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The Marriott Frenchman’s Reef, St. Thomas

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Yesterday I mentioned the great balcony view from our first hotel in St. Thomas. When I look for a family hotel I look for a few key elements. Everything else is fairly optional, but I need these things in order to survive on vacation with my kids: a pool, easy access to food, and a balcony (OK, that last one is more for my husband, but I’ve been known to escape out there too, when the kids are driving me crazy). The Marriott Frenchman’s Reef had all of that, plus more, at a great price. It’s situated on a cliff, which gives you amazing views of the water.

The Pool

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When I was a kid the hotel pool was the vacation. My kids feel the same way. Any old relatively clean pool will do for them, but now that I’m a grown up I also need a deck with lounge chairs that isn’t insanely crowded. What I loved about the pool at Frenchman’s Reef was it wasn’t the kind of place where someone had to get there early and reserve chairs. We never had a problem finding two or three together, whatever time of day we went.

The pool is huge, with two sections, and a foot bridge dividing them. Between the two sections is a swim up bar, so you don’t even have to get out of the water. The smaller section has a volleyball net (at least it did the whole time we were there) which Jake absolutely loved.

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There wasn’t always a towel attendant, but there were always fresh towels that we could grab ourselves behind the counter, and everything was well-kept and clean. I was very pleased with the entire pool area.

The Beach

I’m more of a pool person than a beach person, so I didn’t mind that the beach was a bit of a trek. If you anticipate spending most of your time on the beach, though, you might want to look into staying at the lower half of the Marriott resort, Morningstar. If you’re staying at Frenchman’s Reef you take a glass elevator down the cliff to a boardwalk, where you take a nice walk to the beach.

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You pass the hotel’s tennis courts, and yet more iguanas…

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And then you get to the huge, gorgeous, clean beach.

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It’s actually a pleasant walk, and the kids especially enjoyed it.

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It’s just not hugely convenient if you want to go back and forth a lot from the beach to your room. But since we only visited the beach a couple of times it was fine for us.

The Food

The best thing ever when traveling with kids is the breakfast buffet. For one thing, I can usually get my picky son to try something new, since it doesn’t involve committing to an entire order. There’s no waiting for someone to take our order, then waiting for the food – we drop our stuff and grab plates. And since I’m fairly cheap and like to sleep in, when we hit the breakfast buffet on the later side we’re all full until dinner. Plus, I only like to eat fruit when someone else has washed, peeled, and sliced it for me, which is my favorite thing about breakfast buffets – the giant platters of sliced fruit.

This is Fiona, eating a breakfast sandwich she made from just about every meat and cheese on the buffet.

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The buffet at Frenchman’s Reef was possibly the best I’ve ever been to. With every kind of bread you could ask for, an omelet station, oatmeal, pancakes, French toast, both hot breakfast meats and cold cuts, cheeses, lox, yogurt, cottage cheese, fruit (of course!) and much more, we ate there every single morning. The kids were able to eat at a discount making it even better.

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The Renovation

Much of Frenchman’s Reef is actually closed right now for a huge, forty-eight million dollar renovation that was due to start just after we left, and will be completed in October 2011. I thought that the resort was already very nice, so it’s possible that everything I saw will be even better by the time you get there.

I got to see a model room, and it looked beautiful:

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On our next trip to St. Thomas I’m almost positive we would pick this hotel again. Our room was spacious, the balcony was very nice, the pools and beach were fantastic, and the staff was very friendly. I’d highly recommend it.

Next up: swimming with sea lions at Coral World

Please note: after choosing and booking this hotel on my own I received discounts not available to the general public. Thanks very much to the USVI Department of Tourism and the Marriott Frenchman’s Reef.

Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 1. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.

Paula schuck

Sunday 3rd of July 2011

Hi. This place looks amazing and I know what youmean about the pool. It is so important. I have never been to St. Thomas. It looks gorgeous.

Paula @inkscrblr

Amy

Friday 8th of July 2011

@Paula schuck: If I count a quick stop on a cruise this is my third time. We'll definitely be back.

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