Both my best friend (the wonderful Laura) and I turned/are turning 35 this year. Laura won a 3 night stay at the Sheraton Fort Lauderdale Beach and decided we should use it for a birthday trip. So earlier this month we headed down to Fort Lauderdale for some fun in the sun. Boy did we have a great time!
The hotel is a bit older, but super cool. The main part of the hotel looks like a cruise ship from the outside. How neat is that? There are also two other buildings that make up the hotel. The rooms are a bit on the small side, but they have been updated and have everything you could need for a stay on the beach. Plus our balcony had amazing views of the beach and ocean.
They also did an AMAZING job updating and improving the public spaces of the hotel. In addition to the beautiful lobby there is a Mexican restaurant (Dos Caminos – more on that later), the Link Cafe (their version of a business center) with a Starbucks, The Wreck Bar, and the Beach Bar & Grill. All these spaces are light, bright, and very modern. They also had 2 pools, beach chairs and umbrellas, and a fitness center.
We arrived late on a Thursday, so things really didn’t going until Friday morning. We started our day with some running/walking by the beach. The hotel is located right next to Fort Lauderdale Beach Park, which included a very wide sidewalk that goes right along the beach. Boy oh boy do I love running by the beach! We got up every morning and headed down to walk or run and do our planks. Planks are way easier to do when you have the beach as your background. After a quick shower we headed up to do a little shopping before lunch. We hit up Oddballs Nifty Thrift, Cake Supplies Depot, and a local goodwill. We got something at each place, so I think it was a very successful shopping trip.
On Friday we had lunch at Dos Caminos. Dos Caminos is a Mexican restaurant that has locations in New York, Atlantic City, Las Vegas, and Fort Lauderdale. I’m always a little apprehensive about eating at restaurants located in hotels. In my past experience they have usually been overpriced and not so great. Not this time – the food was AMAZING! It was a little bit pricey, but not too terrible. I have a lot to say about this place, so I’m saving that for a separate restaurant review.
When we returned to our room to freshen up before heading out again, we found a very sweet surprise in our room. The hotel had left us strawberries, cupcakes, and champagne to help us celebrate our birthday. We were so surprised and I spent a little bit of time bouncing around the room saying “There is cake in our room! There is cake in our room!” We were a little bummed that we had just finished eating lunch and didn’t have room for our sweet treats, but we definitely made good use of them later in the weekend.
The hotel staff here was so amazing and friendly. No matter where you were if a staff member passed you they would say hi or ask you how you were doing. It was a really nice change from a lot of hotels I’ve stayed in before where the staff barely acknowledged you. And they really do have everything covered there. On our way out for a spa appointment we noticed it was starting to rain, but of course all our umbrellas were in the car. We were able to check out a big umbrella from the front desk and we were on our way.
We had a great stay at the Sheraton and I will definitely be back. I look forward to spending more time by the pool and at the beach. We didn’t get a chance to put our complimentary beach chairs and umbrella to use, so I definitely want to do that. Just from the pictures that I posted on Instagram during my stay my aunt and mom are all ready to head back down for another girls weekend. Thanks to the Sheraton for a great birthday weekend!
*Disclosure: Laura won a 3 day stay at the hotel through a Facebook promotion. We were also comped our lunch at Dos Caminos. All opinions are my own. First three photos in this post came from the Sheraton Fort Lauderdale Beach website.
