If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.
Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (USD152.63), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
The concept of boredom isn’t understood at Florida’s PGA National Resort, a family friendly mini metropolis surrounded by lakes and championship golf courses. Its most recent hole-in-one is its multi-million-dollar revamp that has seen the addition of a luxury spa aced by Venus Williams’ V Starr design firm. At an impressive 40,000 square feet and featuring treatment rooms, mineral-rich pools and a hair and nail salon, it’s practically a resort in its own right. The list of stuff to do – as a couple, a family and just for kids – is as long as a five iron; plot the details of your stay in the old-school American diner where the temptation to recreate your favourite movie moments (though perhaps not Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally when the kids are around) may prove as irresistible as the banana mudslide pancakes.
12 noon. Check-in is at 4pm. The resort provides wristbands for access to facilities if rooms are not available for early check-in, and luggage storage for guests who wish to leave later.
Prices
Double rooms from £138.11 ($172), including tax at 13 per cent. Please note the hotel charges an additional resort fee of $44.07 per room per night on check-out.
More details
Breakfast isn’t included but an à la carte breakfast, brunch and coffee can be purchased in Birdie’s Diner or the Market Coffee Shop.
Also
The hotel has a number of ADA-approved rooms for guests with limited mobility and all floors are accessible by elevators.
At the hotel
Four restaurants and a cafe, spa, outdoor pool with separate splash area for kids, tennis courts, golf courses, gym, chocolate store, free WiFi. In rooms: balcony or terrace, LCD HD TV, fridge, free bottled water, air conditioning.
Our favourite rooms
A welcome throwback to the refined glamour of 1960s Palm Beach, rooms and suites feature retro design classics like plush wingback headboards, lacquered bedside tables, statement monochrome palm-leaf wallpaper, and curvaceous pink velvet sofas that would make Austin Powers blush. Heck, there are even palm tree-shaped brass knockers on the doors, just in case you forget where you are. We love the first-floor Resort View rooms with balconies overlooking the tranquil palm-lined lawns.
Poolside
The pool and its bar are open 11am–6pm and overlook the golf course and lake, as well as having a handy view of the adjacent kids’ splash pool.
Spa
If you can imagine it, the spa probably has it: lavish waiting areas with plump, tropical-print cushions and gentle music, all manner of massage treatments (including one just for golfers), mineral-rich pools, Himalayan salt rooms, hot tubs, steam rooms, a beautifully retro hair and nail salon in soft rose pinks, and a 1950’s-style barbershop. Designed by V Starr, the luxury design company founded by Venus Williams, this is one area of the resort where kids are not allowed.
Packing tips
Crisp tennis whites for showcasing your Palm Beach tan (and dazzling your opponent) on the courts and a golf visor to lessen the likelihood of slicing your ball into the rough under the blazing Florida sun. Although, if you do forget yours, both are available in the resort’s pro shops.
Also
There’s a gym big enough to get lost in, plus two aerobics studios packed with state-of-the-art equipment. Over 70 weekly classes run the gamut from meditative morning yoga to fast and furious aqua zumba. Tee off at any of the six golf courses here.
Pet‐friendly
Medium-sized dogs up to 20lbs are welcome. There’s a fee of $150 for the first pet and an additional $75 if you’re bringing two. See more pet-friendly hotels in Florida.
Children
Little Smiths will be in clover at PGA National Resort, with their own pool and kids’ club, plus a chocolate shop, fun mid-century-style American diner and extensive facilities for racquet sports among the many family-friendly highlights.
Best for
Ages four and up are well catered for here thanks to the kids’ club and sports facilities for older children.
Recommended rooms
At nearly 400 square feet, Resort View rooms with two queen-size beds can accommodate parents with up to two kids. Suites offer a little more space to stretch out and adjoining rooms are available in most categories.
Activities
It might be quicker to list the children’s activities they don’t have, but here goes. There’s a kids’ club for ages 4–12 with a jungle-styled play area and stacks of fun games. There’s a gaming arcade, a splash pool and an actual ice cream store. Active types can join yoga classes, play volleyball by the lake, try their hand at lawn croquet, or get involved in the junior academies on the golf ranges and tennis courts.
Swimming pool
There’s a shallow splash pool for younger kids, and those able to swim are welcome in the adjacent main pool.
Meals
Children are permitted in all three restaurants, with Birdie’s Diner’s burgers, fries and syrup-drenched pancakes sure to be a crowd pleaser.
Babysitting
Can be arranged on request.
No need to pack
Clubs are provided for mini golfers at the junior golf clinic. Likewise racquets at the tennis club. However, kids are requested to bring their own bathing suit, change of clothes and sunscreen along to the Banyan Buddies Kids’ Club.
Incurable people watchers will go gaga for the corner booths at the Butcher’s Club, where the full expanse of the glitzy restaurant and its equally glam patrons are laid out in front of you.
Dress Code
Have a bit of fun with the resort’s retro style: try bold graphic prints, bouffants and beehives in Birdie’s and go full Don and Betty Draper for dinner at the Butcher’s Club.
Hotel restaurant
Helmed by celebrity chef Jeremy Ford, winner of Top Chef season 13, The Butcher’s Club is a steakhouse where gleaming polished surfaces abound, from the gold chandeliers right down to the zebra-striped marble floor. Share a boat-sized seafood platter of lobster, shrimp, oysters and ceviche or take up the challenge of the signature 50-oz ‘swinging tomahawk’ steak, smothered in zingy chimichurri or creamy peppercorn sauce.
Honeybelle pays homage to the old South Florida beach cafes of yore, with tropical-print barstools and art deco-style gold fittings. Drop by for comfort food classics like wood-fired pizza, fried chicken and clam chowder. For a taste of something more far-flung, take a seat at the speakeasy-style Sushi by Boū, where opulently adorned interiors contrast the clean lines and colours of the omakase creations.
A delicious slice of mid-century Americana, Birdie’s Diner is so authentically retro you likely wouldn’t bat an eyelid if Elvis himself shimmied in and ordered his favourite deep-fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Your brood will be falling over themselves for a late breakfast of gut-busting banana pancakes and shakes devoured amid the diner’s funky booths and formica tabletops. Kids will have a riot building their own while adults get woozy on boozy concoctions like the Peanut Gallery, an addictive blend of peanut-butter whiskey, chocolate ice cream and salted pretzels.
Hotel bar
A vast island marooned in the centre of the main lobby area, the bar’s marble counter reflects the hundreds of twinkling lights in its striking banyan tree-inspired canopy. Lounge on leather banquettes, snacking on pretzels and sipping classic cocktails until late.
Last orders
The Lobby Bar is open until 11pm on weeknights and the party continues until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.
PGA National Resort basks in the balmy tropical climes of Palm Beach Gardens, six miles from sandy South Florida beaches and 80 miles from downtown Miami.
Planes
Palm Beach International Airport is 15 miles from the resort, around 30 minutes’ drive. It’s about 90 minutes to and from Miami International Airport. The resort can arrange transfers on request.
Trains
There are three train routes operating in Florida. Orlando serves as the meeting point for all three lines, which serve stations including West Palm Beach and Miami to the south, and Jacksonville and other major US hubs to the north.
Automobiles
A guilty pleasure in these parts: cruising South Ocean Boulevard in Palm Beach with the top down, ogling the billionaires’ mansions and maybe even clocking a certain ex-President or two. A car will also give you the freedom to explore the Everglades at your own speed, though we’d recommend switching to a boat tour when you hit the swamps to avoid a costly insurance claim. There are stacks of rental agencies at the airports and in Palm Beach Gardens; valet services ($30) and free self-parking are available at the resort.
Worth getting out of bed for
Those huge expanses of green space just beyond the tropical gardens? Just five 18-hole championship golf courses and a bonus nine-hole with a bar in the middle, no big deal. But swinging clubs aren’t the only recreation available in this revamped resort, where racquet sports including tennis, badminton and pickleball are played on 19 courts and lessons are available for young and old.
Rent a bike to explore the paths around the resort or strike out for Blowing Rocks Preserve, where waves crash against limestone bluffs, creating the kind of spectacular natural geysers that make Las Vegas fountain shows look small-fry by comparison. It’s also less than an hour by bike to sandy North Palm Beach and Juno Beach Park, with its near-1,000-foot wooden pier and calm waters for swimming.
There’s a wild variety of animal encounters available nearby. We’re talking swamp safaris on the trail of the Everglades’ famous crocs and gators, sanctuaries that rehabilitate injured or orphaned animals, and more. Mosey on down to West Palm Beach to visit Palm Beach Zoo and get up close to one of the ocean’s more peculiar critters at the Manatee Lagoon.
Lined with swaying palms and packed with high-end boutiques, Worth Avenue is all but guaranteed to give your wallet a workout, and your bank manager a coronary.
Local restaurants
The Cooperin Palm Beach Gardens is a lively joint with a huge outdoor patio and a varied menu that includes bacon-wrapped meatloaf, Thai green curry and artisanal cheese boards. There’s a cocktail happy hour between 3pm and 6pm daily as well as the most highly prized godsend a restaurant can provide: children’s menus with puzzles and pictures for colouring in.
Nearby La Masseria serves up authentic Italian cuisine just like mamma used to make. Here the family style menu offers supersized shared starters and mains that feed up to six people, an innovation sure to create, shall we say, lively debate among even the most agreeable families.
Local bars
The clue’s in the name at Rocco’s Tacos and Tequila Bar. And they’re not messing around, with over 200 varieties of tequila to try (though perhaps not all at once) and corn tortillas handmade on the premises. A seven-dollar kids’ menu packed with taco, burrito and quesadilla options keeps little Smiths happy and even includes a drink – thankfully not tequila-based.
Laid-back beach vibes are the order of the day (and night) at Square Grouper Tiki Bar, a marina bar overlooking Jupiter Inlet. Expect boozy cocktails, frozen drinks, burgers and live music every night of the week.
Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this fab family resort in Florida and unpacked their golf clubs, bathing suits and second suitcase full of treats from the chocolate shop and spa, a full account of their above-par vacation will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside PGA National Resort in Palm Beach Gardens…
An extensive 21st-century makeover that includes completely remodelled rooms and a brand-new luxury spa means PGA National Resort is now ready for its close-up.
A palette of sandy whites, coral pinks and champagne golds lend a vintage Palm Beach charm to proceedings, set off by the lobby’s tropical prints, chandeliers that look like upside-down palm leaves, and jungle of potted plants. In the spa (designed by Venus Williams’ V Starr firm), a hair salon dressed in dusty rose-pink upholstery may urge you to insist on a 60s beehive or bob.
Keep it retro with a visit to Birdie's Diner and ‘treat yo self’ (and ‘yo’ kids) to a sundae the size of your own face. Sweeten the deal at Sugarplume, where the huge flamingo floor mosaic is unlikely to distract you from the rows and rows of chocolates.
