Weekend at the Westin Cape Coral at Marina Village

Two weeks ago me and my hubby took a super quick romantic weekend getaway down to the west side of Florida. As many times as I have been to Florida, I have never stopped on the west side of the state. I decided we would stay at the Westin in Cape Coral because it is located just 13 miles from Fort Myers, FL. It has stunning views of the Gulf of Mexico, the Caloosahatchee River, and Tarpon Point Marina, most importantly, the hotel offers a complimentary water ferry over to Fort Myers beach. They also house an array of shops at their Marina Village which is attached to the resort which I thought would be nice to keep us busy.

We took a later flight after work and checked into the hotel around 9:30pm. Luckily, they have a few restaurants on property at their Marina Village, so we decided to try Pinchers Crab Shack for a late dinner. The walk over to the restaurant was so pretty. It is such a beautiful area at night. Pinchers was a mix of Margaritaville and Red Lobster, with a nice Key West Flair. They had the traditional "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere" signs hanging around the restaurant, along with gator pics that you would expect from the west side of Florida. You could even order Gator Bites if you were brave enough to try them (we decided to pass on them). The restaurant was good in a pinch (maybe that is where they got the name). However it is not the first place I would tell you to visit if you were looking for a decent meal. 

The next morning we planned on taking the water ferry over to Fort Myers beach and thought about maybe even visiting Captiva Island at some point during the day. You can reserve your spot on the ferry at the front desk the night before you are going to use it. Unfortunately Mother Nature had other plans for us. It ended up being too windy so they cancelled the ferry. Since it was our only full day in town we decided to make the best of it. We started out with a breakfast at the hotels breakfast buffet. The price was not bad, it was actually less expensive than ordering Ala cart from the menu and gave you a little more to choose from. Then we headed down to the rec area where we enjoyed relaxing in the sauna as well as the hot tub. Since the weather was less than stellar, we had this area all to ourselves which was so peaceful. After some relaxation, we decided to take a walk through the hotels Marina Village shops.

They have some very neat art shops with art created by local artists, clothing boutiques, and places to eat. One clothing shop even serves you champagne while you shop, what a concept! They also offer a Kids Club for those of you traveling with children.

We stopped at a dining establishment called Gather that was also located in the Marina Village area and had a phenomenal lunch. The place had such an awesome atmosphere and was decorated right up my alley!

Since we only had this one full day to spend in Florida before heading home on an early flight the next morning, we threw around the idea of heading to the downtown area of Fort Myers or attending a rum distillery tour. Since it was raining pretty hard, the rum tour won! The distillery is also located in Cape Coral Florida and was about a ten minute Uber drive to get to from the Westin. 

My choice of cocktail is usually rum so this was very exciting for me! They have your typical flavors but also offer things like blueberry, coconut, mango and many more yummy rums. It was a little disappointing because we could not purchase any to bring home since we were not checking a bag at the airport. 

During the tour you will visit the distillery plant as well as the barrel room. You will also see how they come up with different flavors and bottle their award-winning Wicked Dolphin Rum. After the tour, you visit their tasting room where you sample different Wicked Dolphin rums, (our favorite part). The tour was really fun and if it was not raining, we would have never made it here, which is proof that things usually happen for a reason.

Our romantic weekend was a huge success, even with the rain! The hotel was perfect for what we were looking for and offered enough to keep us busy for our length of stay. I would highly recommend the Westin Cape Coral at Marina Village for your next stay in the area, you will not be sorry. 

​For more information on this property or to book your next romantic getaway, head over to www.StarstuffTravel for more information.