Golden Strand Ocean Villa Resort by EVRentals, North Miami Beach

Overall this place is great because of the location, the landscaping, and the service. I expected for everyone to be rude and unwilling to help me, due to the reviews I had read, but everyone was friendly and willing to help us. To tell you the truth, after reading the reviews and seeing the limited photos online I really wasn't very optimistic about the trip but it was a celebration for my girlfriend graduation from college so we took the only place available. The units are dated and the studio we had was small, but the beach, ocean, and pool makes up for it. When you get there you see that it is a small older style resort dwarfed by the three Trump condos/hotels to the left and another huge building to the right. But once you get out to the beach and the pool you see how beautiful the place really is. I found the beach to be beautiful, quiet, and relaxing. Not nearly as many people on the beach directly behind the Golden Strand as it was behind the larger buildings. The beach and pool attendants were willing to help and were charming people. Another beautiful part about being small and older is that the pool and beach traffic is minimal. A lot of times I felt like we had the place to ourselves. It is nothing like the other resorts I've been to when the pool is packed the whole time. I really enjoyed the beach and the pool. The staff were great. The only downsides are the studio room size and sometimes having to park across the street. If you are someone that really just wants to relax in the room and participate in activities provided by the resort then I don't recommend this place for you. But if you are looking to enjoy the beach and stay outside most of the trip, then I would recommend this place for you.

We stayed in a two bedroom unit which was older but very nice. The beach and pool were absolutely beautiful. The restaurant and bar were very good as were several restaurants within walking distance. The only drawback was unless you were in early you had to park across the street. We will vacation there again.

TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE, FIRST TIME IN FLORIDA AND HAD TO CHOOSE THE PLACE, THE TV DID NOT WORK, NEVER WAS FIX , WE CALL AND NOTHING HAPPEN, NO PARKING, THE OVER ALL EXPERIENCE MADE THIS VACATION TERRIBLE, NEVER TO GO BACK THERE.

The place is extremely dirty. All the furniture is old and broken. Missing pictures, bedding very old, broken lamps. Parking is a major problem. The place is reminicent of the early 40's type place. The only positive is the location, but once you are on the beach all the rules limit the enjoyment of the place

We loved the cleanliness of the resort and the friendly and helpful staff. The beach was great and clean. The rooms were well distributed, and the kitchen area had all the amenities. The pool was large and also very clean. Great family vacation for sure.

I love everything.. My mom is a time share owner.. we go every year and have never been dissapointed with any of their services. They have a wonderful band that play by the restaurant they have located in the pool.... Most of the apartments face the pool/beach. it's wonderful!

It is located right on the beach, near eating facilities, the service is wonderful, and the maintenace is great. Definitely would go back. The beach is wonderful, and the staff sets up towels umbrellas etc... The spa is wonderful also. The rooms are recently redecorated, in good taste. Enjoy your stay!

I have been to several timeshares in the past. This place has alot of potential, the court yard is quite beautiful.The room we had was decent although the refrigerator did not get as cold as it should have.The pull out bed leaves much to be desired! The pool area is nice and the beach is beautiful. Now... for the not so good stuff.. It is very evident that some of the people who stay at the Golden Strand are not timeshare members. It is very evident that this establishment does business with anyone off the street as long as they have the $$ to pay for a room. Some of the guests took all of the ice from the ice maker machines to keep their beer cold and left nothing for anyone else. The last timeshare we visited catered to a different bunch of people, I may go back there next year.

I read a lot of reviews about this place before my boyfriend and I got to Florida. My parents own a timeshare and let us use guest passes. I do agree with other reviews that complained about the lack of parking. Often times even in the extra lot we had to sit and wait for someone to leave. They have just recently renovated all the rooms so they were actually rather nice. However, we went from Wednesday to Wednesday instead of the usual Saturday to Saturday. It caused some issues with our billing, and we got kicked out of our upgraded room. We were told at checkin that our room had been upgraded. We thought hey that's great. We were sent an express checkout notice on friday when we weren't supposed to check out until the following Wednesday. I went to the desk and she clarified that they send those to everyone because most people stay Saturday to Saturday. I wanted to make sure we were still on the books for the rest of the week. She said yes but I would have to come back to get my new room keys, parking pass, and towel card. I asked her what she was talking about and she told me we were being moved to a different room. I asked her why and she said because we didn't get the upgraded room for the whole week, only until Saturday when the new guests arrive. I was horrorstruck. Who does that? There was no mention of this at checkin. In fact, I was speaking to the same woman who had check us in. The worst part was that we were moved to the farthest building from the water and placed in a small room with no balcony, no ocean view and no oven after we had bought dinners that required baking (based on the kitchen in our upgraded room). We went from one of the "penthouse" rooms (which are really just nice, slightly larger hotel rooms) and shipped to the other side of the world. I was then told that if I came back the next morning, I would be given a beeper so they could let us know when our new room was ready and if we packed up our stuff, someone would move it for us. Essentially, we would be roomless for a day and we wouldn't be able to sleep in. We had to be out by 10, regular checkout time. We had intended to go to the keys the next day and had no intention of being within beeping distance. I argued with her about at least being able to move Friday night so strangers wouldn't be touching our stuff and she finally conceded. We found out later that we were moved to a worse room than we were originally supposed to be in. If we had known we would have to move, we would have just taken our first floor room near the pool with the balconey instead. We then paid the mandatory fee for maid service only to find they never came most likely because we were forced to move. I had to go ask for more toilet paper. It's a decent place to stay although it's flanked by Trump towers. I just wish I had known the right questions to ask. They also don't do the express checkout if you go Wednesday to Wednesday. Just be wary when they tell you your room had been upgraded, ask if you'll have to move later and make sure you ask where the other parking lot is or you might get towed. The beach is litter free although there is a lot of seaweed. There is free laundry and towel service, but don't lose that towel card they give you or you'll be charged $50. Not the best of "first timeshare" experiences and I'm glad we refused to pick up our welcome packet because they would've tried to sell me a timeshare and I might have said something I would regret.

I thought this hotel was great. The only thing I wish they had was like more interactions. They should have a little more tourists attractions at this hotel. Other than that, the appearance is great, and they have good service. I'm going to try the spa with my best friend this upcoming time.