We spent a very nice week bouncing between Miami and Fort Lauderdale visiting family and enjoying touristy activities while staying at Colleen’s and Johnathan’s place. It is well situated between the two cities so that you’re about 30 min from Miami and 30 min from FLL, and about 15 min from Hollywood Beach. And you’re only 2 min from the on-ramp to I95! It’s a great home base to explore the greater Miami area.
The house itself is cute. It’s a little smaller than we thought but it’s well appointed and spacious enough for a group of 8 like we had. The best parts of the house are the outdoor space with pool and palapa overlooking the canal; each bedroom had private access to the backyard area; a garage full of pool toys, beach chairs, coolers, umbrella, stand up paddle boards, etc.; oversized master bedroom; and oversized sectional couch in living room for a big group to gather.
We would have given the house 5 stars but felt there were a few problems or things lacking:
- The master bedroom toilet kept malfunctioning but my husband fixed it each time (this has been happening at home with one of our bathrooms so we kept joking that he can’t get away from plumbing issues even on vacation!)
- The hall bathroom shower leaks out onto bathroom floor when in use so the group that used that bathroom went through lots of towels bc they had to continually sweep up the water on the floor. Thankfully we had washer and drier at the house with free detergent! And plenty of towels were provided.
- The pool was very dirty when we got there on a Sunday. Pool cleaners come on Mondays. We spent an hour or so cleaning it ourselves both on Sunday and Monday morning. It was not a huge deal. Leaves fall off the trees and drop to bottom of the pool. That was an issue throughout the week. But the initial state of the pool on Sunday was dirtier than just leaves. However, the owners allowed us into the property 2 hours before check-in time so perhaps that would have been dealt with then.
- The bed in bedroom 2 next to the hall bathroom had sheets that were ripped and had holes in them. That was a first for us. That, along with the broken blinds throughout the house, give it a shabby appearance.
- In other homes we’ve rented there are TVs in the bedrooms. There was just a TV in the living room. Not a huge deal but anyone traveling with kids and teens knows that they like to stay up late and get up early to watch their shows.
Overall I’d say this is a no-frills home well located between Miami and Ft. Lauderdale with a nice outdoor space. In our opinion, a bit pricey for July in South Florida based on my feedback above. But having great, responsive hosts like Colleen and Johnathan is a huge plus!