The Family Travel Network

E-mail this page
to a friend

The Hyatt Regency Coconut Point: A Beauty in Bonita Springs

By Patricia VandenHeuvel

Finding a resort that satisfies the wide-ranging interests of our family is becoming increasingly challenging. With a ten year-old active boy, a twelve year-old artsy girl, a Parrothead dad and a mom who appreciates a good thread count, imagine the difficulties. Vacation travel planning for our family can become a nightmare. Luckily for us, the Hyatt Regency Coconut Grove in Bonita Springs, Florida, gets close to satisfying our entire family, particularly due to the Camp Hyatt kids’ program.

My son Jamie and I spent a wonderful, long weekend in September at this Gulf of Mexico resort on Estero Bay. Bonita Springs used to be a sleepy little Florida town, but it’s rapidly becoming a vacation alternative to nearby, built up Marco Island and Naples. The three year-young Hyatt Regency Coconut Grove rises up eighteen stories smack dab in the middle of twenty-six acres of unspoiled estuaries in a secluded section of Bonita Springs. The resort’s 450 guest rooms and suites are plantation pretty, as are the sprawling common areas with their sea of marble and mahogany and panoramic views of pools and palm trees. Our room on the seventeenth floor had lovely views over the bay while other rooms face the golf course.

Hyatt is known to family travelers for its trend-setting kids camps, celebrating its fifteenth anniversary at seventeen Hyatt resorts in the U.S. and Caribbean. Each camp incorporates local flavor into its program, such as surfing lessons at the Hyatt Huntington Beach and crabbing at the Hyatt Chesapeake Bay. Coconut Point’s Camp Hyatt teaches its campers about Calusa Indian heritage. There’s a small interpretive center with displays on the area’s ecological, historical and cultural importance and campers paint Calusa clay masks, similar to those the 16th century Calusas used to show their tribal colors.

The Camp Hyatt counselors at this resort are fantastic. Jamie has seen more than his share of kids’ programs, but today he still speaks fondly of the staff at Coconut Point. They really love their job and enjoy being around kids, creating an experience far beyond basic babysitting.

Estero Bay is a nature destination – Jamie and I spotted blue herons, egrets, whooping cranes and even a bald eagle. We and fellow Camp Hyatt kids one morning hiked the quarter mile boardwalk through mangroves to the marina (the shallow, still water gives off quite a stench in some places) where a water taxi whisked us away for a fifteen minute ride to Big Hickory Island, the resort’s private island beach that it shares with Pelican Landing, a nearby 2,000 unit residential community. Our captain pointed out scads of birds along the way but no bottlenose dolphins, even though Estero Bay is home to one of the world’s largest populations of these playful creatures. At the right time of day (afternoons usually) ten or fifteen of them will follow in the boat’s wake. There also are manatee and sea turtle sightings, but not on our watch.

The Big Hickory Island beach is quiet, with plenty of open chairs and umbrellas – but we didn’t spend our time sunning. We hunted for sharks’ teeth, built a large sandcastle with our fellow campers, took turns with the metal detector and shelled like crazy (this area of Florida is home to sea critters that produce over 400 types of shells). It’s a clean, white sand beach with no lifeguards or snack bar (to help preserve the natural setting), so plan to stop by the resort’s Kofe Nut Marketplace (which also houses a Starbucks) to pack some refreshments in one of its coolers.

Easier to get to are the resort’s three pools and two hot tubs. The main event is a 5,000 square-foot heated lagoon pool with waterfall, fountain and 140-foot corkscrew water slide (forty-two inches or taller – strictly enforced). Jamie and I splashed down time and again, although we didn’t quite make it down one hundred times to get a special certificate from the resort. This monster of a pool has a shallow entry section for little ones not quite ready for the corkscrew. Nearby are a heated lap pool favored by adults and a lovely (non-heated) pool fed by a two-story waterfall. If that’s not enough water for you, guests also have access to four more pools at Coconut Plantation, a Hyatt Vacation Club, just a five-minute shuttle ride away. Jamie and I popped over there late one afternoon to enjoy an hour floating together in oversized inner tubes around Alligator Alley, a 1,000-foot lazy river.

To get out of the midday sun, Jamie and his camp cohorts paraded into the restaurant’s kitchen for the Short Chefs program where a resort chef taught them a simple cooking lesson: delicious sandwich wraps of all types that became part of the lunchtime feast for the campers. Then there was a live animal show with a baby alligator, coconut painting, mask making, stuffing a message in a bottle and water and pool games. In the evening, s’mores by the fire pit provided the perfect end to dinner. The evening program included a dive-in movie at the pool, but Jamie had seen Finding Nemo so many times that we opted to continue our weekend-long ping pong match instead. There is a small video arcade next to Camp Hyatt, and a room with a TV and billiards, air hockey and foosball tables that seems to be the unofficial spot for teen guests to hang out.

With Jamie happily ensconced in Camp Hyatt one afternoon, I indulged myself in the resort’s Asian-inspired Stillwater Spa. The gorgeous two-story, 19,000 square-foot spa has eighteen treatment rooms where all manner of hydrotherapy, massage therapy, facials and body treatments are available, many centered on the healing properties of water. The spa contains one of only eight Watsu pools in the country, in which massage takes place in a body-temperature heated pool with specially trained therapists who combine Japanese shiatsu and stretching techniques, resulting in an intense sense of deep relaxation, often described as a “flying” or “back to the womb” feeling. There also is Ashiatsu massage: therapists use bars to balance themselves above the massage table to incorporate their body weight into the treatment. I opted instead for a classic massage on a heated massage table, one of the better ones I have had.

To meet the growing demand from teens, the spa offers five special treatments for the thirteen to seventeen year-old set (accompanied by a parent): a mini facial, hand and foot paraffin, reflexology, hand and foot massage and a scalp massage. The spa also houses a salon and fitness center (open twenty-four hours) with free weights and countless cardio and weight machines hooked up to televisions. There also is a spacious studio that offers a wide variety of fitness classes including yoga and pilates, all with window views of the nature preserves outdoors.

Also on property are four Hydro-Grid, lighted tennis courts that rent for $20 per hour, as well as racquet and ball rental and instruction. The bigger draw is the eighteen-hole Raptor Bay golf course designed by Raymond Floyd that attained the nation’s only Audubon International’s Gold Certification for environmental sensitivity. The resort is adding another nine holes in 2005, as well, and there’s a “Chip Challenge” tee box on resort grounds where for $10 a bucket you can test your skill at chipping across a pond to a small green. A large lawn near the pool area is used for complimentary bocce ball and croquet.

If you absolutely must bargain shop, the Miromar Outlets are ten minutes away for the shopaholic. A twenty-minute drive puts you in swanky Naples with its upscale shopping, museums and entertainment, and forty minutes away are the fascinating Thomas Edison & Henry Ford Winter Estates which in addition to the home tours, includes a museum and botanical garden.

While not a true beach resort, the Hyatt Regency Coconut Point is a great option for a family looking to enjoy an upscale Florida resort with plenty of diversions in an area teeming with nature.

If You Go:

• Rates at the Hyatt Regency Coconut Point start at $169 in the off-season (May through mid-December), and a variety of seasonal family packages are offered throughout the year, ranging from an adjoining room for 50% off to 25% off autumn room rates. A $10 per day resort fee covers all local and toll-free calls from guest rooms, all incoming faxes, in-room safe, golf bag storage, self-parking (very convenient), golf course, marina and beach shuttle and use of the DVD library (there are DVD players in each room and free one-night rentals). For more information, call 800-55-HYATT or go to www.coconutpoint.hyatt.com. • When you make your reservation, request a room on one of the odd numbered floors which have larger balconies.

• Coconut Point Camp Hyatt hours are 9am-4pm on Saturday and Sunday and 6-10pm on Fridays. Weekday sessions run 9am-4pm during the summer only but are available any other time of year on request with a 24-hour notice. The Camp Hyatt at Coconut Point is for kids ages 3-12, but truly would have most appeal for the 5-10 year-old set. Camp Hyatt’s rates range from $27 for a half-day session to $56 per child for a full day session with lunch. The web site – www.camphyatt.com – helps kids plan their activities.

• Babysitting service through a bonded, off-property insured firm is available. Rates are $15 per hour for up to three children, with a four-hour minimum.

• Don’t miss a trip to Big Hickory Island, the resort’s private island beach. In order to preserve the island’s pristine natural setting, there is no snack bar there. Plan to stop by the Hyatt’s Kofe Nut Marketplace, which will provide coolers to pack with refreshments.