This is an excellent hotel for many reasons:
-Perfect location: Beachfront, and there are many restaurants, bars at walking distance.
-Excellent view: I had breakfast every day looking at the ocean, great!!!
-It has a mini market which turned out to be very useful and reasonably priced: They sell water, eggs, bread, ham & cheese, fruits, salads, and pizza.
-Staff was always very helpful and nice.
-Room is equipped with kitchennette (only microwave and refrigerator NO stove), very useful
-Hotel provides chairs and umbrella for a nominal fee of only 3$, which saves you having to pay 35$ on the beach.
-Storage room for suitcases after you check out at no extra cost.
NOTE: About the 17$ parking fee, please notice that in the miami/ft lauderdale area parking is very expensive, it has nothing to do with the hotel.
Needless to say, I was very happy with my experience, and will be back next year.

We have just come back from a first week in April stay at Beach Place Towers. As Marriott timeshare owners in Orlando we traded to come here for a week without the kids. The rooms are smaller than we are used to but very clean and quiet. We asked to be on the Intercoastal Waterway because we had been told that it was the "quiet side" The views were fantastic on that side and while we did not get the chance to experience the wind and views of the ocean we were pleased with the quiet. The pool and deck chair area is very small in comparison to other Marriott locations, a big disappointment to us. If you rent a car it is expensive to park, a daily fee of $17 is assessed. The parking is five floors up, and takes about 10 minutes to access. The area is great for restaurants, beach, malls and water taxis. Take the water taxi all day for $12, and you can visit the mall, see celebrity homes, etc. Our major concern is the lack of direction given by the hotel to point out things to do in the area. We are used to welcome meetings to explain what is available to you, which this location does not do. They do not advertise things except on a small board in very small print in the elevators, which are easily missed. A wine tasting party was pathetic, with less than ten attending. The pool is small, and you lose sun for part of the area early in the afternoon. There is a public market downstairs which makes it fun to shop. The public beach is easily accessed across A1A. However, renting chairs and an umbrella is expensive (about $35), so you may want to come prepared. With some of these shortfalls, we still recommend the BeachPlace and had a good vacation there.

We stayed here as a timeshare exchange through Marriott. Overall it was a pretty nice place. If you read the other reviews you may hear certain comments...here are my opinions.

Location is excellent. Its right in the center of the action for the Beach and close to the water taxi and a number of great places to eat. We did not eat at any ot the places in the Beach Place complex, (none appealed to us) but did go to Sangrias (twice) as well as Casablanca and both were excellent. Also did Bahaia Cabana for lunch which was good as well.

Elevators were not that bad, although they did have a total failure of all four lifts for a couple of hours right after check-in. They did leave a voice mail apologizing. Apart from this brief issue the speed of the elevators was a bit slow, but I have experienced much worse. I think a major flaw of construction is the lack of service elevators for the staff...they have to share with the rest of us which makes things crowded for everyone.

Room was standard Marriott timeshare. It was clean, a bit dated, (again I have had worse). They start the renovation of the rooms in May 2008, with new textiles, countertops, flat screen TVs and wall covering/paint. Although the units are a bit tired (a little bit of peeling wallpaper in the bathroom for example), they functioned just fine.

Pool area was ok, and yes the pool looked a bit small, but with a world class beach across the street plus the U. S. Swimming Hall of Fame (with two olympic sized pools open to the public daily) a couple blocks away, you have more water choices here than most places!

Parking Ramp: Fee is now $ 17.00 per day, which is average for the area. If you listen to the timeshare sales pitch you get a $ 100 voucher which pays for almost all the parking for a seven day stay, so there is a way to cut that cost...you just have to listen to the sales presentation. The complaints on the ramp are I think overblown. Yes, the first time in it is a bit confusing, but after that its fine. It will take a full five minutes of driving to get out of it, but the upper two levels are reserved for resort guests, which makes it more secure and you don't have to compete with the general public for the spots. Lot is well lit and we saw security guards patrol the place with great frequency, so as ramps go, apart from a bit of a drive to your spot, its no big deal.

This was our first time in Ft. Lauderdale and we really enjoyed our stay, and do plan to stay here again. The area on the beach is in transition and going more upscale, but still for now is maintaining some of its charm, with very good places to eat and hang out, and expensive resorts going online this winter on both sides of this property. Hence this place will probably be the most affordable full service property on this stretch of the beach.

My wife, myself, our two children (19 and 18) were at Marriott's Beach Place Towers the week of Dec. 28 - Jan 4th. We flew from Chicago (where the weather is horrible) into Ft. Lauderdale (where it was in the 80's). So right away we were pretty excited to be ANYPLACE but Chicago.

We exchanged another Marriott property for this one. We were very pleased with our exchange. But, and this is a big BUT, you will need to do certain things to help make your stay here a more pleasureable experience.

First, unless you like noise, be sure you request a room on the WEST side of the building. The west side faces the intercoastal waterway (not the ocean). BTW, the intercoastal waterway is beautiful. Plus, you will see some nice sunsets. We had no noise issues watsoever.

Unless you absolutely need a car, DON'T GET ONE! This facility is right across the street from one of the most popular beaches in Ft. Lauderdale. With that being said, many beachgoers will park at the Beach Place and walk across the street to the beach. The parking garage is a disaster. Many times my wife and I commented on how happy we were that we chose NOT to rent a car. And to top it off you are charged $17 PER DAY to park in the facility!!

So how do you get around? You can take a cab. We did this once (one way). Ft. Lauderdale has a very nice trolley you can ride for fifty cents (one way). Just make sure you have correct change. The trolley will pick you up right across the street. It is extremely convenient. The concierge has trolley schedules for you in the lobby. There is also a water taxi you can ride.

We took the water taxi one day. This cost us $12/person for a full day ride ticket. It is very nice. It is somewhat scenic. They give you some info about some of the homes and such along the ride. We rode it to the northern most stop and ate a a very nice restaurant (Shooter's Waterfront Cafe). They had excellent burgers. The only problem with the water taxi was that two of there boats broke down that day and we were stuck at the Gallery One stop for about an hour and a half.

The Marriott itself is an older facility. The rooms are nicely decorated. The fixtures are older. The TV was definitely older. The bed in the master bedroom was extremely comfortable (we had a 2-bedroom unit). By in large, the rooms are very nice though.

But honestly, how much time are you going to spend in your room. You're in sunny Florida!!!

The Marriott does a very, very nice job offering things for the young kids to do. They have schedule of activities for the kiddies daily. They have a small play facility. I believe they were showing movies the couple of the times I wandered by. They also have activities for adults at times too.

I have read that the pool is small. It is. There is a larger pool across the street. It's called THE OCEAN! There is a very small bar off the pool. I never visited it. There were too many bars in the Beach Place for me to visit.

I did go to the pool. And I have no idea what time some people get up to "lay claim" to their chair by the pople. But be serious people!!!!!

You can rent a small beach chair (and I think umbrella) at the front desk for like $2 or $3 (while they last). You can go across the street to the beach and fork over $35 for a lounge chair (if there are any left).

The staff at this place are simply top notch!!! They will do anything within there power to make your stay more enjoyable. We needed more towels and hand them in less than five minutes!

The concierge helped us book a tour to the Everglades (the wife needed to see some gators) and some waverunners. He was great.

"The elevators are slow!" How many times have I read this. A lot. I never waited more than 4-5 minutes tops. The longest you will wait is when you are coming back from the beach and are coming through the Beach Place (which is the outside little mall area). That is where everyone has to go to get to the parking area. Believe me. The elevators are not that big of a deal.

Speaking of the Beach Place, we ate at Hooters a couple of times. But our favorite would have to have been Lulu's Bait Shack. All of this sit facing the ocean. This place has a more of Cajun theme to it. It's still a bar, but it was just a little different.

If you are looking for a nicer place to eat walk south about about five minutes to the Casablanca Cafe. We ate here on New Year's Eve. It's definitely more pricey. But it was worth it.

Lastly, we took the GO taxi from the airport. Actually we got lucky and had a sedan. Our driver was Ricardo. He was the best! This cost the same as a taxi ride. It was an excellent deal.

Please don't believe all the negative things about this resort. With a couple of minor modifications you can have a great time like we did. (even when the last couple of days were in the 30's and 40's).