Sonesta Fort Lauderdale Review
Sonesta Fort Lauderdale Review
Hi everyone!! Happy Friday! So happy that the weekend is finally here! I am so bummed I couldn't make it to the Reward Style conference this year but I'm excited to be living vicariously through those bloggers that are going to be there!
Anyways, for today's post I'm sharing my recap and review of the Sonesta Fort Lauderdale hotel that I recently stayed at with my friends! It's gonna be a long post so you may want to grab a snack (or maybe even a drink ;-)) I'll also share some pictures from our trip with outfit details included at the bottom!
Sonesta Fort Lauderdale Review
Day One: So we flew down to Fort Lauderdale early (I mean 6 AM early) on Tuesday morning and we landed in Florida at about 9am. This was perfect for us because we got pretty much the whole day in Florida! We got to the hotel and we were not able to check in yet so we decided to walk (we thought it was going to be a short walk...) to the Westin Hotel down the road to grab Starbucks. It ended up being like a mile long walk so needless to say we decided to take an Uber back to our hotel. Once we got back our room was ready for us to check into. We were so excited about the amazing view that the room had! Our room had two full beds, a big closet, a good bathroom, a chair, and 4 drawers to put our clothes in.
Once we put our stuff away in our room, we went down to the beach. Our hotel is right across from the beach. We did have to cross a very busy road each day to get to the beach but it wasn’t an issue once we had the walk signal. With our room, we were provided 2 chairs and we had to pay $12 for the third chair since there was three of us. We also wanted to get an umbrella one day but it was $20 so we decided not to.
Night One: For our first night in Fort Lauderdale we actually decided to take a trip down to Miami. It was about 40 min away and the Uber cost us about $40. We went to a restaurant called Dolce and then we went to the Clevelander bar afterwards. We headed back to the hotel around 1:30 am and there was no issue getting an Uber back. PS - I slept in the bed with my friend and fit both of us comfortably!!
View from our hotel room was amazing!!
Day Two: On our second day we decided to take an Uber from our hotel to a local Starbucks and to the Publix to buy some snacks and sunscreen. This was the easier option for us (did we really need Starbucks every morning? Yes.) Once we got back to the hotel we’d go back upstairs and change into our bathing suits and head down to the beach. We’d grab towels from the pool area – they didn’t keep track of who took how many towels so we each usually took two. Wednesday wasn’t our best day on the beach – it was super cloudy and rained a few times! We expected this from the weather forecast. We tried to stick it out through the rain but we ended grabbing drinks and lunch at the hotel bar by the pool. Each day I got a strawberry daiquiri and it was delish every time. We got crispy chicken tenders and fries for lunch on this day. After lunch we called it a day in the sun and decided to go up and watch 13 Reasons Why in our hotel room (guilty pleasure!).
Night Two: Wednesday night we went down to Las Olas Boulevard. This is where a TON of restaurants and bars are! We ate at American Social. The food was average but the atmosphere was super cute. The whole area down there was great! It was also ladies night when we went so our drinks were half off which was an added bonus! We weren’t quite ready to call it a night after dinner so we went to McSorley’s which was literally right next to our hotel. This bar was so cute – we loved that there was a jukebox so we could pick what music played! The bartender was so nice, too! If you’re looking for a laid back, casual bar – McSorley’s is it!
Me, myself, and I!
My two friends that I went with, Jackie & Matia! Shoutout to them for taking all my blog pics from the trip!!!
Day Three: Thursday morning started off with a photo shoot for my blog – you’ll be seeing all of those pictures and outfits very soon! We decided to take pictures right in front of our hotel because that was easiest. It was SO windy and that made taking these pictures pretty challenging – but we made it work! We tried to get a few on the beach, but that didn’t go over so well (can’t win ‘em all!). After we finished taking pictures we went to Starbucks (yes, we actually went everyday) and then went to the beach for the day. As I mentioned before, we got rained on quite a bit on Wednesday and didn’t end up using the 3rd chair that we paid for. When we go to the beach on Thursday, the guy working told us we didn’t have to pay for a chair since we had to leave the beach early on Wednesday. We thought this was such a nice gesture from him! Thursday’s weather was beautiful and we spent the whole day on the beach.
After leaving the beach we decided to get a quick bite to eat at the hotel pool bar again. This time we got chips and guacamole (one of my many weaknesses) and some truffle fries (not a fan of those!) and we got our usual drinks. I’d have to say that the food they served at the pool bar was great! Both of the bartenders we had were very nice.
Night Three: Thursday night we went down to Las Olas Boulevard again. This was our last night so we wanted to do something fun! We ate dinner at Luigi’s Tuscan Grill. It was SO good and such a cute little spot – we highly recommend this place!
Day Four: Our last day was a great one! We woke up early to pack and get our stuff ready to leave. We got out to the beach by like 10 AM and stayed out there till the last possible moment. We changed in the hotel bathroom - we kind of took over the place, whoops! We grabbed an Uber from the hotel to the airport. The price to the airport was like $15 and we split it 3 ways - SO reasonable.
Overall we enjoyed our stay at the Sonesta Fort Lauderdale. Here are a few cons that we did find with the hotel, though:• We weren’t fans of the shower because it only had half of a glass door so every time we got in the shower we ended up cold because of the air from the bathroom!• The hotel itself was a bit outdated – the headboard was a little bit worn and so were a few other things. We felt as if the hotel could use some updating.• When we checked in, they overcharged our credit card (charged $300 instead of $150) for the incidentals. We talked to the front desk about it and they said they fixed it (we shall see).• We were looking to watch Bravo (my friends LOVE the Housewives lol) but the hotel didn’t have that channel!
Here are a few pictures from the trip:
Dress: BB Dakota (under $100) || Heels: Marc Fisher (SO comfy & worth every penny!) || Earrings: Similar Here || Clutch: Tuckernuck
Bathing Suit: Kate Spade (my current favorite top!) || Shorts: Similar Here & Here || Sunglasses: Ray Ban
T-Shirt: Wildfox (comfiest T-Shirt I own!) || Jeans: AG || Sandals: Tory Burch (mine are in the color "Makeup")|| Sunglasses: Ray Ban
Coverup: Topshop
Top: J.O.A || Shoes: Jeffrey Campbell || Jeans: AG || Clutch: Tuckernuck
Romper: Madewell (under $25!!) || Sunglasses: Ray Ban || Sandals: Tory Burch (mine are in the color "Makeup")
There ya have it! My Sonesta Fort Lauderdale Review! I hope this post was helpful!
Thanks for reading!XO, Lauren
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