Hotel Review: Omni Amelia Island Plantation Resort

We’ve made it an annual tradition to travel somewhere every year for our wedding anniversary. We try to go somewhere we’ve never been before – normally big city trips that result in exhilarating 16 hour days of exploring. We’ve been to Chicago, Seattle, the Blue Ridge Mountains, New York City, Montreal & Toronto. But this year, we wanted to do something more relaxing, so we headed down to Amelia Island, Florida to the beautiful Omni Amelia Island Plantation Resort.

Despite growing up in Tampa, I’d never been to this resort, which has been around for over 40 years as The Plantation Resort. In 2010, Omni took over & in 2012 they closed for eight months to complete a $85 million renovation. Trust me when I say that you would never know that this property is over 40 years old! Omni redid the entire pool area, built a stunning new lobby & added a new wing of guest rooms.

Our Room

We booked a Premier Oceanview Room (all rooms come with a balcony & an ocean view, which is good enough for me!), but they were nice enough to upgrade us when I told them we’d be coming for our anniversary. We were moved to an amazing End Suite. I can honestly say it’s one of the best hotel rooms I’ve ever stayed in. There are seven of these 967 sq ft rooms on the property with large, wrap around balconies, which overlook both the ocean & the pool.

The living room area had a huge sectional sofa & the dining room featured seating for six – plenty of room everywhere to spread out. There was a small kitchen area with a sink & mini fridge. I wished there was a microwave – to warm up my coffee in the morning or to warm up leftovers for late night snacking.

 The bedroom was a large size, with an extremely comfortable king sized bed overflowing with pillows. The seating area in the bedroom was a nice touch as well. The suite had one & a half bathrooms (for those of you keeping track, our house only has one full bath!), which was a real treat for us. The main bathroom was huge, with double sinks, each either their own vanity, & a deep soaking tub overlooking the beach.

One of the things I loved most about the room – & really the whole property – was the design. The designer clearly was inspired by the ocean, as calming shades of blue & tan were the dominate colors with pops of coral.

The Pool & Beach

The multi-tiered pool deck was positively dreamy. The adults-only infinity pool was perfect for louging or getting in a few leisurely laps after breakfast. Because we visited during shoulder season (weather still awesome, crowds gone!), we had the place practically to ourselves, especially on Sunday. Even the kids pool, located one level below the adult pool, was practically empty &, when a large wedding party got a little wild by the adult pool on Saturday afternoon, was actually a more relaxing place to be!

Don’t worry about getting up early to snag a pool chair: there are enough chairs that every single guest at the resort could get one if the property was at full occupancy. There are also plenty of chairs in the shade & much of the pool deck was shaded in the afternoon by the hotel itself.

Oceanside (one of only three beachfront restaurants on the entire island) also serves food & beverages pool-side, but don’t worry about being bothered by servers constantly asking if you need a drink: there’s a little flag on each chair. Try their homemade pina colada – you’ll never be able to drink a sugary, pre-made one again.

I’m a self-declared “Gulf Coast Girl,” but did find it incredibly relaxing walking their 3.5 mile long beach. The sand is tightly packed (or at least it was when we were there), which allowed for easy strolls down the beach. While the shells aren’t so great on the ocean side of Florida (too many big waves & a shorter continental shelf), we did find a few sand dollars which had washed ashore & were still alive – we were nice & threw them back.

Omni has chairs & umbrellas available for rent on a daily basis. The prices were a bit steep for us, especially since the pool was only steps away & the ocean was too cold to swim in anyway. We chose to walk on the beach & lounge by the pool.

Resort Activities

We were impressed with the number of fun activities there were at this huge resort – some included in your room charge, some with an extra charge. We took a private Stand Up Paddleboard lesson for the first time & loved gliding through Amelia Island’s salt marshes. Our guide was very knowledgable about all the birds & wildlife we saw.

We also enjoyed a rather competitive round of miniature golf on the resort’s course, Heron’s Cove. The price was a bit more than we’re used to paying ($10 per adult), but it was a really fun way to spend an afternoon & the course got plenty of shade if you’re trying to stay out of the sun.

B enjoyed the fitness facilities at the resort. There are actually two: a one room workout area in the main hotel & a multiple room, larger facility at the tennis club. They offer a few different classes, plenty of cardio equipment & a weights area. While B worked out at the gym, I engaged in my favorite type of vacation work out: sipping coffee on the balcony.

By far the best activity we did while at the resort was a beach bonfire. They have a bonfire open to all guests every Saturday night (complete with s’mores!), but we were able to schedule our own private bonfire the first evening of our trip. We met an activities staffer by the pool, who accompanied us down to the beach. In the sand was a bonfire, with two lounge chairs set up, along with a little table with s’mores ingredients. We had two hours to roast marshmallows, eat gooey s’mores & enjoy hearing the waves crash in the dark. It was very romantic & a bucket list item for me. The bonfire attendant checked in once or twice & replenished our pile with fresh wood. It was a great activity to kick off our trip with!

 We also visited the spa while we were there. I had a hot stone massage & facial & B had a deep tissue massage. My facial was amazing – Tia truly worked some magic! – but I think we both left a little disappointed with our massages (my masseuse was chatty & a bit rough, B’s deep tissue wasn’t nearly deep enough). The spa, while very nice, is small with no real dedicated relaxation room & an extremely small locker room. The women’s locker room attendant was very nice, kind of like a spa-locker-room-grandmother, but she kept the conversation going the whole time I was in there. For the price point of the spa, which is higher than we’ve ever paid (even at the Four Seasons), it needs to be a little bit better.

We really enjoyed our time at the Omni Amelia Island Plantation Resort & will definitely be back. It was so different than most of our trips are – it was truly meant for relaxing, sipping poolside cocktails & enjoying a slower pace of life.

Know if you go… 

• I’ll cover dining in a separate post – there are TONS of options on the resort property.
• There is a $20 daily resort fee. It’s a pain, but it’s a fact of life at resorts these days (& many hotels as well). Your resort fee includes self parking (the parking garage is a 2 minute walk), on-property shuttle service (although we found that we could walk almost everywhere) & wifi access.
• Make sure you sign up for Omni’s Select Guest program prior to your stay. Theirs is my favorite of any property because the amenities are so great, including a daily beverage delivery service (love having morning coffee waiting for me!), a daily newspaper, & lots of room preferences, like foam pillows.
• If you’re a golfer, the resort has three very different courses. Make sure & secure your tee time early in your stay.
• When I made our reservation online, within 48 hours Phoebe, the concierge, emailed to see if we needed anything ahead of our stay. We were able to make spa reservations through her, reserve our beach bonfire & arrange our SUP tour. I also arranged for a romantic turndown service (rose petals, soft music, etc), which we didn’t end up getting. Housekeeping was very confused as to whether we were even supposed to have the service & I’m actually not quite sure whatever happened to my original request. Honestly our turndown service was disappointing throughout the trip, but that’s a mild annoyance when you’re spending the days laying by the pool.