The Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota
Downtown’s swankiest digs, just north of the Ringling Causeway, the Ritz occupies the bottom eight floors of an 18-story Mediterranean-style building (the top floors are private residences). It sits perpendicular to the bay, so most of the spacious guest units have views looking across the water to the Keys and the Gulf. The rooms are luxuriously appointed in typical Ritz-Carlton fashion, including marble bathrooms. The hotel’s on-site restaurant is very good seafood spot. There is no beach on-site, but there is a heated pool, and a shuttle will take you to the hotel’s fabulous, private beach club on Lido Key, which has a zero entry pool, beachfront tiki bar and oceanfront restaurant. Our only complaint here is that the entire hotel doesn’t exist at the beach club. Also offsite, but another plus, is the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, 13 miles from the hotel, featuring a Tom Fazio–designed 18-hole championship course.
Downtown’s swankiest digs, just north of the Ringling Causeway, the Ritz occupies the bottom eight floors of an 18-story Mediterranean-style building (the top floors are private residences). It sits perpendicular to the bay, so most of the spacious guest units have views looking across the water to the Keys and the Gulf. The rooms are luxuriously appointed in typical Ritz-Carlton fashion, including marble bathrooms. The hotel’s on-site restaurant is very good seafood spot. There is no beach on-site, but there is a heated pool, and a shuttle will take you to the hotel’s fabulous, private beach club on Lido Key, which has a zero entry pool, beachfront tiki bar and oceanfront restaurant. Our only complaint here is that the entire hotel doesn’t exist at the beach club. Also offsite, but another plus, is the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, 13 miles from the hotel, featuring a Tom Fazio–designed 18-hole championship course.
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