Postcard Inn Beach Resort and Marina — Hotel in Islamorada

THIS REVIEW IS IMPORTANT. MUST READ

Being someone who has stayed in total luxury but also totally cheap/low end motels/hotels, I’ve experienced a lot of different places and I’m going to tell you what to expect here. But also how you can make your stay much more enjoyable!

FIRST- please DO NOT stay here expecting to get a luxury 4-5 star resort. Example: you wouldn’t go to Apple bees expecting fancy food from a top class chef. You’d expect exactly what you’d get! A tasty satisfying enough dinner from a chain restaurant. It’s a similar situation. It’s still a good place to stay and relax and I’d recommend it absolutely! But I’d recommend it like I’d recommend going to Apple bees. I like Apple bees! I even love some of their dishes but it’s NOT my favorite and not THE best. Keep your expectations balanced or you’ll be disappointed. My overall rating was 3 stars because Even with the amenities and although it is beautiful on the outside and a really good resort it’s still TOO EXPENSIVE for what you get. Your actual living quarters are quite basic. You have a fridge & no microwave. The a/c is set to 67 in all rooms and to my knowledge that can’t be changed. The drinks at the tiki bar are just okay(I did have one) and it was wayyy over priced. Given the reviews of the Restaurants on site we decided not to go to any of them. House keeping did their job💗. Front desk service was good but they are CONSTANTLY putting up with complaining guests. I have to admit. I thought some of the complaints from the guests were unreasonable, believe it or not, and were actually kind of ridiculous. I could tell they came here on their high horses expecting a ritz Carlton experience and that’s just not what this is😂. If that’s what your looking for you need to look elsewhere or head to Waldorf Astoria in key west😉. Anyways…moving on to the good stuff. How can you make your stay more enjoyable!?

Buy a few cheap towels nearby or bring your own extra towels. Some guests complained about the “lack” of towels at the pool but it’s hard to keep up with how many people use the pool. We brought our own towels and did just fine. Don’t expect staff to be perfect, theres a lot of people here who have a lot of ridiculous requests for the staff and they HAVE to pay attention to everyone.

Bring water bottles and snacks like chips and stuff that can be refrigerated. It’s a small fridge but you can fit a few things in there! We brought the following, salsa, cheese sticks, cold cut meats, pickles, A small jug of chocolate milk, water bottles, and a regular jug of juice.

Bring your own alcohol. The drinks they make cost 15$ there is BARELY any alcohol is them and you’re really just paying for juice. the bar closes but the pool stays open it’s nice but great if your prepared (wink wink) 😉

BE SMART. If you’re a foodie. Don’t tick yourself off by going to the on-site restaurants! We skipped all of them. I mean it! If this is something that matters to you. DO THIS RIGHT! We go to places that are 30-90 seconds away for dinner, still close, but the food is WAAAAAYY better. We LOVE Wahoos! We have been going there for years. Turn left out of the resort. Go over the bridge and boom it’ll be on your left. I recommend the coconut shrimp, wahoo bites or conch fritters as an Appetizer. The mahi fish tacos are so good but my MOST FAVORITE is the portofino shrimp linguini (you might cry when you eat this😂) it’s that good! Right next to Wahoos is a restaurant called seafood feast which is a seafood/American buffet we love. It’s 39$ & Worth it in our opinion. Islamorada fish company is also amazing! My husband loves the poke bowl. For breakfast bobs bunz is a MUST! The banana bread French toast is something else! You also need to get one of their breakfast skillets. It’s a mom n pop place that feels cozy and what you’d want for a morning breakfast. I hope this helps! 💜 We did enjoy our stay and would come back! Really no actual complaints....

We stayed here as a part of a wedding party. The hallway of the 400 building reeked of fish for the duration of the stay Our room smelled like cigarette smoke. When this was brought to the attention of the hotel staff (by walking down to the lobby, as none of the phones worked) we were informed the hotel was fully booked, we were unable to move rooms, and blatantly asked by the front desk staff what we expected them to do about it. They assured us we wouldn't charge us the $250 smoking charge and sent housekeeping up to very quickly mop? As if that fixes the issue. (Typically, a smoking fee is to cover additional cleaning and a night that the room cannot be rented as it needs to air out. If there isn't additional cleaning occurring and they're renting out the room, I'm not sure why that fee isn't being deducted from our stay. ) Dirty/stained bath towels and bath mat. After the rehearsal dinner, the group at we were with decided to go to the tiki bar. Posted hours online showed it was open until midnight. Someone called management to confirm and we were told it would be closing at 11. No problem. It was 9:30. We make our way to the tiki bar. I order a drink at 9:45. I'm told by the bartender that they were closing and the glass of wine I'd ordered would be my last. Trying to close an hour early (two if you go by posted business hours) when you have a bar full of people seemed like an odd choice. When one of the people from our group asked to speak with management who had JUST told them that the bar would be open, management came down, made the party write down their own drink orders (?) and then told the entire party that it was the end of service after that round. Upon being handed the drinks, the bartenders promptly shut the lights off on us. Note: it was still not 11pm. We had a package delivered while we were staying there. We asked for it upon check in. Front desk informed us they'd take our name, check for it, and have it up front when our room was ready (because it wasn't ready when we arrived at 2pm, which, fine.) We go back at 4. Get assigned to our smokey, fishy room, and request our package. They hadn't looked for it. A young man disappears with our name written down for ~20 minutes. He comes back and informs us the warehouse that takes deliveries closes at 4pm (upon his return it was 4:20), and we should have come earlier. We go back the next day. My husband (to whom the package is addressed) is concerned that he forgot his identification in the room. I assure him that after the service we've received up to this point, no one in the front office cares enough to check an ID for a package. I was correct. The young man retrieved a package addressed to a completely different person, and handed it off. When we explain it isn't our package, the young man looked annoyed, went back to the warehouse, and finally returned with the correct package. One of the pools was closed for the duration of the stay The only redeeming qualities I can say about this place is that the views from the beach and the only open pool are truly stunning, and that the wedding was lovely (apart from the hotel-provided dj mispronouncing the...

I stayed here from December 15th through December 18th 2014. The rooms themselves were pretty good. The bathrooms in the rooms were very old and outdated. There was a rust looking residue in the tub, the shower curtain rod was coming apart, the counter top in the bathroom looks like it was put in before World War II.

The main thing i disliked, especially during a December visit, was that it did not have a hot tub by the pool. as soon as 5pm hit and the sun was going down it would cool off a bit and it would be too cold outside to swim in the pool. A hot tub would of been awesome! We never swam there the entire time because during the day when it was warm out we would be doing other things such as fishing or touring key west etc...

This would probably be a pretty nice hotel in the summer time but if you go during the winter, i would not recommend it. The staff were friendly. It was pretty hard to find the lobby because the sign was broken an out. We did 2 laps around the parking lot before nothing the main lobby to the hotel (we kept following the signs)

The Bars/Tiki Bars on site weren't all that great. nice view to eat at during the day, too many locals it seemed at night and we didnt even get service in the larger Tiki bar by the marina eventhough we sat there for 15 minutes.

the beach area was always nicely kept up. The little fishing dock on the north end was pretty neat. the view from Rum Runners was great as well.

If you are looking to go fishing for cheap, you wont find it in the marina attached to the hotel. They wanted roughly $700 for a day trip. We went down to southern Islamorada to Bud N' Marys marina and took the Miss Islamorada for $65 per person from 9am-4pm and it was great! The captain was awesome and first mate was very helpful. Between the 2 of us we caught 2 large Mackerel and probably 30+ other various fish between grunts and snapper and grouper.

Also, we went to Shula which is the steak place out front of the hotel. the food was delicious but i ordered a Fat Tire draft beer and the waitress said it would be a few because they needed to change the keg. When i got the beer and drank it at the time it seemed like it wasn't Fat Tire or it was an older beer from the previous keg but i just brushed it off because i am not that picky when it comes to beer. That night i puked my guts out and the only thing i ate differently the entire day from the person i went with was that beer. I puked maybe 2 hours straight. i think they changed the keg for the beer but didnt bleed the lines so they gave me bacteria filled beer that was stuck in the lines for who knows how long. That place will get a separate review if i can find it.

The hotel also charges a "$15 fee" per day for parking and internet use, which is what the person checking me in said. They add that fee so their prices look more reasonable for the base fee so keep that in mind.

I will not return to this hotel. the overall experience was horrible. something different went bad each day. I felt like i was robbed of over $550 for staying there 3 nights because the experience was...