Alden Suites - A Beachfront Resort in St. Pete Beach, FL

After our cruise was canceled due to COVID-19, I began to look into other vacations where we would have just as much fun. We settled on vacationing on St Pete’s Beach and afternoon a quick Google search and positive reviews, I booked 6 nights at The Alden. We’ve been home for two days and my family wants to plan another trip there already haha. First of all, this resort is very affordable. It’s clean—it is older and you can tell it’s been standing for some time but it’s still very very clean. It’s location is perfect. Right on St Pete’s Beach and a quick drive to many other great areas and beaches if you are looking to experience the area. The water is clean and the beach is immaculate. My kids had never been to the ocean before last week and this beach did not disappoint! We stayed in the one room pool view suite (family suite)—all 5 of us were comfortable. The suite was HUGE. Bedroom with two beds and a lot of space, the bathroom was huge for a hotel and then the living room/kitchen in the other room with a balcony. The mini kitchen was a plus so we could make a few of our meals ourselves and spend more time having fun. There is a Publix right down the street for groceries, a Walgreens and a Walmart neighborhood market Within 7 minutes of driving. Plenty of food options both sit down and fast food. Two pools, plenty of chairs/tables and a huge hot tub on site. Ping pong, shuffle board and tennis/basketball courts (my family only played long long a couple times) on the property. The sunsets are absolutely breathtaking—I had read about them before we arrived but nothing could prepare us for the real deal. Gorgeous. We didn’t hear any noise at night from our room—-not from outside or from the walls (and a couple of nights we had kids in rooms on both sides of us). The pools were never crazy packed either and we spent a lot of time bouncing between pool and o ran every single day, at al hours of the day. Staff were friendly—although we didn’t have a lot of interaction with them. Other than passing by and saying hello, the only other time we had interactions was when we checked in and out and when calling down to request more towels and wash clothes. Our stay was longer than typical and because of COVID-19, cleaning works a bit differently right now. We didn’t have room cleaned except for on day 4—and that day the housekeeper asked if I wanted the room vacuumed. She tidied up, vacuumed and left our daily toiletries but we never had sheets/bedding changed (which was totally fine and may have been due to communication barriers that day when the housekeeper stopped in). I’d say the only complaints about our stay (which really weren’t a big deal at all for us and would not deter us from coming back) was having to call every night to request towels (and waiting for someone to bring them up) and that our room smelled very...mildewy. The day we arrived and opened the door, we were welcomed with a very strong “wet” smell. Given that the rooms are literally right off the beach and families over and over and over again come into the rooms wet from the beach—it didn’t really surprise us at all. I peeked into something rooms when doors were opened and noticed some had tile floors. They may be in the process of remodeling and removing carpets for this reason, replacing with tile. It would be a wise choice to do this with all rooms eventually—just to eliminate the odor. The bungalow’s looked absolutely amazing and next time we stay (there will 100% be a next time) I think I may book one. They are a bit smaller than the suite we got but like I said, my family of 5 had PLENTY of room. I can’t wait u til our next visit. I can’t say enough about The Alden—it was perfect for our family vacation. If it matters, my husband and I are 34 and 36 and our three kids are 9, 15 and 17.

We stayed at the Alden 7 nights, total we had 8 rooms. Everyone had a great stay. The housekeeping staff for my room was fantastic! Ann made the stay very enjoyable. We knew before going that we would have limited service on the room and we were informed again at check in. Housekeeping left us a bag with necessary amenities on our door every other day and room cleaned after 3 days. I had a Gulf View King Suite and it was a great location for getting to the beach, pool, laundry, beach bar, etc . We will be staying again the future!!

This resort is on the beach. We brought our own small beach umbrellas, they do have beach chair umbrellas ($25 a day). We wanted to put up a tent on the beach, but be aware they will not let you put it up in front. They do have a food truck, it has a limited menu and open from 11a.m. - 8pm. The bar is open when the food truck is open (because of Covid) all the bar chairs were removed. The pools are extremely loud, so keep that in mind if you get pool view. Our room, 2 queen beds, very spacious and clean. Friends had the one king room by the pool, very loud and not updated, 70's type of room. Both rooms had a musty smell. I will say housekeeping was on the ball. When we requested something, they brought it up right away. The employees were very nice and they all wore mask. Some people around the resort wore mask others did not. My 3 picks for dinner in the area are : Italian - Verducci's , excellent Italian food. Seafood - Ricks Reef - inside and out for seating. Burgers- Boulevard Burgers & Tap House, right across the street from Alden Suites. The resort does have a parking fee, it starts every day at 2am. They were nice enough to waive mine, because someone scratched it in their parking lot. Not sure if I would stay again, plenty of other resorts in the area to try, this resort needs updating bad. They did say they rent bungalows on the property that have been updated. I did see one and they look nice, a little on the small side for the money. You have to book through them to get the bungalows. They come in King and 2 queen beds. The Kings are by the pool. The queens are more secluded. No temperature taken at checkin. We did have to sign a waiver to wear a mask in common areas.

Would never stay at this resort. Waited 2 days to get new towels. Ended up drying off with hand towels. Neighbors were smoking pot which made our room (our 2 children were with us) smell like it for 2 days. Management did do something about it after 2 days, however never offered to do anything regarding the smell or the opportunity to move rooms, etc. TV only had 2 channels. Smoke detector went off the 2nd night we were there, maintence came and said they would be back the next day to fix it. He laid the smoke detector on our dresser and it was still there when we checked out 4 days later. They never came back. We were checking out, literally standing in our rooms with our bags walking out the door when an employee knocked on our door straight up 11 making sure we were leaving. Was told one parking pass was included, and get home to a charge on my bank account. Called the resort and they said it was $15 a day to park at the facility. Would not recommend to anyone. We stayed Tue-Sun. The noise level was insane from the rooms above and beside us until the morning hours.

Clean room with great views, staff was very accommodating. Location is great so close to an assortment of restaurants. Excellent dinning within walking distance. The beds were great and the dark out curtains were so good you could sleep for ever.