Marriott's Villas at Doral

My wife and I spent a week at Doral this past February. We enjoyed the property immensely and made good use of the Marriott Resort across the street. We also were impressed with the number of quality restaurants just down the road. The airlines lost our luggage and the front desk staff bent over backwards to make our stay more comfortable until they showed up. They went to the Walmart and bought us a number of convenience items to tide us over.

A bit disappointing by Marriott standards. The resort is small, with limited amenities (the "store" is a tiny operation next to the front desk, with very limited offerings). No onsite restaurant or poolside bar at the resort. Pool/hot tub area is okay, but kind of small compared to other MVCI resorts. This seems to be a trend when Marriott builds a timeshare property adjacent to one of their hotels/resorts. (In this case, the Doral Golf Resort). They skimp on the amenities on the timeshare grounds, reasoning that timeshare guests can use the other resort's amenities. While this is a nice bonus, I personally feel that it is not the same as having full amenities on the timeshare grounds. We did use Doral's pools one day, and they were nice, with a poolside bar, waterfall, etc. But if there had been a poolside bar at the timeshare pool, we would have been more than happy to stay there all day long.

Doral location is in a commercial area, lots of traffic during the day. It's the 'burbs, basically. Easy to get to from the airport though. But about 15 miles from downtown and South Beach. There is a LOT of traffic, but that's an issue all over the greater Miami area, nothing Marriott can do about that.

Villas themselves were again, okay, but not the best for a Marriott. Our room was on a ground floor (even though I asked for upper), and was kind of dark, because the only outside light source in the main living area was from the slider to the patio. I would think they could add a window or two, especially on an end unit. Master suite was big, with an oversized tub (no jets though). Second bedroom/bathroom was decent overall. Kitchen was well-equipped.

Overall, just okay. No major problems, but nothing really blew us away either. We probably would not stay there again.

Condo's are well appointed and staff couldn't be more helpful. We found lots to do in Miami; South Beach, Miracle Mile, Merrick Park, Bayside... The SPA was incredible and golfing was grand. We had ducks with 18 babies visiting us. The restaraunt was excellent, and South Beach restaraunts match those of New York! The pools were great. We would definatley return

A VERY NICE RESORT BUT NOT IN THE BEST AREA. IT IS A DISTANCE TO THE BEACH AND ALL THE ATTRACTIONS IN MIAMI. TRAFFICE IS A BIG PROBLEM AT MOST ANYTIME OF THE DAY. ONLY ABOUT 10 MINUTES FROM THE AIRPORT, PLANES FLY DIRECTLY OVER THE RESORT. UNITS ARE LARGE, 2ND BEDROOM IS ON THE SMALL SIDE WITH A QUEEN BED AND A SOFA BED. NOT MUCH ROOM FOR WALKING AROUND WHEN SOFA BED IS OPEN. EMPLOYEES WERE KIND AND HELPFUL. DON'T THINK I WOULD GO BACK.

Excellent all the way.