Cool Hotels

Hotel Ranola

I used to brag to my ex-boyfriend about how good I was at finding travel bargains. After all, at the time I was
writing full time for budget guidebooks. “Oh, really,” he would say with withering skepticism. Then, he would challenge me to find a cheap hotel in Florida at high season on the beach. On the weekend, of course. Preferably a holiday weekend. And with a waterfront view. When I couldn’t deliver, he’d really enjoy that. I don’t miss him. But that’s neither here nor there.

The truth is, when you want a bargain, you usually have to compromise. But sometimes a compromise turns into a surprise that makes you stay more interesting and fun that it otherwise would have been. Such is the case with the Hotel Ranola in Sarasota, Florida. It may not be on the beach, but it is in downtown Sarasota and allows you to walk around the old city, which has a great deal more character than any homogenized beach resort. And the beaches aren’t far, anyway.

What was once a pretty drab apartment hotel for snowbirds has been transformed into a modern, welcoming and economical boutique hotel with a wide variety of room configurations and luxuries like flat screen televisions, hardwood floors and pillow top mattresses. Most of the rooms are set up for extended stay, and the hotel also offers discounts if you stay twenty days or more.

The Island Hotel and Restaurant

Just read any Carl Hiaasen novel, and you’ll learn all about Florida’s curious relationship with its own history. Whether it’s a charming Spanish-colonial mansion or a peaceful marshland that serves as a rookery for shore birds, a developer is bound to come along and “improve it” with some combination of a wrecking ball, concrete, steel and perhaps an award-winning golf course design. Sure, there’s South Beach, but many of its deco masterpieces nearly got razed before the urbane taste makers intervened.

But Florida has a history that goes back further than the twentieth century, and through a combination of luck, tenacity and storm-proof construction The Island Hotel and Restaurant, which was build around 1860, has been preserved as a prime example early Florida architecture. Although the two-story hotel was built by Americans, the wrap around balconies and porches definitely give it a euro-colonial flavor. Solidly built from seashell tabby and limestone, the hotel has survived the onslaught of developers, abandonment by its owners and innumerable floods, hurricanes and other storms. The ten guest rooms are cozy and romantic, with original wood floors and detailing. Some rooms even have claw-foot tubs. Since it is an old building, the floors creak and slope, but that just adds to the charm.

The hotel has a bar, which is the only bar in the county that doesn’t have a television, and a restaurant that serves gourmet food.

There are also plenty of ghost stories. Some of the spirits that haunt the hotel include a nine year old slave boy who died before the end of the Civil War, a Confederate private who guards the second floor, a prostitute and some poor soul who was poisoned by the hotel manager. FYI: That manager has long since departed the hotel and this world.

The Pelican

Key Largo’s The Pelican is an old-fashioned, Florida Keys seaside resort. The hotel consists of 23 airy, casual beach cottages that are an ideal jumping off point for enjoying fishing, boating, swimming, diving and all other mellow Keys-related activities. Tucked away in a private-feeling tropical garden, each cottage, room or suite is individually decorated in appropriate beach house style with tile floors that can be easily cleaned of sand and seawater. The hotel has a private dock for those guests who arrive via their own boat. There’s even a picnic and grilling spot in the gardens, a great dining spot for those who have caught their dinner that very day.

Edited to Add: The Pelican is also known as The Hungry Pelican

Jules' Undersea Lodge

There aren't many hotels I will list on this site where I can safely declare "I have never stayed there and will never stay there," but Jules' Undersea Lodge is one of them. While the submerged hotel and underwater research lab, located just off of Key Largo, fuels a whole mess of science-fiction fantasies, I'm not big on scuba diving. And the only way to get to the truly underwater lodge is via scuba diving. And that is pretty cool.

For those that do enjoy diving and aren't at all nervous or claustrophobic, Jules's Undersea Lodge provides a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It's not cheap (between $300-$500 per night per person), but some packages include dive instruction so you don't have to be a certified diver to stay at the hotel. You also don't need your own gear, although you may use your own gear if you have it. Meals are included as well.

One of the most interesting things about Jules Undersea Lodge, and the thing that makes facility so appealing, is that it is not just a gimmicky hotel. It is a working undersea lab, and guests are invited to participate in the research. For those who really want to get hands on with the research, specialized stays can be arranged - including ones with excursions to another nearby lab.