My husband and I have been going to the Windjammer as our secret little weekend getaway place for about five years now. It is located right in the middle along the motel row in Treasure Island, that runs the full expanse from Clearwater Beach all the way to St. Pete Beach. The Gulf of Mexico is literally in their backyard. As far as location goes, it is perfect. Right across the street from a 24 hour Walgreens which is great for those accidental "oh I forgot something" moments. It is also two doors down from Sloppy Joe's restaurant at the Bilmar, up the road from The Pearl restaurant, diagonally across the street from the bar and grill Ricky T's and across from a pizzeria as well. So, you are never in danger of not being able to find some place for dinner. Most rooms are equipped with both a mini fridge and a microwave if you opt to pick up some dinner and bring it back to your room.
The motel itself is small and comfy. The rooms are always impeccably clean. They serve complimentary coffee in the morning. The heated pool is always in pristine condition. The pool furniture is well maintained. There are washer and dryers available. It is a very quiet, family oriented place. The owners, Cathy (very sweet woman who passed away not too long ago) and her husband run this place like you are another member of her family. They are very good people who always treat their clients well. Cathy's staff has been there for years and they always greet us by name every time we arrive. Their linens and towels are always clean and fresh. This past Easter weekend, my husband and I stayed there. Apparently, due to a severe storm, the pilot light on the water heater went out and there was no hot water. We called the after hours number that Kevin left behind and, despite it being Easter Sunday, he came right out and fixed the water problem for us, no questions asked. This is the kind of treatment that you can expect from the Windjammer. The place is small, if you weren't looking for it, you would drive right past it as it is wedged in between some larger hotels. However, their service far exceeds that of many of the surrounding hotels and motels. My husband and I have stayed in many places along Gulf Blvd. and we always return to the Windjammer. When we hear there is no vacancy there, we are utterly bummed out as we just love our little home away from home.
If you intend to stay there over a holiday week, I would strongly suggest making reservations in advance as they have a very strong, loyal repeat clientele who stay there religiously, year after year. That's one of the things we love best about the Windjammer. At varying times during the year, we always know which guests we can expect to see. We have made a good number of friends from Canada, England and Australia who return quite often to the Windjammer. It is like a family reunion every time we stay. There is a barbecue grill available and quite often, you can find groups of families out back cooking for one another. Some buy the food, some buy the drinks, some buy the snacks and groups of visitors at the hotel end up having impromptu backyard barbecues. It's really nice and is just more of what their homey atmosphere is all about.
Prices are average for the area, and vary between their apartment, motel and efficiency units. It also depends on the time of year that you are booking for. The average motel room stay with two double beds facing poolside is about $85 a night during the Spring/Summer season and gets a little higher around Christmas time by about $20 or so. All their rooms are non smoking rooms, however, ashtrays are available for you to smoke outside of your room (chairs provided) or down by the beach/shuffleboard area.
The only reason I am not giving the Windjammer that all too coveted fifth star is because of the pool closing time. The pool closes at dusk. I don't particularly like this, because sometimes, my husband and I like to go into the pool for an evening swim. Since we are usually on the beach til sunset (you haven't lived til you have seen a sunset on Treasure Island) that means that the pool is generally closed after that. When we come home from having dinner, we cannot go for a swim at night and of course, it is not exactly safe to head into the Gulf waters late at night.
But, if you are looking for a nice place to escape to either overnight if you are a Florida resident or for a week or two if you are from out of town, I would highly recommend the Windjammer. They are a mere 10 minutes away from John's Pass, where there is great shopping, dining, boat tours and the very best of what Treasure Island has to offer. We love it there and I just know you will too. Tell them "The Hurricane Kids" sent you. (While everyone else bolts themselves indoors during hurricanes, my husband and I run to our favorite little motel spot and take in the storms from the beach...hence our nickname given to us by Tom!) read more
