I'm 19 years old and stayed at the Marriott Beach Place Towers for a few days in June with my girlfriend. We had an awesome vacation! We got a great deal with this hotel (I think through Expedia) so the price we paid for our room was EXTREMELY reasonable. It had an amazing view of the beach, because one of the best things about this hotel is its convenient location directly across the street from the beach! Many of Ft. Lauderdale's hotels are on the beach, however, I visited the beach property all along the coast and I must say that the beach by this hotel was one of my favorite spots; the water was clear and warm, and the beach was one of the cleanest I've seen in the US (then again, I'm from New York...).

The best thing about this hotel is the fact that it is built right on top of, well, a mall. It is extremely convenient for finding quick, easy and inexpensive places to eat when not willing to travel very far. In addition, the shopping gave us touristssomething to do during Florida's infamous random afternoon thunder storms.

For fun, my girlfriend and I went to the beach (obviously), and had jet skiing and snorkeling excursions set up for us by the front desk. If interested, be sure to ask the concierge about local rates; they're pretty good about being fair in terms of their hotel's prices and the prices of other places close by. For example, to go jet skiing at this hotel, I think it cost something around $90/half hour... but at a Ramada down the road, it was something like $80/full hour. If you're willing to pay a few bucks for a quick cab ride, I suggest looking at outside sources for entertainment. The hotel arranges it for you and everything.

As far as dining, the places that we went to were generally inexpensive. Casablanca is a place just a 5 minute walk away from the hotel and has very rich-tasting food. A five minute walk in the other direction will take you to a cute places called Cafe Del Mar, which by the way makes awesome lobster.

All in all, I had a great time in Ft. Lauderdale and at this hotel. The staff is extremely friendly, the rooms were very spacious and clean, the location was very convenient if beach-activities and shopping are your hobbies of choice, and though very kid-friendly, it isn't annoyingly swamped with little brats running around everywhere. Other options to consider while in Ft. Lauderdale are day trips to the Bahamas (1-4 days depending on what trip you would like to take)... they're inexpensive, but remember your passport!

We stayed at Marriott’s BeachPlace Towers (MBP) from May 5 to 12, 2006 during the annual Air and Sea Show. The unit was a two-bedroom condo located on 18th floor facing the ocean. MBP is a timeshare property rather than a hotel, so our unit is equipped with a full kitchen (with tableware and cookware), living room, dining area, and washer/dryer. Our party consists of four adults and one two-year-old child.

Our experience with MBP was very positive on the whole as described as follows.

1. Check-In and Check-Out: Both were very smooth. It took us less than five minutes to check in and one minute to check out. The staffs were friendly.

2. Parking: The five-story parking garage was not well-designed, but we felt that it was not as horrendous as others have described. The first three floors (P1 through P3) were open for general public. The higher floors (P4 and P5) were reserved for guests staying at MBP. There is a $12 daily parking fee charged by MBP.

3. Rooms: The rooms are comfortable and spacious. However, it did show its age as we found some wall papers were peeling, a couple of drains were running very slowly, and the mattresses were a little bit sagging. There was in-room safe deposit box. But these boxes use old-styled key rather than electronic codes.

4. Maid Services: Since we exchanged our stay from one of the timeshare we own rather than paying for it, we did not receive daily maid services, which was a standard practice in timeshare industry. However, we did place a couple of phone calls asking for fresh towels, and they came to our room in less than five minutes each time.

5. Dining: There is no restaurant or room service at MBP. Instead it has an on-site shop Market Place that carries pizzas, sandwiches, salads, milk, bottled water, medications, etc. There is a shopping center The Gallery at Beach Place directly located underneath MBP with plenty of shops/restaurants/bars/pubs that are an elevator ride away. We have tried Sloppy Joes, Max’s Oceanfront, Lulu’s Baitshack, and Sally O’Brian’s. We would rate Lulu’s Baitshack as excellent for its delicious food and super-friendly hostess and waitress. The others were all above average. We would also highly recommended Legal Seafoods located in Sawgrass Mills (18 miles away from the resort). The food was simply outstanding and the services were great at Legal Seafoods, so we actually went there twice for dinner.

6. Beach: The beach was long and wide. It was so beautiful while we looked down from our balcony. However, when we walked on it, we found there were many cigarette butts, beer bottle caps, and other debris. One morning we went with our daughter for sand playing, and she dug out a piece of broken glass.

7. Pool: It was pretty good, and the water was heated.

8. Activities Center: There were many activities planned on site. There is also a play room for children. My daughter refused to leave every time we went there.

9. Noise: We did not notice any noise from the constructions on both sides of MBP. However, the live music from the bars/pubs directly below MBP was pretty loud until 2am on weekends. If you cannot stand late evening noise, you would want to ask for units facing the inter-coastal waterways in the back side of MBP.

10. Wireless Internet Access: MBP offers free wireless Internet access. The connection was excellent for the first three days. But we did encounter problems for the rest of the week.

We definitely would go back to MBP and recommend it to others.

My husband and I just styed at BPT from the 19th-23rd of March. Overall liked the Marriott.The location is nice(across the street from the beach)you have easy walking to shops and restuarants.The front desk staff was very nice.When we checked in we were given a condo unit on the 2nd floor with somewhat of a ocean view but your overlooking the roofs of the mall below.So, we asked to be changed to the other side higher up and so glad we did .We had a great view of the intercoastal with the million dollar homes and boats going in and out.The unit waqs very nice. Huge (we had a 2 bedroom unit)and really clean with nice furniture.The beach itself is just Ok.Loud due to all the construction behind you and not the cleanist sand cig butts and a little trash. The water was nice and warm.The beach chairs you can rent from the Marriott are not comfortable.They are low chairs not loungers but for $2 a day you get what you pay for.There are nice lounge chairs available on the beach for $7 ea.You think there free at first because there just stacked up but around 11-12pm a guy comes along when your already comfy in your spot and hits you up for the money.The pool is definatly too small for the size of the place and not nearly enough chairs.The pool water was cloudy and dirty.Quite a few kids.I have a 2 1/2yr. old but he wasn't with us on this trip so I'm not anti-kids but it was pretty loud).Be aware that you will be paying for parking $12.00 per night in the garage.If you want to go to a more upscale area Los Olas blvd. is great.There are lots of shops and bars with great bands and great resturants.Take the water taxi.For $10.00 pp you can get on and off all day.Be aware that you can get droped of right at los Olas.They also bring you to riverwalk witch is a good walk from los Olas and theres not much there.We found out the hard way when we walked all the way back to river walk to be picked up .Just ask where the pick up is because it's tucked away off of los olas blvd. They give a great commentary of the incredible homes on the intercoastal.Hope this helped.

My friends and I went down to Florida and were lucky enough to stay in the Mariott BeachPlace Towers. We had two connecting rooms for six people. The suite room had a full kitchen, with dishwasher, plates, cups, utensils, bakeware, and everything else you could need. It even had a washer/dryer in the suite. The master bedroom was huge and had a jacuzzi bathtub in it. It was actually in the bedroom, not the bathroom! The ajoining room was an effiency. It had a mini-fridge and a sink but also came with utensils and plates. We arrived early and they allowed up to check our bags and sit by the pool. Although check in wasn't until 4pm they we able to fix our room up early and we got to check in early. We also got the added bonus of getting an ocean front room. There is a market/giftshop in the lobby where you can get food to cook in your room. The alos great thing is that it is right across the street from the beach and right above a shopping complex with several bar/restaruants and some stores including White/Black. This was one of the overall best hotels that I've every stayed in. I would recommend it to all and would go back there myself.