Very pleased with our unit. Clean and well stocked. Beds were comfortable and we all slept well. Convenient to beach and shopping and food. Be sure to spend some time at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center near the property.

I would not recommend this place to anyone. We had a 3 BR unit that was nice and big, but the place is old and very dated. There were bugs and lots of ants in the unit. The pool area was very boring. There is not a lot going on in this place. Worst of all was that my teenage son left his retainer in the unit. We called the next day and were told that it had been turned in by housekeeping, but when we tried to make arrangements to get it back the story changed to "we threw it away by mistake". I live in the area, and believe me there are much nicer places to stay in the area.

We stayed here for a week primarily because of the great reviews and because it has 3 bedroom condos which we needed because we were traveling with our son and his wife and three kids. I was concerned because the beach was across the street and we would be crossing it with 3 kids under age 11. My concerns were unfounded. Though these condos are not brand new and the furniture is comfortable but also not new, we spent a very comfortable, relaxing week here. Our 3 bedroom condo was huge! It had 1 bedroom & bathroom, a kitchen, dining room and living room on the first floor. Up a flight of stairs to the second floor was a gigantic master bedroom, master bath, and a second bedroom & bath with twin beds. There is a patio downstairs and a covered balcony upstairs. The most unusual feature was an open-air atrium inside the condo.

The Ventura is a small resort with only about 28 units or so which form a rectangle with a picnic area, bbq area, and the pool inside the rectangle. There is a parking area on each corner of the complex. Parking was never a problem and it was a short walk from the parking lot to the condo. My wife has two new knees and a new hip and had no problems navigating the sidewalks or first floor of our unit. We let our son & his family occupy the second floor. The pool area was equipped with inflatable toys for the kids.

Though there is no beach view from the condos, access to the private beach was handy and safe via a crosswalk directly in front of the Ventura which led to a sidewalk between the two large multi-story complexes to the beach. It was 5 minutes from the condos to the beach on foot with no worry about finding a parking spot. The Ventura furnishes beach chairs and an umbrella at no extra cost and there is a shower along the walkway to rinse the sand off on the way back to the condo. The beach was never crowded and the kids had a blast finding shells. One day there was an off-shore storm and seaweed began washing ashore. A day or two later a tractor came along and cleaned the seaweed from the beach. There are also a lot of turtle nesting areas marked along the beach.

The area where the Ventura is located is mainly residential & high-rise buildings, but a little over a mile to the south is Deerfield Beach. If you like a crowded beach with lots of restaurants, shops, and a large fishing pier, it is a short drive or walk to Deerfield Beach. Be prepared to pay for parking at Deerfield Beach.

Some of the reviews I read talked about bugs. I saw two bugs in our unit over the course of the week. Not bad for Florida. There is an abundance of curly-tailed lizards in the area. They are everywhere, but are cute and quite shy, retreating anytime a human approaches. Our grandkids were scared of them at first but quickly learned they were no threat. The lizards are a Florida thing, not just a Ventura thing.

If you like fancy & nightlife, this may not be the place for you. If you like large, clean and comfortable with great access to the beach, I would recommend it. With 3 grandkids, I was actually glad the furniture was not brand new.