Vero Beach Questions

[chefmickey3]

We (my DH, I and three boys under 9) will be staying at Vero Beach for 3 nights in mid July. I have a few questions for people who have stayed there.

1. Are there any special requests I should make on the reservation regarding room location?
2. What suggestions do you have for dining?
3. Is the beach used for swimming and beach activities (like sand castles)?
4. What other activities would you recommend?

Thanks for any advice you can offer.

[Tinkermom]

Vero Beach is just beautiful! Vero is one of our home resorts and one of our favorite places to vacation!

The beach is awesome and yes you can swim and build sandcastles. One of our favorite things to do is to boogieboard. :D

As for room requests - you can ask for an ocean view but know that you may not get one.

We usually stay 5 nights or so and never leave the resort so I do not have any local restaurant recommendations. We either cook and eat in our room or eat at the restaurants on property. Shutters is the casual family restaurant and Sonya's is the more quiet, "upscale" restaurant. Both are very good. Bleachers is the pool side eatery and they have burgers, hot dogs, fries, salads, etc. Great for lunch when hanging by the pool or when coming up from the beach.

There are lots of fun things to do around the resort. The pool and waterslide are awesome. They have lots of organized games for kids like waterslide races (a favorite of my kids - even my teen boys!) water balloon toss, archery, basketball, boce ball, bingo, etc. There are other activites like crafts, a tea party and an un-birthday party that my kids just love. They also have a campfire with songs and games several nights a week. After the songs and games we roast marshmallows and make s'mores.

One of the most unique things that the resort offers is the Turtle Walk. They offer this on certain nights during egg laying season (March - September). It is very popular so they offer a lottery system. You meet in the lobby at a certain time and they draw rooms keys from those who showed up. You are taken out at night to look for sea turtles laying their eggs.

We had stayed in one of the beach houses last July and EVERY morning there were turtle tracks right up to the dunes directly in front of our house. There are people who work at Vero and their job is to check the beaches every morning for turtle nests and then put a protective fence around them. My DH went out onto the beach early one morning and chatted with one of these guys. He got to watch as they uncovered the eggs and checked the temperature and such. We tried to watch a couple of nights for the turtle that visited in front of our beach house but it was just too dark. Here are a few photos around the resort including some of the beach and turtle eggs that DH saw one morning while chatting with the "turtle" guy.
Vero Beach (http://www.flickr.com/photos/8078549@N07/sets/72157623238800286/)

Hope this helped! Have fun! :thumbsup:

[DVC2004]

Great recap- just adding that the campfire sing-a-long is fun, too! Vero Beach is areally nice, laid back beach resort.

[Ian]

Another huge thumbs up for Vero! I don't really have much to add in terms of specifics above and beyond what Tinkermom said (she did an awesome job covering the details!), but I did want to echo what she said and also endorse the campfire sing-a-long. We did that the one night and had a blast!

[Ed]

Double :ditto: to everything Tinkermom reported. Absolutely one of our favorites, also.

As far as off-site dining goes, we have two favorites in Sebastian, about a 15 minute drive from the resort - Captain Hiram's and Squid Lips.

Captain Hiram's is operated by a transplant from Ocean City, MD and has a wonderful menu that includes several true Maryland-style crab dishes, including crab cakes and crab soup. As a transplant myself, I can attest to the "truth in advertising" aspect of their claim. They also have a beachy themed bar that frequently offers concerts by both local and national musicians.

Squid Lips, a little farther north on the same road, is a quaint restaurant and marina built out over the water. They have a good menu selection, and we enjoy sitting by one of the windows having the dolphins entertain us as they play and swim by.

Give Vero a try; I can guarantee you'll enjoy every minute!

:thumbsup:

[d_m_n_n]

Vero Beach is absolutely AMAZING!!! We spent a few days there in December and loved every single minute of it :D

For dining, we ate at Shutters one night. We just had burgers but they were very tasty. We also ordered from a local pizza place...I think it was called Orchid Island Pizza (the main desk has menus for it)...VERY yummy pizza and wings, as well as quick and friendly delivery drivers!

When you arrive, definitely look at the list of activities they put in the folder. We went to the campfire one night (a fun time and very relaxing after the crowd leaves. we enjoyed watching the fire and chatting with the CM's). I'm not sure about other activities in the summer, but they had the slide races, crafts, and guided tours on the beach in december.

I hope you enjoy your time there. We can't wait to go back again :cloud9: