Originally Posted by Alpinetrekker

HR Sarasota is one of my least favorite full service Hyatts anywhere. It does have a very nice pool area and you can borrow little paddle boats or kayaks to go out into the bay, but that’s about where the attraction ends. The room was dated and the lobby and interior public areas were not very expansive. There was a convention going on at the time which spilled into those areas. I did walk around the hotel a bit and found it unappealing. You would be walking along fairly busy roads and aside from some restaurants, most of the things you would want to do around Sarasota are not within walking distance.

FWIW, it was announced in May of this year that this property is going to be torn down to make away for a Thompson hotel, if that says anything about its current desirability.

For the Tampa Bay area, I like the Grand Hyatt Tampa, the Hyatt Regency Clearwater Beach and the Hyatt Place, Saint Petersburg, depending on what kind of trip you want. As mentioned above, the HP St Pete is really nice for a Hyatt Place. It is right in the middle of downtown St. Petersburg, which is enjoyable to walk around and has several museums and many places to eat with an easy walking distance. HR Clearwater is a nice resort hotel just across the street from the beach. It has a couple of restaurants and there are several others within walking distance. The main drawbacks for me are that the beach is one of the more crowded I’ve been to in Florida and room rates tend to be on the pricey side. The GH Tampa is nice, also has a couple restaurants (Oystercatchers, which is part of the hotel but in a separate bay-front building, in my opinion has the best ambiance and food of any of the hotels mentioned), the grounds are attractive with a boardwalk through the mangroves with views of the bay. Also, rates are often much lower than you would expect for this caliber of hotel, sometimes less than half the price of the Hyatt Place in St. Petersburg. Unless you are an adventurous walker, you will need a car to go anywhere off site.