This was our first trip to Anna Maria Island and 3 night stay at Tradewinds during the final week of June. I booked the 2 bedroom / 2 bath apartment online.
You can read our review of the Tradewinds Resort when TripAdvisor posts it, but for a quick overall reference we%26#39;d give it a C-. We would not stay at the Tradewinds Resort again, especially for the price they charge.
Upon coming onto the island, we stopped by the Chamber of Commerce and obtained a map of the island and a couple books. Continued up the north-end, stopped at the Waterfront Restaurant and ate lunch on the deck. Good food, good service (although I swear the girl doing the seating was ';flying high'; on the job), prices abit steep, but it was expected.
Afterwards, since we had some time to kill before check in, we traveled all the way down to the southend and crossed onto Longboat Key and turned around. Island did not seem crowded at all, but it did seemingly appear to us that about 1/3rd of the island is for sale, 1/3rd of the island is for rent, and the other 1/3 are stores or residences. A good many of the properties are really in need of a serious cleaning or renovation, in our opinion. A nice surprise for us was that the Publix had Martin%26#39;s Potato Rolls and Gibble%26#39;s Potato Chips all the way from Chambersburg and Greencastle, PA, respectively.
We hit the beach across from Tortuga Inn after check-in at Tradewinds. Noticed that the shells were not as plentiful nor as large as Sanibel, and the beach was not as purely sandy as St. Pete Beach. However, it falls perfectly right in between. This was my 5 and 10 year olds%26#39; first Florida beach experience and they absolutely loved it, especially the shelling. They found some sand dollars and even a large shark%26#39;s tooth. It was difficult for us to get the 10 year old off the beach. The 5 year old didn%26#39;t like the grass being penned in by the waves near the beach so much, but once he got past that and out into the water he was good to go.
There were tiny fish everywhere about 10 yards off the beach out towards the no-wake buoy. Millions of them darkening up the water. I was very surprised not to see a single skate, stingray, or shark pounding on them with that amount of fish. Even the pelicans and other birds weren%26#39;t taking advantage of them for the most part.
Had a beautiful sunrise every morning we were there, and no rain except the final day when that late afternoon storm front came through and was still dragging in clouds the next morning.
Did the tourist shopping thing at the tourist shops. Really had a good time at the Art Attack and purchased some clothes and other stuff there. The Italian guy (owner, I believe) was a nice guy and gave us quite a memorable experience with his sales approach. Reminded us of Luigi from the ';Cars'; movie. (No, no, no... you don%26#39;t know what you want.. I know what you want.) Honestly, he was great with the whole family, kind to the kids, and very personable.
It was such an experience at Art Attack that I left our digital camera there by accident when we were finally able to move on. Didn%26#39;t notice that I had put it down until after we had eaten at the Bridgeview near the little harbor, (which provided a very good meal). Went back but the store was closed. That was a bit stressful of a night from me as the wife was none too happy. But, luckily for me, the next morning it was still there waiting for me to retrieve it.
Spent the remainder of the days at the beaches on the southern Bradenton end of the island not far from the town circle (roundabout). Waves seemed a bit bigger, the shells a bit more plentiful, and not as much grass in the water for the 5 year old to enjoy.
All in all, our trip to Anna Maria Island was nice, greatly needed, and very much appreciated. Wish we could%26#39;ve stayed longer. In fact, if my 10 year old had her way, we%26#39;d be moving down tomorrow. But the real estate prices are a LITTLE more expensive compared to what we have in our area of Pennsylvania, though.
Tradewinds Resort and our Trip to Anna Maria end of JuneThanks so much for the detailed report and I am so happy that you and your family had a good time. I am sorry you did not like the Tradeswind and I will be looking forward to reading your review to se what the problem was.
I know of the guy at Bridgewalk, he is an Aussie and full of life, redheaded and cute as a bug. We love going in there just to see him but we always seem to come out with something we didnt intend on buying!
I think you propably ate a Bridgetender, that is one of our favorites.
There has always been a lot of rental and for sale property on the island, it is a resort island. I do think there may be more now than ever though. A lot places are getting face lifts or torn down and replaced with ';villas';. I have my own opinions about that but at least they cant built over three stories on the island so it will still seem small and never the concrete jungle like St. Pete!
Tradewinds Resort and our Trip to Anna Maria end of JuneBridgetender... I think that%26#39;s it. Right near the clock tower. Owner has Green Bay Packer pictures all over the place.
I think the guy at Art Attack said he was northern Italian, who speaks 14 languages, and vacations on the Red Sea... if I recall this snippet of the whole lengthy conversation we had. He also said he was moving his store across the street to a larger location.
Wherever he is from he is sure a character and a great salesman!
Yes, that was definately the Bridgetender, the owner loves Green Bay. We%26#39;ve always had good food there, I like their black beans and rice.
Thanks again for posting and I will be looking for your review.
Yes, definetly Bridgetender Inn :-))))
And the guy you talked about is Giovanni!! He is Italien and he was visiting us in germany once (well, not ME but a girlfriend of me :-))
Glad you liked the island and I will read your report too, and maybe we can tell you some places that you will like more when we see what the problem(s) was :-)
YEAH, millions of fish right on shore... soooo many schools of fish!! BUT YES, I saw sharks hunting them... :-) They are always around but they don′t care about ';human bites'; :-)
FYI.. my review of the Tradewinds Resort is now posted for your reading pleasure. :-)
150thBucktail - I did just read your review of Tradeswinds and I can understand some of your complaints and it has been a few years since I have actually stayed at the Tradeswind so I appreciate your views.
However, I will say about the AAA discount, I have had similair experiences when I traveled on business a lot and was told several times that you must request the discount at the time of booking to get the credits, usually they will even take the policy number from you then. I dont agree with it but I know that policy does exist.
Tradeswind is not a five star resort, never has been and knowing the environment of the island it is very hard to keep the grounds and piers prestine. You would not believe what the salt air can do to a property. That being said, the is no reason for the interior to be dull or unclean, things can be older but definatley not dirty!
The only thing that really blew me away was your comment that you didnt like Palm Isle Village or Tortuga Inn. What was the problem there? I think Tortuga is one of the nicest places we have on the island for visitors how are not looking for private houses or cottage. Both proerties have recently undergone major renovations.
Thanks for your review and I hope you return soon and your next visit you might enjoy a nice, new condo of villa. There are many choices and lots are on the beach, La Costa or Marbella Villa would be great options. I%26#39;m thinking you might not have enjoyed the ';Old Floridia'; accomodations, a lot of folks would rather have something new.
Hi Rustykat...
After staying at Tradewinds, there is definitely some truth to our desire to have something ';new and unused'; (or ';unabused';, if you will). Again, based on our views dictated by the pictures on their website (and T-A ratings), we definitely were expecting a higher quality in terms of room condition than what we experienced. Definitely, should we return next year, we will definitely be looking for newer accomodations.
Our opinion regards Palm Isle Village is based on the properties surrounding that ';village';. Especially the houses across the street. They appeared to us to be rundown and the village seemingly is tightly packed into an existing community. The garbage truck parked in front of the one house directly across the street between the beach and the village really didn%26#39;t really give us the ';resort'; feeling, either.
As far as the Tortuga Inn, we visited with a couple that was staying there and walked around the property, as well, and just got the same type of feeling from their experience about it%26#39;s overall maintenance and property care that we experienced at Tradewinds.
Just our opinion.
Just few things for clarification (since there%26#39;s no editing feature:
1) the reference to ';existing community'; I should%26#39;ve written as ';long existing residential community';.
2) personally, we just feel that for the amount of money we spent on Tradewinds Resort, it definitely didn%26#39;t meet our expectations in comparisons to other resorts/hotels across the country we have patronized.
3) we still had an awesome, much needed, and much appreciated time on Anna Maria Island and there is nothing that can diminish our positive experience on the island as a whole.
:-)
That is my biggest complaint with Trip Advisor is that there is no editing feature and for me I need spell check, it isnt that I cant spell it is that I cant type.
I do appreciate all your feedback because I think it helps visitors have a much larger view of what AMI is really like and what to expect. We all work so hard to have a piece of paradise now and again and we do not want to disappointed.
I%26#39;m so glad that the accomodations didnt spoil your trip and that you will continue to visit and enjoy this beautiful place.
We returned from a trip to Anna Maria Island and stayed at the Tradewinds resort. We came back August 10th. We stayed in one of the the ';Northside'; units. closest to the pool. They are newly renovated and larger than the soutside units. We came to know this because our a/c wasn%26#39;t working correctly when we checked in. At first we thought it was because the window was left open in the living area. There was a reason for that..as it smelled very much like the former occupants had fried fish. You know how that can linger. However, after closing the window it was obvious there was something wrong with the A/C. It was up to 78 degrees and climbing. My son had the unit next to ours and his thermostat was set to 70 (you can not set it any lower) and his unit was very cool and comfortable. The front desk did send maintance over..and he looked at it. Decided it needed further investigation. They offered us a southside unit. We went to take a look at it, and it didn%26#39;t seem as nice or large as the unit we were in. There is not central air..but window units in the southside units. Being that I%26#39;m not an A/C fanatic..and we had already unpacked and put groceries away, we opted to stay in the unit we already occupied. Having investigated the south units..I wouldn%26#39;t recommend them.Additionally, Maintance also provided an air purifier, which within an hour removed any odor from the fish. I think housekeeping should have done that to begin with..but it all worked out. Maintance did return the following morning to check on our A/C. By this time the A/C was cooling the unit significantly better..but not nearly as cool as some might like. Again.. it reached 72 and that was fine for my daughter and I. However I know if my son had occupied this unit it would be more of an issue. To managements credit they did offer to shut it down and have an A/C repair company come and look at it. I didn%26#39;t want to loose the day, and then have to wait for it to cool down again, so we opted for resort maintance and it was adequate. These units are all individually owned, and Resortquest manages them, so I think you are going to find inconsistencies from unit to unit.
The A/C issues aside, I have to say, that our unit was meticulously clean. I mean..I am a clean freak. These were clean. I had to move the bed out to plug in a heating pad..and fully expected to find dust or dirt back there. NOTHING. You could have eaten off the floor in our unit. My son%26#39;s was the same. These are both one bedrooms. The king size bed was comfortable, and they offer a sofa bed, which my daughter slept on and didn%26#39;t even bother to open. They provided pillows and bedding for the sofa bed. The furniture was not worn..in fact it was very pretty and tropical in design. The walls in both units were painted in pretty pastels..and they had beatiful crown moldings throughout the unit..even the bathrooms. These units looked EXACTLY as they did on the web site. I was not dissapointed in the room, other than the a/c. I did view the two bedroom unit on line..and it is noticably different from the one bedroom units we occupied. I did also see that management responded they are planning to refurbish the two bedroom unit. I would very much like to stay in it, as I would return to Tradewinds, but only if it is refurbished and brought up to the same quality that the one bedroom units displayed. Our one bedroom units were tiled throughout. There is no carpeting, and it works out very well, given it is a beach resort. The two bedroom unit that faces the bay, is the only two bedroom unit that Tradewinds offers. That is a shame. I did call the resort and try to get an idea of if or when the 2 bedroom unit will be refurbished as indicated by the management response in the trip advisor review, and the clerk new nothing about it. There was no manager available to speak with. I did also call Resortquest...but they referred me back to the resort. The only other suggestion..not so much a complaint..but suggestion I%26#39;d make to the management is to assign parking spaces. They do give you a pass to place in near your windshield. There is adequate parking for all the Northside units right in front of their units. However..the two bedroom unit faces the bay..and the building was taken over by a family who booked the entire building. Meaning the two bedroom which is upstairs, and the two..one bedroom units downstairs. They had a total of 4 vehicles for those units. They repeatidly parked in front of our unit..which was located in back of theirs. We would often return and not be able to park in front of either of our units. I didn%26#39;t think that was right. They could have parked opposite our unit in spaces that were available and not designated to any other units. Our building was made up of three single story one bedroom units. The people in the third room also complained that the family occupying the bay front units basically took over the resort. I was just glad that it was toward the end of the week..and didn%26#39;t have to fight them the whole week for a parking spot. I think if the resort numbered the spots and assigned parking spaces, this could easily be avoided.
The pool is very nice and the short walk to the beach isn%26#39;t a problem. I like the pool at the Tradewinds as it looks out onto the bay. The dock was clean when I was there, as I often sat and read out on the dock in the afternoon. It is used for fishing. There is a table built into the dock at the left end, along with a hose. So as to clean or wash away any remenants from those fishing or bate. I was able to see dolphins feed several times from the dock..and did see that maintance cleaned the pool area and dock area each morning, as I%26#39;m an early riser and would sit outside with my morning coffee.
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