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Was interesting!
Just got back, had a great time.
It's not Hedo, that's for sure.
I will update this thread over the next few days.
Just wanted to say... IF you get the chance, it is worth a trip.
Like Hedo... find a group and go when they are there!
We are thinking of a trip there in the near future. So we are anxious to learn from any of the lessons you've experienced. So your advice is welcome. We were at Hedo 2 a month ago and fell in love with the XXXperience. It was mindboggling. So we wanted something to do for a long getaway weekend. We saw they do a cruise but it was booked up this year. Bummer.
Thanks for sharing. Tell us the skinny on anything that can help us when we book.
We are going in October for their Halloween Ball any input would be great
My wife and I spent 5 days at the resort just prior to the 4th of July. The Pools are really the inviting part of the place even thought the food is quite good and very reasonably priced. We had been to Caliente a couple of years back for 3 nights and not much has changed other than the swing crowd is more prevalent. We are not swingers and found no pressure nor any awkward moments, on the contrary, the people we met where very nice. For the accommodations this time we chose a room on the second floor and that made a big difference as the balcony was a pleasant spot to have the morning coffee overlooking the beach volleyball courts. Our trip was to look at the vacation plan that Caliente is pushing as the next big thing.. But it turned out to be a pushy sale on prepaid vacations based on a points scheme. Put it this way I'm not going to fork out 40k to anyone on the promise of a vacation place for the next 15 years or so..
The disco was absolutely empty on the first nights but as the weekend approached, the place started to fill. People from Tampa and even from Orlando go there and I can see why. There is no place on the main land that can compare to it, well at least on the East Coast. Guys with suits on and their ladies with anything ranging from a sexy little dress to some in just high healed pumps or platforms. The dance floor had three dance poles for the daring to go on and we had the best spectacle from a gorgeous woman giving her man a pole dance that obviously she had worked hard on to get just right. the great thing about the resort is that if you get too hot from dancing your ass off, you simply go to the pools and walk right in. Towels are supplied at the front desk by a very friendly and professional staff... try that at the local disco....
During the week and especially in the daytime the age of most there is in the retirement age. Nothing wrong with that but as night progresses and the weekend approaches the years are shed and the heat does rise a bit. While we have not been to the Caribbean H resorts and thus cannot compare them, my guess is that it is much milder at least in the open.... But you could see who was on the prowl for a swap or wishing to add someone to their group to add to the sexual fun.
All in all without having to go too far Caliente is a great place for a few days or a week. you'll enjoy the great facilities and the pools.. oh the pools!
Hi Cande,
I would be interested in your trip report as we are looking at a trip in Sept
Thanks
R
The resorts accommodations "motel" is the only gripe my wife had. Not the actual room or anything about how clean it was. The fact that you must go onto the resorts road and walk past the service entrance to get to the main lobby entrance is not too pleasant, there is no real path or walkway to do so. The pools, tennis courts, volleyball courts and well the resort amenities are only accessed by this walk through the main lobby... It gets bothersome to do so especially when there is a locked gate right next to the rooms! People have clearly tried to hop over the gate as there is a sign there stating that anyone going in or out through it will be subject to immediate denial to return to the resort and or suspension of their membership status. Mind you the resorts roads are all within the perimeter walls and those are maybe 12 feet high. But in the mornings or even throughout the day, the restaurant and bars do get trucks coming in with supplies. I'm sure that the UPS guy and the Coca Cola drivers are very enthused to make deliveries to Caliente as often as they can!:creepy:
More to come as I get time but here is the deal with the WALK from anywhere to the front door.
The resort works off a liquor law license. Was told they have a license similar to a Strip club.
Hence, no outside alcohol, must og in through the front door and security to ensure that.
That is also why the screened in porches on the hotel, no way to get alcohol/food in or out.
BUT that is how they can sell alcohol and have nekkid people.
Yes we did the sales pitch too. Our sales man did a great job without being pushy.
Food was GREAT. No different in price than a good restaraunt. Alcohol was a little high in price at the disco nightly, but hey not that big of a deal.
OK, later today I will sit and get the trip report done.
Have to dig out the receipts to give you the low down.
Alright the low down... COST... HEDO BLOWS IT AWAY!
We stayed Wed-Sun 5 days 4 nights
We have all traveled by plane before so let's not split hairs on the air travel or airfare... chose your airline, luggage fees, layovers, etc...
You fly into Tampa, 21 miles by Garmin from Airport to Resort.
Transfer from airport to resort... NOPE.
You have to book your own, they have a service you can call and use...$55/65 per couple, was told 2 different prices and then was not told if it was round trip or one way.
So we rented a car... $135 for the 5 days. Allowed us to get out for a small shopping spree AND to go get Alcohol and room incidental food for the stay.
Pricing...
$50 per person per day as a Couple membership fee. =$400 or $500, not sure if they charge the day you leave or not.
1 Bed Hotel room, $540 total for the 4 nights.
We spent $600 at the resort for food and drinks for the stay. Would have been more IF we did not stop for some food and alcohol to keep in the room.
COULD have been LESS if we spent more money to keep better FOOD in the room. Treat it like a camping trip, go back to the room for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks etc... Not that hard, hotel is next to the front entrance and you just walk nekkid with no issue.
Our total from landing in Tampa to taking off in Tampa WITH the special package was...
$300 for package (Included a $100 food/alcohol voucher)
$135 Rental Car
$200 Alcohol, food, incidentals we stopped to buy and keep in the room
$500 Food/Alcohol bill on check out.
$1135 total That was with us watchign what we ate and drank as we knew we had to pay at check out.
Now IF we were NOT on the package deal...
$540 hotel
$135 Rental Car
$200 Alcohol, food, incidentals we stopped to buy and keep in the room
$600 Food/alcohol bill on check out
$400 membership fee
$1875 Total (that was with us watching what we ate and drink to not run the bill through the roof, knowing we had to pay at check out)
Towels, they give you a towel card you turn in for towels and get back when you return them right at the front desk. No issue at all.
Getting in and out of the front door... you get a paper room key card holder with your dates on it. They check that at the door.
Entertainment during the day...non-existent. Well there is the scheduled volleyball game in the volleyball pools away from the main pool. They had a singer/band a couple times throughout the week. No music heard other than that.
Nightclub... old folks on parade from 8 to 10 and then it livened up A LITTLE! Best night was Saturday, many more younger crowd having a good time. Many of the older crowd stays too. The band they had... not great, comedian the other night... yeah...not funny!
Karaoke...fun but then again... it is karaoke...not as fun as the piano bar! was one night til 9/10.
DJ the rest of the time... decent nd played well to the crowd.
The daytime pool area... relaxing and floating around, meeting and hanging out with people.
Night time UPPER Heated Pool, a good mixing/mingling spot, Hot tub as well, although it WAS WAY TOO HOT!
Not SUPPOSED to be playing around out there but not truely enforced. But it is not as prevelant as at Hedo.
You CANNOT compare this place with Hedo.
IF you are close to this resort... save the airfare find a group of people, go and have fun.
IF you are thinking of traveling to this place as a vacationer... CHEAPER to go to Hedo, with more amenities INCLUDED and no worry of paying fees and other money for food and alcohol.
In the future you will not be able to get a room in the hotel as they are going to a 2 week opening for reservations.(or so we were told)
You would have to book at a Cassida or Condo. The condos by the way are INCREDIBLE!
PS... I just priced a 5 day 4 night Wed-Sun at Hedo 2 WITH airfare from Kansas City for $1907!!!
that is about $35 more than a stay at Caliente WITHOUT Airfare!!
You tell me where you think we are going next time!
Now when we retire and are living in the Tampa area... we will probably be spending some time there, but now with travel and all... why not explore Desire, Hedo2, and other places...for less than just a nekkid pool in Tampa.
Heard that is a GREAT event!Quote:
Originally Posted by janjanxx7
Depending on where you are and what a flight costs.
Just look at the HIDDEN COSTS and put it next to Hedoween...
$50 per person per day, food and alcohol on the resort, shuttle service fee etc... I BET Hedoween is LESS!
from the UK... look at the other resorts in Jamaica, Mexico, Bahamas...etcQuote:
Originally Posted by yarray
PS, I looked last night...
SAME 5 day/4 night over halloween... $1907 with airfare to Hedo2 from Kansas City.
$940 without food/alcohol, airport shuttle, or flights to Caliente.
IF I was going somewhere for Halloween... HEDO HERE COM MON!
Wife and I just got back from a short stay at Caliente -- August 15 - 16. Cande6964Carl hit all the major points and we agree with their assessment of the price / value ratio, especially compared to Hedo.
For a state side resort, Caliente seems pretty nice to us. The grounds were nice, plenty of pools and space to relax. They offered a nice array of exercise options / classes to help burn off the food and drink.
We'd go back again, but certainly wouldn't fly in specifically to do so. (We happened to be in town when we decided to make this trip.). If you go, there are a couple of things that you may want to keep in mind:
1. Like Cande said, we'd definitely keep food and drinks in the room. On the slower nights, the bars and restaurants close early (guessing about 10). We were starving after that and had to raid a vending machine.
2.The place is in transition from nudist resort to adult / lifestyle resort. Thus, the crowd is older and includes families during the day.
3.They've started a skinnydip Sunday program that appears very popular. We arrived around 100pm on Sunday and the placed was packed and the DJ was jamming. We stayed at the pool until 100am before checking into our room. The only down side, we spent about 150 on food and drinks, which included a little for some friends. However, it was a great time. Monday was the opposite. On any given day of the week, we have more firends at our house then I believe were at the resort. However, it was still very relaxing and worth the stay. A nice trade-off to the night before. PDAs were visible each evening without much hassle.
4. Look for deals if you go. For example, if you agree to the tour, you can get a free day pay, which Cande paid 50 for and can be much more depending on when you go. Like other time share places, they'll offer discount packages to get you in. The bottom line is rooms start at 105 / night and I haven't seen them budge on that. However, they charge grounds fees that get as high as 100 per day and they wave some or all of these for the right couples. Sun - Wed, grounds fees are 20 per couple after 1100am and free after 600. We took advantage of this by arriving late on Sunday. We liked what we saw and decided to stay the night. The next day, we asked for a discount at checkout and they offered us the same room (105) and waived our ground fees for the day. I'm sure there's more wiggle room to be negotiated.
Again, all in all, we'd go again. Our schedule and budget wouldn't permit us to get to H2 for 3 days, but this was a relaxing and satisfying alternative.
Thanks for all the post. It gives us an idea of what the resort is really about. We usually go to Hedo II but have realtives south of Tampa. http://www.online-travel-agent-oppor...club_wear.html
Thats the best way to go. IF you are in the area and want to spend a day or 2.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill lawrence
Enjoy
Thanks for the VERY informative trip report and cost breakdown!
Mrs. Woof and I are planning to go check out the resort Saturday (10/02/2010)
We'll be doing the free pass thingy and sit through their sales pitch . We live here in the Tampa area and now that Hedo 3 is gone (We just made our 12th and final trip there, I posted a trip report about the very last week of Hedo3 If anybody is interested http://www.adulttravelforum.com/foru...the-final-week )
Anyhoo, now that Hedo is gone and we're not terribly enamored with Superclubs because of how they handled it, we're starting to cast around for alternative nekkid vacation destinations.
Might as well start close to home !
:~)
Would like to hear your opinions and facts on your visit this past weekend.
we have friends that say paradise lakes in lutz is a little bit more user friendly and (ALOT CHEAPER !) . they have a weekend deal we saw online $89.00 for the grounds fees and a room for satuurday and saturday night and check out sunday at 6 pm , anyone else ever been there ? its not to far from caliente maybe 30 mins or so .
We were invited to a party there one of the nights we were at Caliente.
Ran into others who liked Paradise as well.
Never know maybe we'll have to check it out too!
Well we went.... Had a great time, but not perfect. For starters, we wanted to do the "attend our sales pitch and get a free day pass" thingy. so We called the resort and asked if we needed some sort of reservation or appointment or something. The person I talked to said "Oh no, just come on down and we'll take care of you!"
when we arrived, the person at the desk told us that whoever we spoke to on the phone never should have told us that, and as a matter of fact their appointments were all booked up for several weeks out. (unless we wanted to come on a weekday).
We decided that since we were already there, we'd go ahead and pay the $100 daily use fee and try the place out.
The physical grounds are VERY nice ! Much nicer than Hedo, and also quite a bit nicer (and much larger) than Paradise lakes (although we have decided that we like Paradise Lakes better) The restaurant food was comparatively expensive, but it was good. The drinks were no more expensive than any typical bar in this area.
In the afternoon, there was a "live" band playing next to the pool. They were REALLY LAME !!! It's too bad, because they had the potential to be decent. It was a guy and his girlfriend, and all they did was play karaoke tracks and sing along to them while he strummed along on his guitar. They both had decent voices, and he was actually a pretty darn good guitarist, but... Really? Karaoke tracks? Sheesh!
If they would just get rid of the karaoke tracks and simply played the guitar and sang it probably would have been pretty decent. However I think the resort would have saved some money by just plugging an mp3 player into the sound system and achieved the same effect. (boring background music that nobody was actually paying attention to)
There was some lady from a swinger's website who was doing some sort of promotional giveaway during the afternoon too, but we really weren't paying much attention to her.
Hmm.. This is turning into a total hijack of this thread... Perhaps I should cut it short and post my own trip report instead of muscling in on these fine people's thread......
Suffice it to say, Caliente is a very nice, expensive place to visit. It doesn't have the overt sexual atmosphere of Hedo, but you certainly could see some "stuff" going on if you looked hard enough. It's definitely not a replacement for the Hedo atmosphere, but it's not terrible. I can see how if you stayed there for any length of time you would totally break the bank on meal purchases. (We had to laugh at the "no outside food or drinks" sign at the entry gate)
I think I'll organize my thoughts and do a comparison between Caliente and Paradise Lakes and make it it's own thread...
It's not Hedo but it's a convenient stateside destination. Do to the legal situation, there is not supposed to be "activity" in the pool or public areas, and at least in the daytime there isn't much. The resort pays at least lip service to traditional naturists, and is NOT 'adults only'. There is even a playground near the main pool. Family nudity is allowed but we saw only one nudist family one day of the 5 we were there. A lot of the on-site real estate is owned by more traditional nudists.
If you are swap there are plenty of opportunities. If you are not, there is no pressure. The disco is sexy & hot on Thurs., Fri. and Sat. but dead other times. Ya gotta remember that this isn't primarily a "vacation" destination like Jamaica. Most of the clientele is made up of Members who are typically local commuters. Thus the action is hottest on the usual weekend nights, and Thursday night is some kind of local promo so the disco is busy.
We rented a condo on site. There is free golf cart shuttle to the clubhouse but we normally took our own car. The motel rooms are only the minority of the on-site accomodations. As has been covered, for licensing and security everyone and everything has to pass through the clubhouse. It is understandable to me at least that they don't want non-payers nor outside liquor smuggled in through the motel rooms, that's why you can't go directly from the motel rooms to the pools area inside the fence, and why the patios/balconies of the motel units are solidly screened off.
If you don't want delivery drivers to see you nude, wear a wrap between your unit and the clubhouse. But they'll STILL see you nude if they look out of the clubhouse into the pool, or even around the clubhouse where many people go nude. That part of Florida has a LOT of nude recreation so it's not all that novel. The entire development is a nudist gated community and lots of people walk or jog nude around the grounds; they don't seem to be upset by delivery drivers.
So, yes we'll go back, it's not Hedo but it is fun for what it is.