Vistamar Villa, Fort Lauderdale

I really enjoyed my stay at the Vistamar- the owners, John and Mary, were both friendly and very helpful with suggestions on places to dine, shop, and a location for a car rental. I was very content with the accommodations- very clean, thanks to Mary's hard work. The atmosphere was both inviting, relaxing, and fun- the eccletic music helped. I am planning to go to the Fort Lauderdale area this spring vacation- and you can guarantee that I will be staying at the Vistamar. Highly recommend!!!

We appreciated the large rooms, the kitchen, and the quiet atmosphere. We also really liked being able to walk to the beach. Only drawback is lack of restaurants or significant grocery stores within walking distance; we ended up renting a car, but John was helpful with that too.

We stumbled across this little gem quite by accident while randomly searching for a motel. From the get go we were impressed by both John, a Hemingwayesque character and his charming wife Mary. The rooms are a good size and cleaned spotlessly every day, including new towels. The environment was very friendly and welcoming, John was more than helpful with suggestions as to what was worthwhile to see and travel directions. Poolside offers the chance for guests to mingle in an informal atmosphere that accentuated the feeling of community that John and Mary work hard to create. Ideally situated to the beach and a short walk away from clubs and fine dinning. A great value and experience! Be sure to get up early to feed the monkeys, a unique opportunity not to be missed. We're looking forward to our fourth trip this April.

I have stayed at the Vistamar Villa four times in the past two years, most recently a golfing week in mid-September with my son, and last Thanksgiving weekend. My experience has been very good on all occasions. The owners, John and Mary, are attentive and go out of their way to accommodate guests. The rooms are really, really spic and span. A lot of hotel websites leave a lot to be desired when you actually see the property. The Vistamar’s is pretty accurate. I am in the construction business based in Fredericksburg, VA and stay in hotels and motels all over the East and South. Believe me, the Vistamar is exceptional. Just the fact that you get a one bedroom suite with Living/Dining Room, Bedroom and Kitchen at the same price as you usually pay for just a motel room makes the stay worth it. The many plants and trees on the property make this place a peaceful hideaway after a hard day. The Bonnet House monkeys are quite a surprise. Anyone who claims there are no monkeys (as I’ve read in a review below) either hasn’t stayed here or didn’t try very hard. They come around to the back of the property a couple of times a day for handouts (usually in the mornings). I’ve even seen people come in off the street, who aren’t even staying here, come to look at the monkeys. It’s about 15 or 20 minutes to the airport and two and a half blocks to the beach. If you’re not driving, they have bicycles available for guests. Since a computer is essential to my work even when I’m on holiday, free high speed wireless internet clinches things for me. I like this place and recommend it to anyone.

We had an excellent stay at The Vistamar Motel, which came highly recommended to us by friends who stay there every year. This quant, and quiet place offers clean spacious suites, kitchenettes for cooking, telephone with cable tv and a lovely balcony area in front of each suite. Our whole family enjoyed swimming in the clean pool, equipped with floating devices. The owners play very lovely calypso style music during the day,giving you the feeling that you are somewhere in the Bahamas.The grounds are full beautiful tropical plants and you have easy access to the barbeque. The location is fantastic, a close walk to the beach, restaurants, and a short drive to the grocery store. The owners John and Mary are very welcoming and really have a way of making you feel at home. Many of their quests stay for months at a time. We will definately vacation at the Vistamar again. There really are monkeys that you can feed early in the mornings,they are just behind Vistamar grounds. " Fun in the sun at Vistamar."

We travel a lot with my family all over the united states and we have never found a wonderful place like in vistamar villa. John and Mary were very kind with us, we'll never forget us.Every day Mary gave us new towels, bags for the trash, cleaned our room and more!!Our kids are young and could go to the pool like they wanted, even in the night, Mary and John never told us something. We met wonderful guests there and we still have email from us. My daughter was ill and we didn't know what to do, then John found for her a doctor. It's just an example to show how much they are great. To finish I saw on this page that someone hasn't see the monkeys then, I propose everyone to show our pictures with the monkeys in the backside, they are so cute (my kids are so happy) of course like often with animals you must wake up early in the morning to see us because after it's too late and too hot !!we have seen us three times and ggive us some food!. I tell everybody to stay in vistamar and specialy for a family who will feel like at home. Plus don't forget the place it's located! near the beach, the supermarket, all the facilities and near the I95 (very important to travel in florida). Vistamar villa is the place we want to go every year for all our vacations. You can write me if you want more informations (John usually has a pleasure to answer you) Christelle from Nice in France.

Our family enjoyed our stay for a week at Vistamar in Fort Lauderdale. We have had friends stay there a number of times over the last two years and they recommended it to us. The kids enjoyed the pool, and the once a day rain shower (in July) was a short and refreshing one. The rooms were clean with cable, A.C.,Internet,phone,kitchenette, and two double beds and a pull out. John and Mary were very hospitable, serviced the rooms as expected. The guest we met in the pool & patio were repeat customers from California and they also spoke kindly of the hosts and the other repeat guest. It is a great location to base your activities for the area, and we'd recommend it to others.

I took my wife and kids down to ft lauderdale for a week and we were really looking forward to it. The minute we checked into the Hotel I was thinking something wasn't right, the host John was not friendly at all when we checked in nor was his wife mary. I thought maybe I was reading them wrong, well I was wrong the were very rude and unfriendly people, they made me and my wife feel extremely unwelcomed. They would not say hi wehn i greeted them as we left or arrived back form the beach. We had no maid service when we were there, nor did the people staying next to us, we had no clean towels, ran out of toilet paper a more than once. it was an unpleasant experience. You would think that you should be a very friendly and welcoming couple if you owned a quaint hotel in Ft Lauderdale, there are so many to choose from down there. I would not recommend this hotlel to anyone, please keep looking! OPh and there are NO monkeys in the back as they claim.