The Hampton Inn in Coconut Grove was a very comfortable hotel. The best part is that from Miami International airport all you have to do is take the train (that leaves from the terminal) and go eight stops. The Coconut Grove station is 200 meters from the hotel. Costs $2.00 each it bits the $35-$45 (depending on traffic) that you would pay for a taxi and takes less than 20 minutes.

Unfortunately, the girl at the desk did not know that and just by luck we found the train.

The hotel is clean and comfortable however, try to book a room with odd numbers, those rooms face the back of the hotel and not the highway. Even on the sixth (top most) floor, I woke up a few time when those sports bikes passed by.

Breakfast is OK but for that price I would expect more. If you go for a cruise, they have a shuttle that takes you to the port of Miami for $10 each at 11:30. It's a bargain considering a taxi would cost double that. Just make sure you inform the front desk that you would need it.

It leaves only once a day at 11:30 but you do not really need to be there before that.

The price, however, was much higher than we wanted to pay and the value is not really there. at $179+tax ($202) it's a very expensive stay at an not more than an average hotel.

We had a good stay just before New Years. Hotel was very busy but reception staff had always got time to answer our questions and call taxis etc for us. It is approx mile walk to Coco Walk where all the restaurants and bars are. We walked during the day but chose to take a cab after dark, The pool area is nice and clean. Breakfast is complimentary and perfectly adequate. We knew we were a long way from south beach and made a conscious choice to stay at the grove but be aware of your location. If you have no car or want a break from driving use the hop on hop off bus - you can catch it at Coco walk

Every January, a group of friends and I run the Ragnar Relay from Miami to Key West. The past two years (2012 & 2013), we have stayed at the Hampton Inn Coconut Grove. They have been very accommodating with the reservations, room selection, happy hour, and even putting out an early breakfast since our team had to be at the start line at 4 a.m. this year. We plan to be back next year for Ragnar FLK 2014!

We stayed here for five nights in August 2012 while moving our daughter in for her freshman year at University of Miami. This was a very popular hotel during freshman orientation week - the university had even arranged a visit by Sebastian (who came with several handlers to keep the big bird on schedule) for photo-ops during breakfast one morning and the lobby was decorated with balloons and streamers in the []_[]'s colors.

Breakfast was excellent with lots of hot and cold options; every morning during our stay the hot dishes were different. Since we flew in from Illinois we had lots of shopping to do to get everything our daughter needed for her dorm room so we weren't in the hotel much; we really just slept there every night and headed out for the day after breakfast so we didn't see the pool, etc. There is a Pollo Tropical right across the street which we stopped at several times. "Berries" is just around the corner and highly recommended - we ate dinner there twice.

There isn't much else in the immediate area - it's not situated on one of those streets lined with hotels surrounded by restaurants that you typically see; it's just kind of sitting there by itself a block from Dixie Highway with a residential area behind it. There are a few random businesses nearby but this is not the kind of area where you walk out the front door and stroll around the neighborhood checking out shops and restaurants. As a result the Hampton is a real bargain in the context of the other choices close to the university - $99 a night during our off-season stay! Parking in the secure lot was free, which is very unusual in the area. We had previously stayed at two Courtyards in the area neither of which had free breakfast or parking. There is a metrorail stop nearby - the Coconut Grove station - we didn't use the metrorail during this trip since we had a car but with the recent extension of the metrorail to MIA that would make this location very convenient for air travelers who don't want to rent a vehicle.

We'd shopped Amazon for some bulky college essentials just prior to our trip and had those items shipped directly to the Hampton. Love that Amazon Student Prime! We called in advance to ask the hotel to be on the lookout for our boxes and the front desk staff was very helpful with receiving and storing the packages which arrived a few days before we did and were waiting for us when we checked in.

Our room was just fine - nothing fancy, though I believe I read they are in the process of redecorating. It was large enough to allow a rollaway bed (at no charge - which our daughter used the first night of our stay before she moved into her dorm room) without feeling totally cramped. The room had a microwave and mini-frig but we didn't use these since we really weren't in the room at all except to sleep, spending our days hitting TGT and BBB, picking up more boxes full of items we'd shipped from home to a local Fed Ex Office that were waiting for us when we arrived in town, and then unpacking it all into a tiny dorm room. It was really surprising to see all that stuff disappear into such a small space - thankfully there are generously sized closets in the []_[]'s freshman dorms.

We did have a glitch with the hotel's internet access. I'd read in reviews here on tripadvisor that the hotel's wi-fi was slow, especially on upper floors, but then forgot to request a low floor at check-in and the internet was indeed very very slow. I saw a hotel manager's response to another review here that mentioned the same problem around the time of our stay - it sounded like the hotel was working on the issue so I'm assuming that problem has been resolved by now. The only other shortcoming I noticed was garbage piling up on top of overloaded trash receptacles outside the elevators on our floor the first few evenings. We did hear that the hotel was completely full that week though - the crowds just got ahead of the maintenance staff's ability to keep up.