Pick a Winner: Family Trip to Florida

Sunset from Wyndham Grand Clearwater Beach

As my kids get older, it gets harder and harder to gather all 3 to take a family trip. My middle daughter just started law school across the country, but before my youngest started her senior year of college and the oldest went back to the fall semester of grad school, we squeezed in a 4/5 of the family trip to St. Pete / Clearwater.

Winning Entry

Even better, I won the trip from the Visit St. Pete Clearwater tourism board. We stayed at the Wyndham Grand Clearwater Beach, right ton the beach and in a connecting room suite with plenty of room for the 4 of us.

Had we come with younger kids, we could have gotten a room with bunk beds. And an Adventure Pack geared towards children. Since my youngest is 20, she was more appreciative of the Keurig coffee maker and balcony.

Fish tacos poolside, 3 to an order

What to do at Wyndham Grand

If you just want to hang by the pool all day, no one will judge. There are plenty of lounge chairs, and some shade, surrounding the large, heated pool. Heated? Really? Well, it was still refreshing for a dip.

Pubic playground, next to the hotel

The towel cards were a bit annoying; to get a towel, you have to turn in towel card. You turn in your towel to get the card back. And at check out, you are charged $45 per missing card.

I guess this cuts down on people stealing towels, or grabbing 6 per person. And I am all about being environmentally correct. But the hotel also makes a green claim in the room, that towels are changed only every 3rd day , if you hang them back up.  So we all dutifully rehung our towels - and they were charged twice a day.

Free yoga

The hotel has different daily activities - a live band was performing when we arrived. And there are pool games, arts and crafts and other family friendly activities. We took a free yoga class, on the turf near the pool. The instructor knew what she was doing and it was a perfect way to start the day.

Hit the beach

Marina view, from our balcony

You have to cross the street to get to the sugar sand beach. It's a public beach, so a private concession rents chairs and cabanas. [You can bring your hotel towel - but remember to return it!] There's also a large public playground right next to the hotel.

Daily sunset

Get out of your shell and go to the beach

The Wyndham is next to Pier 60, which has a sunset festival every evening. Except when we were there. It started raining at 5pm our first 2 nights, and though it had stopped by sunset, few of the promised vendors and musicians made the soggy trek to the pier. The third day, it started pouring at 5pm, on cue, but didn't stop till after 10.  We did get to watch a fabulous sunset from our table at the Wyndham's high end Asian fusion restaurant, Ocean Hai, our first night.

Family - and adult - friendly

All rooms have mini fridges and coffee makers. The hotel bar doubles as a coffee bar during the day, with pastries and sandwiches. You could get your kids an egg sandwich and set up camp at the pool for the day.

Running and biking path

The pool cafe delivers food to your lounge chair. We had giant fish tacos and a huge salad for lunch. Though the prices were a bit high, we needed on 3 dishes for the 4 of us, and we still didn't finish.

Ocean Hai gave us a big plate of edamame with black sea salt and dumplings to start our meal. We had spicy pad thai, a seafood pho studded with vegetables and more dumplings. Again, we needed only 3 entrees at dinner. [Note: we paid for our meals].

Getting active

Early morning empty beach run

The hotel has a large gym overlooking the Gulf. The lobby had a bowl of oranges and apples, perfect for a before workout snack. We also ran along the protected bike path over the causeway. I'd definitely return to bike along the path.

We played mini golf at Captain Bligh's. The pirate themed course had caves and water hazards. It cost a surpassing $10 a person. You can also charter a boat at the marina, or take a sightseeing cruise.

Note: I won this trip, which included airfare and hotel. I was not otherwise compensated. Opinions are my own.