Golden Strand Ocean Villa Resort

Beware and Be Aware: if you decide to stay here, be aware (1) you are not on the beach. (2) Also, if you want to party hardy then this is the place for you. (3) Furthermore, if you decide to cancel your reservation… We’ll, Good Luck to you! You will never hear back from this place again! And I mean NEVER. We came here to stay after a cruise and the strip that this hotel is on, is so incredibly noisy and (Mardi Gras like) partying atmospheric, that we decided it was not for us as we were too tired. We were looking forward to just relaxing on the beach. Wrong! The pictures online make it look as if you were going to be directly on the beach, but you are not. In fact, the hotel is located down a narrow little alley about a block and a half from the beach, above a very busy, noisy, party atmosphere restaurant. It’s a bit difficult to find as you have to go down an alley between buildings (and tons of partying people) to find a little tiny lobby. I came to check in about 1:30 (after circling around for an hour in cruising traffic and unmarked addresses) and the girl told me the room wouldn’t be ready till about 4:00 PM. I asked her if the noise ever winds down and she just gave me a look… “Well”, she answered, probably not. I asked her about their cancellation policy. She said if I canceled I’d have to pay for tonight but I would be reimbursed for my next two nights. I decided to go ahead and forfeit my reservation. She… Stephanie at the front desk… Told me just to call in the next day and they would reimburse my card. This was on November 26 (my checkout date was the 29th) and it is now December 17. I never have gotten a phone call back after leaving 3 voice mails And three messages through the front lobby where the receptionist assured me a manager would get back to me. So if you decide to stay you better stay or you are out the money. If you look at the pictures just know that you are a block and a half or more from the beach. And don’t forget to squeeze through the alley to get to the lobby. It’s a little difficult to find.

The hotel is not bad - if it was a hotel. You need to take the towels to one booth to have fresh ones and take yourself your trash to the bin. Don’t expect to have your room cleaned. Clean it yourself. I could afford that, no problem. The worst part was to receive a paper notice in the door that I was obligated to move to another room in the next 24 hours. Me, my wife and a 17 months sick baby. We packed all our stuff, cleaned the room, washed the dishes. Someone showed up my door saying that I should leave immediately and take all my stuff to a storage, including all home made food of my baby. After some small discussion with the front desk, they allowed me to stay in the same room (!!!!!). So they ruined my and my family humor, made us to lose more than 4 hours to nothing. Treated us like clowns. The person of the front desk was polite and did his best to solve the situation. But the damage was done. Two hours passed since the confusion, and I am having to take my trash out because nobody appeared. Sanction? For the same price or a little more, you can find better options. So please consider my experience. If you google the name of the hotel, people are saying that part of the hotel has been sold. Maybe is a clue of why this such bad service. Definitely will not stay here again, and will advice to all my friends.

The hotel room is clean, a bit old instalations, but everything is working fine. You have to go early to the beach to reserve an unmbrella. Everything rlse is just fine. The people are very nice and help you.

We have been to the Golden Strand a number of times over the years. The property has been sold and a new high rise will be going up in its place. The Golden Strand was a little low rise oasis. The operative word is "was". Now, i believe because they are a lame duck property maintenance is lagging.Screens are torn, metal is rusting, lights don't work, staff is RUDE. I have travelled a lot, muck of it in the tropics. I can honesltly say I have never encountered as many cockrioaches in my unit ever. After three days they did have someone come in and spray but that onlky meant the the cockroaches we found after the spraying were now on their backs in the throws of dying. The satff rsponse of course was that were are from Canada so we don't have this problem back home, it is normal for Floriday. Sorry, I know roaches are a fact of life in the tropics but well run properties have strategies to keep them at bay. The Golden Strand does not. Too bad to see an elegant old dame of the beaches fall on such hard times.

Nice and big apartments, good beds(little hard), all kitchen machines in good quality. Very good beach. Only minus was the pool guy, no service at all. He was only interested of tip. Restaurant with Italian style. Big pool, perfect for our kids. Near city.

I have had my unit since 1980's. I watched my kids grow up in photos taken here. The beach is the best and I also enjoyed the pool, and other great things they offer. You can hop on a bus in front of the hotel and go to Miami, The Keys or anywhere in the south part of Florida. The airport is also close by. There are many places to go shopping, most within walking distance. I head back for the last time this July 1st to July 8th.

Already have been three times and loved it! Differrent from the all inclusive and for Miami worth it! Publix nearly across the street so we would buy food and I found it great especially with kids they would just go to the room and make something and either eat there to take a break from the sun or bring it to the beach. Everything is in the room dishwasher, oven, fridge, microwave all utensils, coffee maker etc...! Room in front of pool was great but villas were directly on beach wow! Restaurants across the street also helped for supper or we would just go get a barbecue chicken and bring it back to the room! Beach beautiful and always clean so is the pool! If you want to know what it looks like my daugher made 2 videos on You-Tube ..look up Jackie Leduc and find her video : Floride 2015 and Miami & Key West 2K16 you will be able to see more of it!

We came here as a couple for a week and overall we enjoyed our stay. This place was decent but could be SO MUCH better with a few simple changes. That being some there were pros and cons (list below).If there was a 3.5 rating on this that is what we would give, here is how that is achieved. Overall the rooms are big, lots of space with a bathroom and big livingroom / kitchen. Fully stocked kitchen with food prep area, table, fridge, many items you need to cook. Great balcony with Ocean view and walking distance to the beach. I found the staff were very friendly and said "hi" which is really nice when your somewhere for an extended period of time. Parking was a bit tight but we always had enough so I cant complain about that. Seeing as its in a busy area parking for $20 for the week was very reasonable. Now the cons. WIFI is not free you have to pay $10 a day as a fee and its VERY slow. The rooms were not cleaned very well and seeing as its near a beach we would bring a lot of sand in. A few days in your feet would be black from walking around inside. The bathroom was functional and that's what matters, but could use some updating for sure. Our show valve was installed backwards so hot was cold and cold was hot, confusing on a one way valve and my girlfriend took a cold shower thinking there was not hot water. All that being said these are all small things that can be addressed. Here is our biggest complaint and this one was really annoying, the beach chairs. There are a limited amount of chairs on the beach reserved for Golden Strand guests. There is no sign up system for the chairs it's first come first serve but this really gets abused. People would come at 7 am, lay down half a dozen towels or so. This was really unfair because we would come out at 8am and most of the time those people didnt arrive till after noon. In the meantime you have people who want to tan and we have a beach full of empty chairs with towels. There were a lot of french Canadian guests here when we stayed (most of the guests spoke French) and they were constantly getting in arguments and giving the staff a hard time for their towels being removed. The poor guy working would have to deal with being yelled at by somebody who tried to reserve 5-10 chairs and didnt show up till later. There is a very simple solution to this, dont let people lay their towels down and leave. If you arnt there, and your stuff is there for an hour or so, too bad you lose the chair. I think if people are abusing the system then it's best to take that privilege away from them. Half the week we ended up tanning on the chairs from the broken pile. All in all we enjoyed our stay here. I think its a GOOD resort but can be GREAT with the simple suggestions we made. And thank you to great staff that work here.

Staff was great. We arrived early for check in and they stored our luggage while we enjoyed the pool and beach while waiting for our room.Rooms were spacious and clean.Lots of stores in walking distance.Hope to go back.