Retreat at Crystal Manatee — Attraction in Crystal River

Very clean! This is a super cute motel with super cute updated rooms and tile on the floor which is a must in my opinion. We had a king room with plenty of space. Enough horizontal spaces too. But I think a luggage, rack or two would be helpful. I've never stayed in a motel or hotel that provided so much light should it be required. It was a definite plus for me. There were also three windows in the room for natural light as well. They make very good use of the space with the toilet and shower in one room. Kind of a walk-in shower wet room. The only sink was right outside to be used as the bathroom sink and the sort of kitchenette sink. It was huge, unnecessary but cute. Also, the mini fridge was nicer than anyone I've ever seen and I just stayed at the Gaylord outside of DC. This mini fridge had its own actual decent sized freezer space as well as refrigerator space . They give you a code to get into the lounge areas which has a coffee machine that makes darn good coffee and a vending machine. They deliver warm pastries to your room between 5:00 and 7:00 p.m. everyday so we saved ours for breakfast and it was plenty to get us on the water first thing in the morning. My only negatives were they hold $150 for essentials on your card and I think that's very steep for $150 room and I don't know what essentials you would possibly use. There aren't any. Also the fact that there was nobody in the office in the morning and this was about 8:30 was kind of off-putting because I did want to ask about parking and I had a couple other questions. All in all though, I'm planning on staying there anytime I go up to Crystal River to kayak because it was very clean and very cute at a good price. If you're kayaking this is the perfect location because it is adjacent to Kings Bay Park so you can drive up, drop off your kayaks and go park. We went back and parked in the motel parking lot and hoped they were okay with it because the front counter area was locked. It's also right in the cute little downtown area that seems to be up and coming. So there appears to be some places to eat though most were closed the day after Labor Day. I really think the shower needs directions. It looks really cute but it was very hard to figure out. So maybe a nice laminated simple instruction card hanging from the shower would help. We also could not get the TV to do anything but show us PBS so maybe some directions for...

When we drove up to the Retreat at Crystal River, we wanted to retreat! Some might call its exterior appearance quaint; others might say it looks like a dive, or a no-tell motel. We arrived shortly after check-in time, and there were three groups in line in front of us. It takes a good while to check in, because the hotel clerk has to explain to each guest that even though their booking receipt says that they have paid in advance and owe nothing, they have actually paid nothing and need to pay in person. The clerk then has to show each guest personally to their room and explain how everything works. It took at least a half hour, maybe more, for us to wait, get checked in and get escorted to our room.||Housekeeping came to our room every day, but they never cleaned. They made up the bed, replaced the towels and took our tip. They never emptied any of the trash cans. We had nice wine goblets in the room for drinking our complimentary champagne, so we put a note on the glasses to leave us the wine glasses for future evenings. Instead, they removed the wine goblets and left us champagne glasses. It was off-putting to drink red wine from the champagne glasses the next two nights. ||The complimentary breakfast is very basic. It is continental, at best. Their instant oatmeal packets have directions on how to cook them with a microwave, but there is no microwave in the area. There is hot water, but following the directions with just hot water does not produce a pleasing result - it's all watery.||On the positive side, it appears that the rooms have been recently remodeled, and they are beautiful. They are fresh and clean. The furniture choice for our table and chairs was quite odd though. The table is a standard height, but the chairs seat very low. You cannot really use the table comfortably from the chairs. The baseboard in the room was affixed with liquid nails, or something equivalent. Unfortunately, it was coming away from the wall in our room.||If we visit Crystal River in the future, we will book elsewhere. For the price we paid, it simply isn't worth it, even though the location was...

I can't speak highly enough about this INCREDIBLE family-owned hotel in the heart of Historic Downtown Crystal River. Joel seems to be the owner and main operator, I called in advance and he answered all of my questions prior to booking which was super helpful in locking it in. I was originally going to book through Booking.com for Valentine's Day weekend, but waited to long so it was booked for 2 nights. I encourage you to call though before booking elsewhere though, Joel offered us the option for a one-night stay and told us he'd keep us in the loop if something opened up for our second night.

From the outside, the small hotel looks quaint and matches the surrounding area, nice small town energy, but as soon as you walk in the room, you step into a modern and contemporary, SPOTLESS space with a shower that looks like its built for space or a Manhattan penthouse (in the best possible way).

After a long day of kayaking, fishing, or snorkeling with Manatees, there's nothing like laying your head down in the most comfortable bed of ANYWHERE we've ever stayed. Also, because of COVID they had a packaged breakfast in our fridge.

A perfect Valentine's Day weekend with my wife. Also, they set up red roses on the bed at my request for my wife, super nice and thoughtful of them to do. This will be the ONLY place we stay anywhere within a reasonable...