This was from Mother’s Day 2009
I had it on a travel blog that I don’t have any longer, so re-posting it here now.

Loved the beaches in Bonita Springs and Naples, FL.

The sand is white, clean and the water is clear!

Things we don’t have on the SouthEast Coast of Florida!

There were numerous public beach areas complete with restrooms, showers, the Naples Pier and recycling bins on the beach too!

You could get up close to birds–we watched this one catch crabs and eat them (course that grossed out my daughter though).

Sea Turtles nest on the beach as well, though we didn’t get to experience that.

The beaches were awesome.

I have a guest blog spot here on things to do in Naples, FL.
Stop by & check it out if you want to learn more about Naples, FL.

Recently my daughter and I stayed at Inn on Fifth in Naples, FL.
If you go, you have to call James at (888) 403-8778 to make reservations. He’s super accommodating, will get you the best deal as well.

They’re also on Facebook and Twitter, but don’t expect any communication with them via those two methods (one huge disappointment in my book).
They only post on both those networks and don’t really respond nor communicate with people.
All they seem to do is post post post without taking the time to communicate or respond to other tweets and updates.
I’m not sure who maintains their social networking accounts but whoever it is, needs to learn some basic rules of networking and communicating.

Aside from that though, the Inn itself is excellent!
It’s located right on Fifth (thus the name!)
You can visit a variety of shops, restaurants, art galleries right on Fifth as well.
The Naples Beach is only about 6 blocks away (love the beach! water’s always clear, sand is clean and hardly anyone there!)

The room itself overlooked the courtyard and pool top roof and jacuzzi.
Within the room was a totally upgraded bathroom with glass shower, nightstand had ipod dock and of course free wi fi.
Inn on Fifth also uses CFL light bulbs and they have a filtration system in entire Inn that enables you to actually drink the water there (I’ve been in other places in Naples and the water was really funky-not the case here).
The valets there are extremely polite, courteous and take excellent care of your vehicle. I dealt with 2 different valets during the course of our stay and they both were awesome.

They have an Irish Pub (McCabe’s) attached to the Inn. I was less than pleased with the food, service and weeks later still haven’t received a phone call from “Jim”, the general manager.
My daughter and I didn’t even eat half the food, nor did the servers ask how food was or if everything was okay or not. They took a long time to bring food to table, even longer to check if we needed anything else, and even longer to bring the bill. We had a 20% off coupon given to us from Inn on Fifth, which is the main reason we ate there. Well, they automatically add 18% gratuity (which I so do not understand on parties of 2 that are eating-or in our case-not eating!). They will also authorize your credit card for more than your actual bill “in case you wanted to add an additional tip” is what I was told by “Wendy”, after I called them upon returning home to see they did that…which is one issue I’m still (not holding my breath though) waiting on “Jim” to call me back about. (note: I even posted on their Facebook photo of McCabes (see photo below) expressing my feelings of dissatisfaction and to date (a week later at time of this blog), have yet to get any type of response (like I said before, they do not respond via Facebook, Twitter, nor phone apparently)…not good social networking skills!

So, all in all I’d say if you want to stay right on Fifth and have a nice room with friendly valets, great reservationists (is that a word!?), a good spa & fitness center (sorry no pics of those though), close proximity to Naples Pier & Beach then this would be great place. (Just eat somewhere other than McCabe’s).

*I was not paid for this review nor given any extra treatment for this review*

Here are some pics from our trip and you can see more on Flickr.

If you don’t know to do this, you can click the images to see them full size…just saying, since some people don’t realize that.

Front view of Inn on Fifth

The Lobby

Royal Suite

Courtyard w/roof top pool & jacuzzi

Naples Pier & Beach

Another repost since the travel site this was originally posted on on May 11, 2009 is for sale and I dont want to lose the post

Tin City located in Naples, FL was interesting.
I went after my dad mentioned it. Glad we stopped there.

They had little shops and stores located in the buildings that used to be a 1920’s clam processing plant. In 1976 they converted the plant into what is now Tin City. All the shop owners/workers were friendly and went out of their way to say “good day” even if you were just walking by their shop.

Of course my favorite store was of course the Peace Frogs store. Yes, I know I can get that anywhere..but there’s not one in SE FL, so…..I bought 2 new dresses, tee and daughter got a dress and bracelet.

There’s a SeriousCookie store there and OMG the smell of their cookies being baked filled part of the shop area.

There are waterfront restaurants where you can eat and watch the boats go out and enjoy the outdoors.

It was truly an unique place to visit!

(repost from May, 2009 located on another blog that’s currently for sale)

Loved the beaches in Bonita Springs and Naples, FL.

The sand is white, clean and the water is clear!
Things we don’t have on the South East Coast of Florida!

There were numerous public beach areas complete with restrooms, showers, the Naples Pier and recycling bins on the beach too!

You could get up close to birds–we watched this one catch crabs and eat them (course that grossed out my daughter though).

Sea Turtles nest on the beach as well, though we didn’t get to experience that.

Other than it being mega hot this past weekend, the beaches were awesome.

This from my daughter to me during our weekend in Naples & Bonita Springs!