Gulfview was just what I was looking for when I started to plan my trip, peaceful and relaxing!! Our room was clean and the grounds are very well maintained. We loved using the free peddle boats and my son loved the turtles and iguanas. We had the pool to ourselves most evenings. Use of the gas grills was nice. We all enjoyed just laying in the hammocks in the evenings. I would recommend Gulfview to anyone looking for somewhere low key and laid back. If I make it back to the keys again, I will be staying here again.

The owners are nice & friendly. There were some cool pet birds on the site, a nice clean pool, a picnic area, but no real beach area. The hotel is right next door to the Dolphin Research Center. There are rooms large enough for a family. We had 6 in our group and loved the accomodations.
Not fancy, but very comfortable.

We stayed there in April 2009, based on tripadvisor reviews and price. This is certainly Not a deluxe resort, but it is a good price for the area and clean. The grounds are very well done, and they have a a nice pool and a small dock area with kayaks and canoes you can use. They are walking distance from the Dolphin Research Center.

The minuses- no breakfast, coffee only. The traffic in the area is horrible, but I would guess everything in Marathon suffers from this. It is kind of a hassle to go to and return from anywhere. Our room was small, but it had an outdoor porch with a table and chairs.

In summary, I would stay there again for the value. But if you want a fancy resort, go somewhere else.

I stayed here back in March and although I can tell they try, unfortunately the motel falls short in a couple places.

Pros/Cons:

1) Free water equipment. At a rental cost of around $60 a day, having a place with free equipment (kayaks, canoes, etc) is a big plus. The unfortunate part was that none of the paddle boats worked, parts to the kayaks were broken and some had holes in them.

2) Location. It's nice to be right on the bay (or the ocean, the Gulf View is on the gulf/bay side) Unfortunately it's also right on Overseas Highway. I never knew how many people went through the Keys... even from midnight to the morning traffic zoomed by all night. They were some of the loudest nights I have ever been through. Also, it's about 10 miles outside of the heart of Marathon which is inconvenient.

3) Room. The room was just verging on alright. Not fancy and worn around the edges. There was a strong scent that came from the A/C unit which was rather unpleasant.

Overall I think with some more work this place could really shine but I don't think I'll be staying here again any time soon.