Review: St. Regis Longboat Key, Florida (Family Friendly Paradise)

Recently, we spent a couple of nights at the St. Regis Longboat Key Resort, located on the west coast of Florida, on a barrier island near Sarasota. This was part of a little family road trip, as Ford and I took our son, Miles, to go see my mom in St. Petersburg, and then spent a couple of days at the beach on the return.

The 166-room St. Regis Longboat Key opened in August 2024, so it’s one of the newest luxury properties in the United States. Look, I’ve gotta be honest, I came in with modest expectations, because I just generally don’t expect much from hotels in the United States. As a matter of fact, I barely travel domestically, and rarely choose to vacation at hotels in the United States (except Hawaii), because I find that more often than not, I’m disappointed by the value proposition and level of service.

With that in mind, the St. Regis Longboat Key exceeded our expectations by a long shot, and we’d return in a heartbeat (as a matter of fact, we’re already planning our next stay). Unlike so many other hotels, the developers clearly spent a lot of money on this property, and didn’t cut corners. On top of that, the resort has very friendly service, lots of amenities, an amazing pool setup, access to a gorgeous beach, and excellent dining.

The one thing worth being aware of is that this is an extraordinarily family friendly resort. For us that’s amazing, because we were traveling with our young son, and he loved it. But if you’re traveling without kids, be aware that a lot of families stay here, and nearly everything is family friendly, from the pools, to the restaurants. That’s one of the things that we love about this place and that makes us want to return, but of course that won’t be for everyone.

Booking the St. Regis Longboat Key

We spent two nights midweek in early June at the St. Regis Longboat Key. I redeemed Bonvoy points for our stay, at the rate of 107,000 points per night, meaning our stay cost a total of 214,000 points. For what it’s worth, I value Bonvoy points at 0.7 cents each.

As a point of comparison, the cash would’ve been a little over $1,000 per night, before taxes, so I considered redeeming points to be the better value. As you’d expect, rates here vary seasonally, and they dip to under $600 in the low season, and climb to over $1,200 in the peak season.

If you’re booking a stay with cash, I’d recommend doing so through the Marriott STARS program, which offers extra perks, like complimentary breakfast, a room upgrade subject to availability, a $100 property credit, and more.

Regardless of how you book, the St. Regis Longboat Key has a $55 per night resort fee, which includes the following:

• Daily beach chair and umbrella set
• Daily two hours of bicycle usage
• St. Regis Longboat Key pool and beach bag
• Enhanced Wi-Fi
• Then Bonvoy Gold members and above receive a non-alcoholic specialty beverage available at the pools or pool restaurant daily from 11AM until 6PM

St. Regis Longboat Key location

The St. Regis Longboat Key is located at 1601 Gulf of Mexico Drive, on Longboat Key (as the name suggests). This is a barrier island just a short drive from Sarasota. Longboat Key is a generally sleepy island with a quaint little town, but for the most part, the focus is on great beaches.

The St. Regis is definitely the most luxurious and modern property on Longboat Key, and stands as you drive by. There’s also a residences area, so it’s quite a large complex.

In terms of getting to Longboat Key, we drove from St. Petersburg, and the drive took around an hour. We then returned to Miami, where the drive took around four hours. Alternatively, the resort is around 25 minutes from Sarasota Airport (SRQ) or around 90 minutes from Tampa Airport (TPA).

If you’re arriving with a vehicle, the hotel exclusively has valet parking, and that costs $55 per night. Obviously that’s steep, but also not surprising, for a St. Regis.

When it comes to getting around Longboat Key, the St. Regis has a Bentley town car, which will take you around, on a first come, first served basis. Talk about a nice ride!

It’s also possible to just use the hotel’s bikes, which are included with the resort fee.

I think it’s worth emphasizing that Longboat Key is pretty low key. Yes, you can go to the nearby town, and can go to Sarasota as well. But this is a very different vacation than going to Miami or Fort Lauderdale, as it’s much more laid back.

St. Regis Longboat Key lobby & check-in

We had a great first impression of the St. Regis. We were immediately welcomed by the valet and bellmen, who took care of our car and helped us with our luggage. Then at the door to the hotel, we were greeted by one of the butlers, and walked to the reception area.

The St. Regis Longboat Key has a pretty “grand” lobby, with nice flower arrangements, art, and lighting, right as you enter.

The lobby is huge, and is the indoor hub of the hotel, as this is where you’ll find the St. Regis Bar, the main restaurants, and more. There’s tons of seating in the lobby, a fireplace, and a self-playing piano, so this is also a nice place to hang out.

The reception area is located just inside the entrance to the hotel and to the right, and consists of three individual desks, where guests can be seated while their check-in is processed. We were checked in by Autumn, who was lovely — she was friendly and provided lots of details about the hotel, without going overboard. She also gave us a fact sheet about all the hotel’s included activities, plus the kids club. We were also offered our choice of water or prosecco, and just chose the former.

She also explained that on account of my Marriott Bonvoy Ambassador status, we had been upgraded to a John Jacob Astor Suites — score! This hotel seems to do its best with upgrades, though of course the timing of your stay greatly impacts upgrade odds. Presumably it helped that we were staying mid-week in the start of the off season, when the hotel didn’t seem to be very full.

On account of my status, we could also select complimentary breakfast as our welcome amenity. This hotel offers eligible elite members a flat $100 breakfast credit daily, which is quite generous, compared to many other Bonvoy properties in the United States.

With keys in hand, we were escorted to the elevators, just down the hall. While one of the butlers offered to bring us up, we politely declined.

The hotel has five floors, and our room was on the second floor. By the way, the hotel has a really whimsical design theme that’s used, as you’ll see on the elevator screen backdrop. This is used in many areas of the hotel, and they even sell custom Vilebrequin swim suits with that design in the lobby shop. It’s almost a little White Lotus inspired, but with a Longboat Key twist.

St. Regis Longboat Key suite

We were assigned room 203, a John Jacob Astor Suite on the second floor, at the very end of the hall. Just as an example of how much money was put into this hotel, just look at the level of detail that went into the hallway design. It’s quite a contrast to the hallway design at the Ritz-Carlton Turks & Caicos, which I still can’t wrap my head around.

At 1,008 square feet (91 square meters), the John Jacob Astor Suites here are pretty epic. Our suite had a long entryway with a half bathroom to the right of the entrance.

Then down the hall was the huge living room, including a dining table that could seat four people, plus a living area with a couch, two chairs, and a wall-mounted TV. I was impressed by how high-end all the finishes and design elements felt, from the floors, to the art, to the lighting fixtures.

The bedroom was separated from the living room by a door. The bedroom had a comfortable signature St. Regis bed, a couch at the foot of the bed, and a sitting area with two chairs.

There was also a wall-mounted TV in the corner, along with a minibar. The minibar had a Nespresso coffee machine, plus a variety of drinks and snacks for purchase.

Then off the bedroom, there was a large closet area, right in front of the bathroom.

The primary bathroom featured double sinks, a soaking tub, a walk-in shower, and a toilet.

Toiletries were in reusable bottles from Sachajuan, which seems to be what St. Regis properties are increasingly switching to

Probably the best part of these suites is that they’re oceanfront, so they have the best views of any rooms in the resort. The outdoor space boasted a table with two chairs, plus two loungers.

What a view!!

Shortly after arriving in our room, a welcome gift was delivered, consisting of a card and a box of chocolates.

Because we were in a suite, the signature St. Regis butler service coffee was provided, which I always appreciate. It’s great to have fresh coffee delivered to your room first thing in the morning.

I also appreciated some of the other thoughtful touches in the room, like the hotel offering a complimentary bathing suit refresh, where you can place your bathing suit in a bag, and it’ll be cleaned.

Housekeeping was provided twice daily (with nightly turndown service), and was very detail oriented.

Honestly, what an awesome suite! Of course the upgrade made us overjoyed, but I’d return without the expectation of getting a suite like this again.

It is worth mentioning that some of the hotel’s rooms are marketed as having no view. When there are negative reviews of the hotel, it often seems to be from people who end up in one of those rooms. Obviously it’s a bit of a bummer to be at a beach resort and have no view, but the hotel isn’t exactly hiding that detail, so…

St. Regis Longboat Key spa & gym

The St. Regis Longboat Key has a 20,000 square foot destination spa with 14 treatments rooms, indoor and outdoor hydrotherapy, steam rooms and saunas, and more. I didn’t have the chance to check this out, as we were only at the hotel for a couple of nights, and toddlers are kind of a full time job.