Best Villas or bldgs at Barony Beach Club ?

Hello ,

What are the best located villas or buildings at Barony Beach Club ? - Ocean front units ? Other Units to consider ?

Oceanfront villas are obvioudsly the best but also the most expensive because there are only about 40-50 Oceanfront units out of the pproximately 350 units available. Given that the owners paid about 50% more for oceanfront units they tend to use them every year or rent at a premium. So not only are their few oceanfront units available, they also cost more to rent. One disadvantage of theOceanfront units are that the balconies are in direct sunlight most of the day.

Oceanside units are next best and are located either in the same builiding as the Oceanfrontunits or buildings direclty behinf the oceanfront buildings. So you are nearly as close to the ocean and often closer to the pools, fitnes center, and all the other amenities. One advantage the oceanside units have is that some offer ocean views.from the balcony and the balconiesare often shaded.depending on the trees and foliage .

stevene29 wrote:

Hello ,

What are the best located villas or buildings at Barony Beach Club ? - Ocean front units ? Other Units to consider ?

Answer: We are one of the owners of Barony Beach Club. We purchased an oceanview unit and New Year's week 2006 we occupied an oceanfront unit since the building we were deeded to was undergoing interior renovations/upgrade. If you like the view of the beach while you are in the villa, then oceanfront building is best. If the beach is not really important, the garden view buildings are just as nice. We are sure that you will enjoy your vacation in that resort.

What is the difference between 5 Grasslawn and 4 Grasslawn? Are they the same area or not?

lp27 wrote:

What is the difference between 5 Grasslawn and 4 Grasslawn? Are they the same area or not?

Yes, they are the same. The question to ask is not whether the address is 4 or 5 Grasslawn Avenue but whether the Villa is in the Gardenview or Oceanside buildings. We own three weeks at Barony, and all are in the Oceanside buildings. If you want to rent (or buy) a posted unit (called Villas by Marriott) at Barony, I'd suggest you ask whether the villa you get will be in one of the gardenview buildings, or one of the oceanside buildings. My reasoning - the Gardenview buildings are located on the far side of the main road leading into the Westin Resort ( and across this street and at a good distance from the ocean). There is considerable traffic on this road, and these buildings, while equally as nice as those in the Oceanview buildings, are located in a less convenient location. The resort does provide shuttle service from the Gardenview buildings over to the parking lot in front of the Oceanside buildings, but the Gardenview buildings are also across the street from the Spa, the Workout room, the Marketplace, the Oceanfront pool, and all the resort activities. Therefore that location is much less convenient than the villas located in Oceanside buildings.

stevene29 wrote:

Hello ,

What are the best located villas or buildings at Barony Beach Club ? - Ocean front units ? Other Units to consider ?

Barony has 7 buildings, 6 housing 'villas', and one the administrative /resort facilities building. Two buildings, known as Gardenview, are located across the main road leading into the Westin resort. Four buildings, and the administrative/ resort facilities building, are located on the beach/ocean side of that main road and are known as Oceanside.

Obviously, oceanfront villas (located in the two front Oceanside buildings) are nicest, since you can see the beach from your living room and balcony. But they are the most costly to purchase, so natually owners seek higher rents for them.

However, any villa located in an Oceanside building is fine - they are all very close to the indoor pool, Spa, Marketplace, outdoor heated pool, the beachfront pool, and the beach itself. And all the resort activities are located either around one of the pools by the Oceanside buildings, or in the administrative building (housing checkin, concierge, Spa, Barony room, workout room, Marketplace, etc.).

We own three oceanside weeks at Barony and love the resort.

Most of the discussions at checkin are people trying to get a villa with a better view of the ocean. They are hard to find, but if available rent oceanfront and avoid the hassel. You won't regret the decision.

denniss152 wrote:

Most of the discussions at checkin are people trying to get a villa with a better view of the ocean. They are hard to find, but if available rent oceanfront and avoid the hassel. You won't regret the decision.

I agree ocean front is best if you like the ocean in your face, as I do. We'll be the first to have the ocean come in our windows with global warming, but , right now, I'll take that risk. Also on the days when the big waves come in, the body surfing is grrreat! grahammbutler

We purchased 2 weeks....Ocean Front. We love HH and wanted a beach front resort. We are guaranteed a beach front/ocean front unit every time we go there......being at a beach front resort and not seeing the beach was not what we wanted. Many of the other units have little or no view of the beach.

I own 2 garden villas at Barony and have used them to trade all over the place. I have even used them to trade back to this reosrt at a different time and to other M beach resorts on HHI. If you are just looking into getting into the Marriott time share system to trade, travel, and switch around the garden units are a great value. I am now selling one of my units to upgrade to a different location.

In regards to them being "inconvenient" I would have to disagree. When I go to the beach, I am an active person. I bike, hike, walk, exercise etc. I find my units to be literally 3 minutes from the beach when I want to sit on the beach, and 1.5 minutes from the club house w the indoor pool and sauna etc. I got a very good value for my money w my garden villa in exchange for the 1-2 hours/night that I might sit on the balcony listening to the beach.

I agree with everyone on this post. If you want to be close to the action, you want to be Ocean front or Ocean Side villas. If you don't mind walking, and don't care if you are right on the beach, then garden villas are great too. Two of the people in our party last week were unable to do extensive walking (non active senior, and disabled adult), so the garden villas would not have been a good choice for us. We had ocean side in the sea oat building, and were quite happy. Next year I am going to go for ocean front to rent though, as I want a full view of the ocean. With ocean side there is no guarantee of an ocean view. We happened to be on the 5th (top) floor in sea oat, so had a partial view of the ocean. The villa located directly across from us in the adjacent building did not have a view of the ocean at all. They had a view of a very large tree. But hey, how much time are you going to spend in your villa anyway???

I own two weeks in the Garden Villas (Jasmine & Gardenia) and believe that they are more peaceful than those located in the mail thoroughfares of the other buildings. The pool is less crowded, the walk is literally an easy 3-5 minutes, and the shuttle is frequent (perhaps every 5 minutes). I do not love hearing the outside noise of people at the pool from my balcony, so this set of bdlgs offers more relaxation. After spending the day at the beach, the room w/ the repose is more of my preference.

We have owned a garden view unit for over 15 years and have either used it or rented it. While the garden view units are a little farther from the beach, the garden view unit area is less crowded and quieter. We have witnessed extremely loud noise and crowding around the oceanside/ocean view pool areas during the busy summer months. The garden view unit buildings are steps away from seperate pools and a jacuzzi. Some of our renters have preferred the location of the garden side units to the other buildings.