Boca Raton: Not My #1 Choice For Vacationing
Written: Oct 31 '03 (Updated Nov 02 '03)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Hilton Garden Inn, Cheesecake Factory, Town Center, Festival Flea Market
Cons: A bit of a boring city - no large strip of restaurants and stores, etc.
The Bottom Line: I wouldn't recommend Boca Raton unless you're going just for shopping.
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| jetbluefan1's Full Review: Boca Raton, Florida |
We recently took a trip to the southern parts of Florida. During this trip, we visited and stayed in Fort Lauderdale, Naples, Hollywood and Boca Raton. We enjoyed all parts of our trip, but Boca was definitely the most expensive city that we visited. Boca is home to many rich people, and there are several factors that reflect its richness:
Area
1.) The roads are exceptional. They are extremely well paved and have no bumps or pot-holes. There are also many lanes on most of the main roads and highways. Due to these extra lanes, there really isn’t too much traffic in Boca Raton - at least I didn’t experience any.
2.) Boca is extremely clean. I never saw any type of littering anywhere in Boca, and there are no big factories to pollute the air.
3.) There is beautiful landscaping. On many of the main roads, there were medians with gardens, palm trees, and beautifully shaped bushes. This shows that the designers of different parts of Boca had to spend a lot of money to make the scenery beautiful.
Boca Raton relies on Fort Lauderdale heavily for air travel. Since there is no airport in Boca, the Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport is the main gateway for those in the city. The airport is served by a very large number of airlines including low-fare airlines AirTran, Southwest and JetBlue. The airport is about 20 minutes away. There is also West Palm Beach Airport which is convenient to Boca Raton also. It's about 30 minutes away, and it's served by most domestic airlines that fly into Fort Lauderdale.
The city isn’t very popular with beach go-ers. Beach go-ers will usually go to Fort Lauderdale, Miami or Palm Beach instead of going to Boca. But there is Pompano Beach which is most the most crowded beach there. Other beaches in the area include Highland Beach and Deerfield Beach.
My Stay
While we visited, we stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn. This hotel was exceptional. The rooms were very clean, spacious, and well taken care of. The staff members were also very friendly and professional. It’s located about ten minutes from Town Center and around 25 minutes from Fort Lauderdale. The room rates are a bit high, but if you’re looking for a luxurious stay in Boca Raton, Hilton Garden Inn is definitely my first recommendation.
My wife really wanted to go shopping at Town Center. First of all, I want to say that Town Center is a beautiful mall. The parking lots are covered by a roof, so the rain won’t wet your car. This came really handy as it was raining the day we went there. The mall is very clean, and the floors are marble. It’s not really a crowded mall, but it has a huge selection of stores and is a good place to spend the day. The department stores are:
- Burdines
- Bloomingdales
- Saks Fifth Avenue
- Nordstrom
- Lord & Taylor
- Sears
Burdines can only be found in Florida, that’s why it’s called “the Florida store.” The items are of high quality, though the prices are high. Burdines is extremely similar to Bloomingdales, Saks Fifth Avenue and Nordstrom in almost all aspects - the same styles, the same products, similar pricing, and high quality items.
We didn’t dine anywhere really fancy while in Boca Raton, but we did dine at Cheesecake Factory. It’s a chain restaurant and it doesn’t have too many locations. I was lucky to find one in Boca Raton. The atmosphere is a type of Egyptian architecture, and the staff is professional. The food was pretty good, but I must warn you that Cheesecake Factory is EXPENSIVE!
Festival Flea Market Mall was another place we visited. It’s a huge building with too much air conditioning and very high ceilings. In the flea market, there are so many goods. You’ll find ANYTHING you’re looking for. There are shops for pocketbooks, clothing, jewelry, toys, cultural artifacts, paintings, and antiques. There are also sporting goods and items for the kitchen.
We found a Greek lady who owned her own little shop. My wife really liked the decent priced Greek Eye necklaces and rings. My wife didn’t like the quality of many of the clothes in many of the shops, but she did comment that some of the more expensive jewelry was still cheaper than that sold at Whitehall or Zales. The mall has over 800 shops and has an international food course.
The shops aren’t really large, so you really have to look around to find something that you really want. Some shops are larger than others, but I found all of the shops to be cramped and filled to maximum capacity. I wouldn’t say that you need a lot of money for the Festival Flea Market Mall because the items are quite cheaper than what you’ll find at a regular mall like Town Center.
Conclusion
Would I like to go back to Boca Raton? It probably wouldn’t be my first choice. Why? Because there are some really expensive areas and there isn’t much to do. The city is known for those who are rich and who’ve retired. It isn’t exactly the biggest place for vacation, but a lot of businesses go through Boca. I would definitely recommend going to nearby Fort Lauderdale instead.
Note: Due to comments on the subject, I feel that I need to tell you this. I'm writing about MY experience and stay at Boca Raton. I realize that there are many attractions in the Boca Raton area that I didn't mention, but that's only because I stayed in Boca for three days. I'm planning on going there again and I plan on updating my review with more information once I do so. Thanks!
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Recommended:
No
Best Suited For: Seniors
Best Time to Travel Here: Mar - May
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