Gilbert's Resort, Key Largo

The place was just too run down for my taste given the price that we paid for our rooms. The rooms had been cleaned except for the black mildew in the bathroom. We had dinner at the restaurant which was ok. We ended up checking out early because of conditions. (and paying the early check-out fee...$35, I think). The best thing about the "resort" was the staff. They were friendly, but still I would not return.

On a quiet Tuesday we were heading to Key West. We stopped at Gilbert's Resort to get a bite to eat and were fascinated by the old keys style. The bartenders were so nice and after watching a spectacular sunset at the beach we decided to stay for the night. The hotel was old but clean and the price was more than acceptable. The next day we went to Key West and had to discover that we had to pay double the price for an equivalent room and the sunset was blocked by little islands! Next time we will stay at Gilbert's to begin with and save us a lot of traffic and money.

THIS PLACE SHOULD'NT EVEN COST 1 CENT TO STAY. IT IS DISGUSTING THE CHEAPEST MOST NASTIEST PLACE TO STAY. THE POOL WAS DIRTY THE BEACH IS NASTY, THE BATHROOMS ARE NASTY, THE BED IS A MATRESS ON A PLYWOOD. OVERALL AWFUL!

I did like the fishing in the general area, but that has nothing to do with this place. Staff are very rude/disrespectful to guests, run out of ice, no bait, no tackle and answer, "I don't know." to most questions. Place is very lacking of parking space, especially a problem on weekends, cluttered with junk on property. We went elsewhere asap. Never again--ever! Far better places are available in this area and we wound up here after a last minute plans interruption. Advice: keep driving.

TV was broken (stuck on full volume), AC sounded like a chopper taking off, sound of motorcycles revving up 24/7, traffic noise from the highway, curtains were too short so that anyone walking past the motel could see right in at night time!!!, bed was an ancient mattress tossed on a plywood box (no bed frame, no box springs), service in the tiki bar was terribly slow, drinks very overpriced, the "beach" was just a few feet of rocky shore, the marina was a boat dock - no dive/snorkel trips, sunset cruises, fishing charters, etc. The one highlight was that the food from the restaurant was decent. We paid the $25 fee to check out early (after one sleepless night) and went to a decent place down the road for just a few bucks more....best $25 I spent all week. Gilbert's "Resort" would be a total ripoff at half the price! This place screams of owners who are bleeding the place dry, sucking out all the money they can from unsuspecting tourists and not investing one red cent in maintaining the property or treating the staff well enough to inspire them to treat the guests well.

On Sept 20, 2008, Ft. Lauderdale HOG 0662 brought 30 riders and 20 motorcycles to Gilbert’s for a Saturday lunch. Everyone thought the food and service was excellent. We all sat out under the Tiki area, looked out over the Intracoastal Waterway and listened to a “Grizzly Adams/ZZ Top” look-alike sing and play the guitar. Most did not want to leave and 4 couples had already made plans to spend the night. The rooms are basic and were very Florida Keys type and clean…. rustic but clean. The mattress is on a plywood base and is “firm”, but we like it that way. We had rooms 108-109 that are on the water and share a patio, a great place to drink a bottle of wine during the break in performers. At 8pm, “The Click” a 4-piece band played until well past our bedtime. We had dinner under the Tiki, again, and everything was perfect, again. We had a nice breeze, the food, the music and all the staff was great. This is a true Key’s type destination. We were lucky enough to have our rooms far enough from several families of Spanish speaking families that did play music and fished from the dock until very late. They were very friendly and we did not hear the music in our room, over the a/c. We woke up and sat on the patio as the sun came up over the mangroves. We didn’t see a breakfast restaurant, but the office had free coffee and we were good with that. This place is very rustic, but very Florida Keys.

This place was horrible. I booked Gilbert's Resort on line for a two night stay last September 2007. By the time we got in the room and realized how horrible it was the office was closed or we would have been out of there. Bed was a piece of plywood under a filthy matress, rust on refrigerator, mold growing in the corners of bathroom, overall a very dirty room, deck outside back door did not look safe and a draw bridge just outside sounded like thunder, tornado or hurricane, take your pick, every time a car drove over it, so did not sleep ALL night. Couldn't wait for office to open the next morning to check out. Since we couldn't sleep we loaded up the car went somewhere for breakfast and were back (Office still not open) but waited for them to open so we could check out, we were even willing to throw the money away just to get out, but they gave us our refund willingly. When the receptionist asked why? I told her it was not what they advertised and did not look like what they were advertising on the internet and had sore backs from lying on a piece of plywood all night. Place was overall rundown, needs to be torn down and rebuilt. Guess if you are out fishing and drinking all day you wouldn't notice! Drove to Tavenier and stayed at the most wonderful place. It was Paradise.

Awful Awful Awful is about the best thing that I can say about Gilberts. We got two nights at this place on the internet and when we arrived we saw a plague in the office that said "If our standards do not meet your standards, maybe you should not stay here". Boy was that a honest statement. As it was the last three days of spring break we decided to stay anyway. Checked into our room and there were dead flys in the corners of the room, dirt on the floors, rust on the refrigerator, loose plumbing in the bathroom, shower door that would not close, crumbling patio wood outside the door. We decided to visit the Tiki Bar for a glass of wine and found it to be filled with dirty, smoking, cursing drunk men and woman as well as smoking bartenders. The whole place, even though it was outside, reeked of smoke. So much for the bar. We went back to the room and heard what sounded like sonic booms. Turned out that it was the sound of large trucks and RVs driving over the drawbridge. The final straw was a party of 10 Cubans (5 children and 5 adults) checked into the room next to ours and took over our patio as well as the one attached to their room. Loud, loud group. We got on the internet from the next hotel (as Gilberts wireless internet was not working) and found anothe motel an hour down the road (after several phone calls) that had a cancellation. We packed in under six minutes and drove for an hour in the rain to finally arrive at our new hotel where we had a wonderful stay. We ate the $250 that we paid for the two nights at Gilbers and I promise you that I will sleep in my car before I will ever stay at Gilberts even if they offered a room to me for free. Awful Awful Awful