Indian Harbor Beach Club Review

We stayed for ten days at the Indian Harbor Beach Club.

The best way I can describe the Indian Harbor Beach Club is it is a  six floor building with condos that are privately owned by predominately snow birds. While the snow birds are away, the condos are available for rent.

 We rented the 1200sqft condo 301, which is a corner condo allowing us to look out the beach through the back of the condo (which is what we did primarily) as well as up the beach through the side window. This is a two bedroom, two bath condo with an open floor plan that includes a living room, dinning room, and kitchen. There is also a laundry room.

There is a large balcony with access from the living room and master bedroom. The balcony on our side of the building overlooked the pool and the ocean beyond. If I were concerned with the beach view, I wouldn't want to be on the first floor and probably not the second floor. Floors 3 through 6 would provide a nice ocean view.

 Our condo (as I suspect all of them do?) came with beach chairs, beach umbrella, boogie boards, sand toys, and pool toys. We were at the Condo in August and the beach was surprisingly empty most of the time. We could look up and down the beach and not see anyone for a long ways. There would be the occasional beach walker or jogger. And occasionally a family would pitch their umbrella in the sand or use the pool. But for most of the time it felt like we had a private beach!

 The beach is a little interesting... and since it is all sand, the beach might be different when you visit. For us, there was a large hill that the tide would reach and then not cross - even at high tide. The beach has a significant slope into the ocean, which means you don't have to go very far before being waist deep. Due to this, the waves crash shortly before hitting shore, and the waves crashes can be fairly violent. You could be knee deep and then  easily whacked by a shoulder height wave.

"Violent" is probably too harsh of a term, however, when you see the waves on cocoa beach you'll understand the difference. Because the waves hit so hard, the tend to crush sea shells. But don't worry, if you want sea shells just go north a few hundred yards and you'll find piles of sea shells that no one has touched. As mentioned, there are few people on the beach so there are few people hunting for shells.

Sea turtles nest on this beach from May through October. It was very common to awake and find sea turtle tracks on the beach. During the full moon when the beach was lit, we stayed up to 11pm and watched the turtles come ashore from our balcony! While all this is great, there are state regulations that require no lights on the beach after 9pm. That means you must either shut off all your lights or close all the blinds after 9pm. That's a bit of a hassle, but it is for a good cause: to protect the turtles.

Not every condo rental place has a pool, and I think a pool is essential. The ocean is fun, but, I don't like going in very deep because we are sharing the ocean with ocean life, some of which wouldn't mind a tasty human snack. Also, after laying in the sand and then spraying off the sand and showering off the sand, it is nice to jump in a pool to get those last bits of sand off.

The pool faces the east, which means it gets the morning sun. In the afternoon the building shades the pool, which means the pool water in the afternoon is as warm as bath water without having to be in the direct sunlight! The pool posts a maximum capacity of 15 people. And while I never saw more than five in the pool, it could easily hold much more than 15. 

The area around the condo is fairly sparce, but 10 or 15 minute drive can get you to almost anything. There are many Mexican and sea food choices, a Walmart, Lowes and Publix not far away, Cocoa beach just up the road, and Canaveral just beyond that. Other than shopping, eating, and beaching - there isn't much else to do. We found some miniature golf, a movie theater, and a 18+ comedy club. But when I compare it to the Disney area, or to Myrtle Beach - there isn't much to do. Come to this area with the intention of spending long lazy days on the beach and you won't be disappointed.

From our balcony, we were able to see cruise ships after they left Port Canaveral. They were very small on the horizon. We could also see coast guard ships and fishing ships. I have been told you can also see space launches from Cape Canaveral! This is where binoculars come in handy. Luckily 301  had a pair, but, I recommend you bring a pair for your vacation. The binoculars did much better than the 50x zoom on my camera, allowing us to identify all the cruise ships.

Condo 301 has large flat screen TVs in each room, super fast wifi, comfortable lazy boy chairs, a nice leather couch, a large master bedroom bath, high quality durable deck furniture, and updated expensive kitchen cabinetry. It is decorated superbly. The parking lot is covered to protect your vehicle form the sun and the weather.  There is an elevator to take you to each floor, along with luggage racks and shopping carts to help transport items to your condo.

There were two inexcusable situations where condo staff tried to gain access to our condo. I have all my office equipment, the kids have their video games, and we have a few valuables. When we are looking for a villa we always question who will have access to the room because we need to know how concerned to be with locking up these items. We were told no one would be accessing the condo. That wasn't true. In the first case, a maid was attempting to access because she wanted to use the dryer and didn't realize the condo was rented. A second time, a maintenance guy was replacing the air conditioning filter - and while signs had been posted that the filters would be changed, they weren't posted in advance so we could see it.  We received a sincere apology from the office.

When I do these reviews I try to be very critical. The last thing my readers need is a sales pitch. They want to know the real deal - they want to know the bad things so they can decide if they want to go there. I am struggling to come up with some bad things to report. The price was high for my taste, but as far as sea side condos go, it was very reasonable. They tried to gain access to the room, but apologized. The beach is rough compared to cocoa, but not bad and is very quite.

In the balance, I think this is a wonderful place. I would love to come back again if I ever had the opportunity.

Golf and Gator Review

We were interested in some mini-golf during our stay at the beach so we went to Golf and Gator at Cocoa Beach.

Golf n Gator offers two 18-hole golf courses that were a lot of fun. It was rather expensive at $16 per person! But if you do all 36 holes, it is $20, which is still high but a little more reasonable. The golf courses take you past a huge tortoise (who was sleeping in his house when we came buy)  and some huge iguanas in cages.  They had something unique I hadn't seen before: dials that you spin at some holes to for some random activities. See the video here.

 The mini-golf is just part of what we did. They have a gator pond where you can pay to feed the gators! You can also hold a gator or buy reptile jewelry and skeletons. They also have a small gift shop and a place to get food (but no ice cream?).

We took part in a "panning for gems" feature. You guy a bag of pay dirt, dump into into a sifter, and then wash away the dirt. What remains are colorful low value gems. The boys had never done anything like that before and enjoyed it.

Unfortunately, we picked one of the hottest days of the year to play mini-golf. The heat was sweltering at nearly 100 degrees. It was challenging to keep our spirits high and our frustration low under such conditions.

We did the Swamp Cave golf course. You can see Hole 7 (the cave) in this video: click here. 

We spent a little more than an hour at Gator and Golf, which was perfect (especially considering the heat). It might take ninety minutes to do everything including both rounds of golf. If you are looking for something a little different and don't mind the price? This might be a nice place to stop at.

Cocoa Beach Pier

We spent an evening at the Cocoa Beach Pier

 The pier stretches a long ways into the ocean and is filled with restaurants, bars, and shops.

The beach area has six sand volleyball courts and is watched over by life guards (although we arrived at 5:30 and the life guards had left even though there remained plenty of people on the beach).

The surf is different at this part of the ocean versus the ocean in front of our condo. At our condo, the beach slopes deeply quickly, causing the waves to break around fifteen feet out. At this part of the beach it is much more shallow. You could be thirty feet out into the surf and you aren't at knee deep. That means the waves break way early and then roll up onto the shore.

The long wave breaks were enjoyed by the surfers. There were dozens of them around the pier trying to catch really good waves.

 

The pier itself has bars, restaurants, and a gift shop. There is also an arcade, although most of the games in the arcade were broken. There are plenty of places to sit at tables on the pier to dine, or benches to sit at to watch the surf. If you take the pier all the way to the end, you'll find the outside tiki bar.

 

 

We decided to eat dinner at Pelicans and got a great window seat overlooking the water. My wife ordered the shrimp skewers, which came with "sidewinder" French fries.

I ordered a cheeseburger with bacon and a fried egg on it.

 The boys had hamburger and fries and grilled cheese. The restaurant was very nice, but a little pricey. I get it - we are paying for the view, and the view was magnificent.

Fishlips Review

Our plan was to go to Squidlips for dinner on Monday, but we arrived and they were closed. So... we went to the next best thing: Fishlips in Port Canaveral.

Fishlips is a two story restaurant sitting right on the water's edge at the port. 

 I ordered a French Dip with potato chips. The sandwhich had cheese melted over the over the meat, which is an oddity I'll never understand - but it was fine. It came with enough Au Jus for half the sandwhich. That aside, it was very filling and very good.

 My wife ordered coconut shrimp with fries and had them add a crab cake to it. This was her first ever crab cake and she described it as being very similar to tuna fish.

 For desert we ordered the bread pudding. The desert was supposed to have been made with rum, but I detected zero rum in the desert. Honestly, the desert was underwhelming. It was some crouton like pieces of bread pudding with a large scoop of vanilla ice cream, and then caramel and walnuts over the top.

The meal was OK, just nothing great. The  best part, I suppose, was the fantastic view of the port (with the sand recycling facility across the water). If I were to do this meal again? I would pick a different seaside restaurant. Perhaps Squidlips.

Sand Gets Everywhere

I have decided that I prefer pools to beaches. I prefer to look at a beach - I could look at waves crashing on the beach for hours and hours. But when it comes to recreation and play time? I prefer the clean smell of chlorine and red burning eyes to sand any day.

We have been taking the beach chairs to the shore and letting the waves run over our feet this week. That is a lot of fun. As the tide comes in, the warm waves start at my feet and work their way up to my knees. Before I know it the waves are at my waist! The sandchair is buried in the sand! And I have become part of the beach, buried as well.

It is time to leave and we take half the beach in our bathing suites and the other half of the beach stuck to our skin. Luckily, there are showers at the pool to wash the sand off. But all that does is just move the sand to other parts of my body.

Back at the condo I can shower to get the sand off. But every shower in the US has a water restricter built into it, which means all I get is a drizzle coming out of the shower head. The water pressure isn't enough to move the sand, much less take it off my body. And sand gets everyone - and in places I am sure it is not supposed to be!

Even after scrubbing and scrubbing to get all the sand off, I still fill itchy as if there remains sand on me. For the night and into the next day, I continue to find sand in the oddest places that I know for a fact that I cleaned. The itching is probably justified - do you know how dirty sea water is? Dead fish, fish poop, crabs, rotting sea weed, and who knows what else might be bathing you. Sea shells that litter the beach are the dead remains of sea creatures. Sitting in the sand at the beach is not very sanitary.

I don't like sand. I know that without sand there would be no beach, but the sand takes away the fun of going to the beach.

I think I'm going to stay a pool boy. I'll watch the beach. I might even walk on the beach. But my goal is to make sure nothing more than the bottoms of my feet ever get sandy. You'll find me at the pool.

Coconuts on the Beach Review

We had lunch at Coconuts on the Beach on Cocoa Beach.

Coconuts on the Beach is literally right on the beach. If you step off the deck we were on you were walking on sand. There was a constant flow of people heading to and from the beach passing by the deck. The restaurant offers showers along the side of the building, so, it was a popular stop for people washing off sand before heading back to their car.

 At first it was a little odd to see a waitress in a bikini head out to the beach to deliver drinks, and the security guard (bouncer) walking around in a bathing suit... but we were really on the beach. And people were coming up on the deck to order a drink at the bar or a snack and then heading right back out to the ocean.

 The beach in front of our condo is, for the most part, deserted. There is rarely anyone one it. So, it was a departure for us to see all the people on Cocoa Beach It reminded me of Myrtle Beach in South Carolina with wall to wall people.

It was lunch, so, we ordered fairly tame food. I ordered a grilled chicken Caesar salad, my wife ordered the chicken Caesar wrap, and the boys had hamburgers and fries. Everything arrived quickly and was very good.

It was ninety-five degrees in the afternoon, and even with the slight ocean breeze the heat was oppressive. My oldest son abandoned us to go inside the restaurant where it was air conditioned.  We stayed outside and enjoyed the beach scenes before finally leaving.

I thought Coconuts on the Beach was excellent and I wouldn't hesitate to return. I might suggest returning on a slightly cooler day, but return nonetheless.

Exploration Tower at Port Canaveral

We visited the Exploration Tower at Port Canaveral for the purpose of getting an excellent view of the cruise ships leaving port. I had incorrectly read the cost of admittance was $2.50. It was $6.50, which is a total rip off considering how small the tower actually is.

There are six floors and an observation deck on the seventh floor. Each floor provides an excellent view of the port. 

The first floor is the gift shop. Second floor talks about history of the area. Third floor shows a 20 minute movie about the port. 

It also has a surf board photo op

Fourth floor is just for meetings. Fifth talks about the boats in the harbor.  It has a simulator that allows you to try your luck at navigating the port.

The tiny sixth floor talks about NASA. But the real reason we went was for the seventh floor: the observation deck.  From the observation deck you can see NASA off in the distance and I am told it is one of the best places to see a rocket launch. You can see the beaches southward down the coast. And you can see the entire port.

We watched two massive cruise ships leave port and go out to sea. One of the ships was the Oasis of the Seas, the largest cruise ship in the world! It is five times larger than the Titanic was. There are cruise ships leaving the port every day (one to three of them) and they usually leave between 4pm and 5pm. 

The tower is small and there isn't much to do. The tower's main focus is to promote tourism and there is evidence of corporate sponsorship around the building. I could understand if window space might be a premium during rocket launches (which do not happen very often), but we were the only people at the tower.  Therefore I do not understand why it is so expensive to visit the tower.  

I do not recommend the Exploration Tower. If you want to see a cruise ship up close and leaving the port? Just go to one of the many bars and restaurants along the port's shore. Drive past Exploration Tower and keep going to the water's edge and you'll see an entire line of restaurants.

Further Away from Disney

Part of this year's theme was to try life further away from Disney. Sure, it sounds like a great idea to live the Disney life just minutes away from The World. But those who have tried it have reported frustrations with traffic and tourists. And I must admit, those two issues do become annoying even with our relatively short stays near Disney.

Our first villa was in Davenport. This was close enough to Disney (30-45 minutes to be almost anywhere) but was far enough away so that trips to the less touristy Haines City was possible. The second part of our trip was to go even further away. He had heard and seen wonderful things about the Melbourne area. In fact, several years ago we spent a couple of days at the beach. We decided to rent a condo at the beach just north of Melbourne.

Beach real-estate is much more expensive than the Kissimmee area, so, our dollars didn't go as far. We gave up a five bedroom pool house for a 1200sqft two bedroom condo with a shared pool. However, what this place lacks in space, it makes up for in views and outside enjoyment!

From this location we can see cruise ships and rocket launches from Cape Canaveral.

 And we are approximately 90 minutes away from Disney - far enough to make daily trips impractical, but not so far that we couldn't go whenever we wanted to.

The Rt. 192 area near Disney is very commercialized with all kinds of chain restaurants. The beach area still has a local flavor with many local restaurants, yet is a short drive to some of our favorite chains. We grocery shopped at a Publix and were blow away by how expensive everything was! We have been shopping at Walmart (and probably should have done so again) which has prices that we are used to seeing at home.

For the rest of this trip it is sand, surf, and relaxation. Check out the video here.