Boca Raton Area Hotel Recommendations

[Randallr]

We're planning a small-group trip in July to dive with Underwater Explorers, and my favorite place to stay, Wright by the Sea in Delray Beach, is booked. Anyone have other recommendations for a reasonably priced place (possibly on the water, and/or possibly with outdoor space to leave the wet stuff)?

 

[tddfleming]

Bocas best western university inn on rt 1. Stayed there for a week when moving here. Wonderful court yard with pool and hot tub. About $60 per night and not too far from beach. The real kicker the beds were really comfortable.

 

[danvolker]

We're planning a small-group trip in July to dive with Underwater Explorers, and my favorite place to stay, Wright by the Sea in Delray Beach, is booked. Anyone have other recommendations for a reasonably priced place (possibly on the water, and/or possibly with outdoor space to leave the wet stuff)?

The Boca Raton Resort has come up with some very aggressive Dive Packages......You can stay for about $120 per night...which is inexpensive except by super 8 standards
Unlike a super 8 type hotel, a diver here has 15 restaurants at the Resort to choose from, including some high quality but reasonably priced choices in this mix....You have your own beach, you are on a marina, you have your own shopping, and Golf.....The place is spectacular, and now it is catering to Divers.....see Boca Raton Resort

I would add one more thing.....Boynton Beach is World Class Diving. A dive trip to Boynton should be memorable, and it should feel like an awesome Dive Trip. If you were to plan a dream dive trip to Fiji, would you try to stay in a lousy and disgusting Super 8, or would you choose a place you will love and remember with the diving--forever, like the Beqa Lagoon Resort?

I believe the dive operations of Palm Beach have done a severe dis-service to dive tourists, by pointing them at $50 or $60 per night Super 8 type slum properties. World Class Diving deserves quality hotels, at fair prices--that means in the area of $90 to $120 for summer in Palm Beach, if you want to be on the water. I would not want to have a diver visit here, enjoy our awesome diving, and then remember the bums sleeping in the parking lot at the economy motel they stayed in, where their car was urinated on.

 

[tddfleming]

Not sure where Dan stayed here in Boca for his terrible hotel experience But I can assure you it was nothing that he described. However, Boca does have some finer hotels on the water. Boca Resort is really well known in this area. But, I can't speak personally as to the resort. Which is what I was offering, my personal experience. We bike and run by the resort on a regular basis on our way to the beach and it looks nice. I am sure the atmosphere difference between Boca Resort and Delray area is like night and day.

Good luck on your search and I hope you have a great time when you come down. FYI: depending on when you are coming down in July, Lauderdale by the sea bug fest will be happening in late July. Bugfest-by-the-Sea which is the start of our mini season.

 

[danvolker]

TD,
Mine was just a "rant" in general, over divers recommending Super 8 type hotels for people visiting a spectacular Dive Resort Destination... I just think it is cross purpose to the experience "most" divers are looking for.
Was not actually referencing your post at all, and I am not familiar with the place you have stayed at..... And for that matter, there have been weekends in summer when some top Hiltons can be had for $65 per night.....

Sorry if it seemed I was responding to you.....I have a few topics I "rant" on....Freedive fins......, divers without bouyancy control......, what a Dive Resort is supposed to be,..... anchor diving vs drift diving....etc

 

[Tom Winters]

Now I like the Boca Raton Hotel, but I'm not sure that I would stay there. It's kinda, uh, stodgy. The Best Western in Boca is way nicer than a Super 8. What this thread is really missing is Deepstops chiming with the Holiday Park in Deerfield Beach. That place made the Super 8 in Pompano Beach look like The Breakers in Palm Beach. They finally cordoned it off. Maybe Brian didn't post in here because of his discordant grief.
Now Boynton Beach as World Class Diving. Hmmmm...I gotta mull that one over a little. I guess if your dive world consisted of the Portland Brownstone Quarry up here in Hell-That-Is-Connecticut where the water is so thick that you can climb right up it to get onto the diving docks, well, Boynton Beach is indeed World Class. I will stipulate to Pretty Good Diving.

 

[danvolker]

Now I like the Boca Raton Hotel, but I'm not sure that I would stay there. It's kinda, uh, stodgy. The Best Western in Boca is way nicer than a Super 8. What this thread is really missing is Deepstops chiming with the Holiday Park in Deerfield Beach. That place made the Super 8 in Pompano Beach look like The Breakers in Palm Beach. They finally cordoned it off. Maybe Brian didn't post in here because of his discordant grief.
Now Boynton Beach as World Class Diving. Hmmmm...I gotta mull that one over a little. I guess if your dive world consisted of the Portland Brownstone Quarry up here in Hell-That-Is-Connecticut where the water is so thick that you can climb right up it to get onto the diving docks, well, Boynton Beach is indeed World Class. I will stipulate to Pretty Good Diving.

I guess the distinction of World Class is still biased by what you want to see..... I like colors and fish.....which is why I hate the Keys ( not enough big fish), and why I don't like most Carribean Island destinations that have advertised so much over 3 decades, that they are considered to be "World Famous Dive Destinations. And the ad budgets of the last 3 decades are pretty much the determinant of what World Class diving is in this hemisphere...
Boynton has lots of schools of fish that I like, and on wrecks like the Castor, it has huge Goliaths in big numbers....as to colors and marine life--see this typical photo of a reef scene in Boynton, and please take that as my reasoning for considering it a top Dive Resort Destination....( note...I can post hundreds of shots of Boynton that would be similarly dramatic):

 

[djtimmy77]

Why anyone would want to stay at a non-hilton brand hotel when doing adventure dives is beyond me

 

[DebbyDiver]

I've just returned home to SoFla after a two-year adventure to USVI and Big Island, Hawai'i and you know what? I would MUCH rather dive Boynton Beach. There's no place like home. Glad to be back.

 

[Tom Winters]

...There's no place like home.

If you were DorothyDiver (with a Y!) and the OP was Auntie Em, we could be closing this thread with a big musical production number complete with dancing munchkins, flying monkeys. and a guy in a furry wetsuit. I don't know if it would be World Class, but it might be Oscar worthy.