 am; the sky was bright red and gold. After a while, a smooth pink blended
into the blue sea. All the rooms have balconies with ocean views.
The buildings on the side of the hotel and up the beach are low two-story
gold and pink stucco, some with red tile roofs. High rises protrude in the
distance.
The hotel décor is an elegant combination of Bahaman dark woods and woven
rattan. The chairs of that style have fabric with lush white and rose
patterns. Our bedroom had a separate sitting area with a loveseat and
cushioned chair in the style and colors of the main bedroom. And the balcony
made us feel that we were one with the beach and the sea.
Sitting at a café on the beach is my favorite form of relaxation. The
hotel restaurant-bar-outdoor Latitudes Beach Café offers a choice of dining
to fit desire and weather. For the more energetic, there's a fitness center
and spa. And a beachfront pool with a tiki bar.
I found the interiors of the hotel quite charming, all lush British West
Indies woods and rich colors. More stylishly traditional than you'd expect
at a beach hotel.
Outside to the right starts the two-and-a half-mile Broadwalk along the
beach, with shops and restaurants along the way. We stopped at the community
center where French Canadians were practicing folk dance steps to music spun
by a Canadian DJ.
Broadwalk cafés are popular-priced. We stopped at a Mexican place where a
plate of enchiladas and a beer set us back $8! For more serious dining, go
"downtown" by bus or car to Young Circle where restaurants are ranged along
Harrison Street and Hollywood Blvd. We stopped at the cleverly named
Hollywood Vine, a wine store with a wine and cheese counter so you can taste
before you by. Then we crossed the street to "Lola's" and found its
international cuisine as good as anything you get in a major capital.
Hollywood packs a lot of sophistication into a small space.
If you go
Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club
36750 U.S. Highway 19
North Palm Harbor, FL 34684
(727) 942-2000
608 suites and rooms.
15 minute shuttle to Caladesi Island beach.
www.InnisbrookGolfResort.com
www.spaatinnisbrook.com.
20 miles from Tampa Airport.
Naples Beach Hotel & Golf Club
851 Gulf Shore Boulevard North
Naples, FL 34102
(239) 261-2222
(800) 237-7600
Fax (239) 261-7380
319 rooms and suites.
Reservations@NaplesBeachHotel.com.
www.NaplesBeachHotel.com.
Airports Naples and Fort Myers.
Hollywood Beach Marriott
2501 N. Ocean Drive
Hollywood, FL 33019
(866) 306-5453
(954) 924-2202
Fax (954) 925-1411
229 rooms.
www.HollywoodBeachMarriott.com.
Six miles south of Ft Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport.
Bus Route 4 stopping near the hotel goes downtown and to the airport
Tri-Rail station
( www.broward.org/bct ).
Photos by Lucy Komisar
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