629 Bay Hotel: A Convenient, Spacious Option for a Great Clearwater Beach Holiday

CLEARWATER BEACH, FLORIDA – One of the best beaches in the United States. And a quiet, modern and super-convenient place to stay with tons of space.

I recently had a night at the 629 Bay Hotel in Clearwater Beach, Florida, thanks to the folks at booking.com, which paid for my stay. It’s not a traditional hotel in many ways, but there are lots of nice amenities and bright, clean rooms.

The initial approach is a little strange if you’re used to a traditional hotel. There’s no big lobby and not much in the way of signage at the property, which consists of a series of one-story buildings strung out along the gulf coast Intracoastal Waterway. It’s more of a motel set-up than a hotel, and several of the units appear to be rented.
The units are painted bright white and surrounded by lawns that looked like they could use a watering. Our unit, number 10, was at the end of a row of rooms and featured a couple of small chairs out on a covered walkway that overlooked a patch of grass with a paved sitting area and a barbeque.

There’s not a lot of curb appeal. But we punched in the code we were given to enter the unit and were very pleasantly surprised. The floors are a light, weathered wood and the living room features a large sofa and a comfortable love seat with a flat screen TV. Walls were painted white with minimal Florida clutter and hardly any Florida kitsch. About the only decorate nod I could see to the Sunshine State was a small gold statue of an alligator perched on a bookcase near the television.

There’s a nice kitchen around the corner with a table for two, a huge, modern fridge, a full stove, a microwave oven, a toaster and a Keurig coffee maker. Everything looked shiny and new.

Out back there’s a large wooden patio with a picnic table that overlooks a quiet bay on the Intracoastal Waterway. A couple of small boats were being piloted around the bay while we sat outside. We spotted a few kids playing by a nearby dock, but it was extremely quiet.

Unit 10 has two bedrooms, one a little larger than the other, with large beds. There’s a single bathroom with a tub and shower and nice bath products.
The grassy area out front is fine for small kids who want to toss a frisbee or kick a ball around. But it’s not a big area, and there’s no pool.

There are a few other advantages, however; one being free parking in an area where it can cost you quite a bit to leave your car overnight. There also was free Wi-Fi in our unit and we were told there was a washer and dryer in one of the buildings, perhaps a one-minute walk from our unit.

We didn’t have a lot of time, but we chatted briefly with folks who live in the complex and found them quite helpful and friendly.

Aside from the space to spread out and the free parking and Wi-Fi, perhaps the best part of a stay here is your proximity to the beach and to the shops and restaurants of Clearwater Beach, a fun and enjoyable town with lots to offer. There’s also a large park with a great set of playground equipment for the kids that’s perhaps a two-minute walk away.

We could’ve made dinner in our unit but we chose instead to wander down the street to a small bar called Cooters, which serves up tasty grilled fish and is well-known for Monday night “all you can eat” snow crab dinners. A couple of beers and two grilled grouper sandwiches set us back less than $40.

We also stopped for a late lunch at a place on the beach called Palm Pavilion, which we were told started out as a hot dog shack back in 1926 and later became the first shop on the beach to sell bikini swimsuits. We had a nice dish of coconut shrimp and a lovely serving of homemade guacamole and enjoyed Rolling Rock draught beers for a mere $3. A sign on our table said they sell Bud Light or Miller Lite for $2 at happy hour.

You also can dress things up in Clearwater Beach if you so choose. The relatively new, gleaming Wyndham Grand and the equally luxurious Sandpearl Resort each have nice restaurants, as does the Hyatt down the road and the Sheraton Sand Key, a little further south.

Clearwater Beach is one of the finest stretches of sand on the continent, a wide and super-long affair that’s centred by Pier 60, where you can fish or wander about to enjoy the coastal views. You’ll find tables scattered along the pier with folks offering locally made jewelry and other fun bits, and there’s a large park for kids just before you enter the pier. They also have giant inflatable slides the kids can use and trapeze-like bouncing swings.

You’ll find a number of places on the beach to rent cabanas or umbrellas, not to mention personal watercraft or kayaks. It’s a great location for kids on spring break, and the water is almost always gentle enough for small children to enjoy.

The nearby shopping areas feature colourful surf shops such as Ron Jon, as well as those massive American drug stores that sell everything from groceries to beach towels and booze.

If you want to get away to some place a little quieter, the delightful town of Dunedin is perhaps 15 minutes away by car. Dunedin has a lovely, walkable downtown with fun restaurants such as Casa Tina and the Dunedin Brewery, the first craft beer spot in Florida.

The Pinellas Trail runs through Dunedin; a long stretch of paved trail with no cars; just cyclists and roller bladers and folks out for a nice walk. Also nearby is Honeymoon Island, where you’ll find quiet beaches and more places to kayak or canoe. You can take a fun pontoon boat ride from Honeymoon Island to Caladesi Island, where you’ll find a quiet, beautiful beach and lovely nature trails through thickly forested patches of land.

Oh, yes. Dunedin also is the spring training home of the Toronto Blue Jays. Tickets cost a fraction of what you’d pay in Toronto, and you’re never more than a couple dozen rows from the action.

Booking.com has a great “refer a friend” program, which allows you to save $40 if you book a room at the hotel. Click here to find out about the program:

NOTE: This post was sponsored by booking.com, which paid for my room for the night.