Last week we had the opportunity to spend a few nights at one of those hotels with an unnecessarily long name: the Fairfield Inn and Suites Sarasota Lakewood Ranch. Not only is it too long, it’s a little misleading – the hotel is located just north of the Sarasota city limits in Bradenton, Florida.
The hotel is located a few feet from the intersection of I-75 and University Parkway, making it extremely convenient for anybody visiting the fast-growing Lakewood Ranch community. The soon-to-open Mall at University Town Center is on the opposite corner of the intersection and Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport (SRQ) is 6 miles east on University Parkway.
We have only two minor complaints about our stay at this Fairfield Inn: The signal for a couple of the local TV stations was surprisingly weak, unexpected in flat-as-a-pancake Florida. And if you’re going to put one of those “hang your towel from the rack if you don’t want us to wash it everyday” tags in the bathroom, you should instruct your cleaning crew on the concept. Otherwise, the housekeeping staff did a great job. Nice free breakfast every morning, with a wide variety of edibles available. (Some folks might appreciate it more if it stayed open past 9 a.m.) Room rates were a little bit pricier than you might expect for a Fairfield Inn, but we were still within the busy time of the year for visits to Florida.
