My favorite thing about this resort by far was the beach with its powder-white sand. About 100 yards to the left of the resort on the beach is a retaining wall with a colorful mural. If you love to shell and are adventurous, you must make your way down and around the wall via a concrete ledge. On the other side, stairs will lead you to a rocky beach where you will find unbroken shells normally only found in shops. My son and I spent three afternoons on the beach - called Pointer's Rock - taking photos of birds (not just seagulls, but heron and kingfisher as well), crabs and jellyfish. The most important thing to remember is to check the time of low tide before going over. If the water gets high it can be difficult to get back to the steps, especially if you have a little one. I learned my lesson when my 3-year-old and I almost became trapped by high tides. Luckily, a property owner overlooking the beach allowed us to cut through to avoid the dangerous trek back to the stairs during high tide.

Best Things About the Resort:
The resort is rated RCI Gold Crown. The unit is spacious and modern, equipped with all you need to enjoy the week.

Resort Experience:
Calini Beach Club is a small resort in a community of like resorts, though this one looks to be the nicest. The resort has four floors and elevator access. All units at Calini offer two bedrooms and are 1300 square feet with two bathrooms.

The unit is very clean, with a sort of art deco style. The floors are all tile with the exception of the bedrooms. The living room is furnished with a pullout sofa and rattan chairs. The only thing about the living room I disliked was the entertainment center. Though very nice, the doors only opened to a 90-degree angle with the TV, so there were only two spots to sit where you could actually see the TV. A VCR/DVD player combo is provided. The kitchen has great modern appliances and tile counter tops. Pretty much everything you need to cook with is included. The only issues I had were the lack of a baking sheet or pizza pan (which can be found in a storage closet behind the elevator on the ground floor), and the icemaker, which was out of control.

The large bedroom had a queen size bed, dresser, chair and TV with remote. The attached master bath was heavenly! The tub is as big as the resort's outdoor hot tub, and also includes a shower with removable head. This is great when just needing to rinse the sand off your feet and lower legs as opposed to a full shower.

The second bedroom contained two twin beds, dresser and TV with remote. The walk-in closet contained iron with board, small vacuum, broom, and luggage rack. Across the hall, the second bathroom boasted a walk-in tile shower also with removable massaging shower head.

Each unit has a balcony with table, chairs, and bar that faces the kitchen windows. Our view was great as we were on the fourth floor, but lower floors don't have an ocean view.

The resort has an outdoor pool, nothing fancy but of a decent size. Also there is an enclosed hot tub. As mentioned above there is a storage closet that can be accessed with your room key and contains additional cooking supplies, high chair, stroller, beach chairs, bicycles and beach toys. This was great as it saved me the fee for renting a beach chair all week.

The resort staff had an organized welcome breakfast Monday morning with coffee, juice and donuts, and a midweek pitch, which we did not attend. I figured the trouble to cook wasn't worth the hot dog entree provided. I did love the gas grills provided by the resort. These are left on low at all times, no tricky lighting to worry about, and it was great to be able to barbeque.

• Unit Type: 2 Bedroom
• Activities: Good
• Amenities: Very Good
• Unit Satisfaction: Excellent
• Family Friendliness: Excellent
• Service: Excellent

• Unit Type: 2 Bedroom
• Activities: Good
• Amenities: Excellent
• Unit Satisfaction: Excellent
• Family Friendliness: Excellent
• Service: Excellent

Units are very nice: large, clean, and convenient. Balcony doors open the entire length of the room. The bathroom's soaking tub is as big as a children's swimming pool (my kids loved it!). The second bathroom's tiled shower is very nice too. The mattresses are VERY thin, but not unbearable considering how nice the unit is.

The laundry rooms are on two floors, though second floor has two washers and two dryers, while other floor only has one of each. They were good machines and worked well.

My only complaint was the beach by the resort. There is a large drainage pipe right on the beach. It was gross. We drove down to a public beach access and enjoyed our days there. We did not try the pool or Jacuzzi (though there were people in both every day and night). The beach on Siesta Key is absolutely beautiful, the nicest I've ever seen.

I would gladly exchange into Calini again because of its size and layout. Other resorts might be a bit more convenient to access a nice beach, but many don't offer the size units or aren't as modern and clean.

Restaurants we enjoyed include: Turtles on Siesta Key, Columbia's in Armand's Circle (the 1905 salad is incredible), the Beach House, Rotten Ralph's, and the Rod and Reel Pier all on Anna Maria Island, Dry Dock's on Longboat Key and Sugar and Spice Amish Restaurant in Sarasota.

We also really enjoyed the Mote Aquarium.

• Unit Type: 2 Bedroom
• Activities: Very Good
• Amenities: Very Good
• Unit Satisfaction: Excellent
• Family Friendliness: Excellent
• Service: Excellent

• Unit Type: 2 Bedroom
• Activities: Fair
• Amenities: Good
• Unit Satisfaction: Good
• Family Friendliness: Excellent
• Service: Excellent