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.
