Hawks Cay Resort

We stayed one night to find out if we’d like to return next year for a 2 week stay. It only took a few hours to confirm and we can’t wait to come back. Service is friendly and exceptional. Rooms are spacious and clean. We enjoyed the lagoon, adults only pool and hot tub and short .3 mile walk to Anglers & Ale for dinner.

We’ve been here for three days as a fly drive of Florida for three weeks. Our first room was marred by a very noisy extraction unit outside so no sleep. The excellent front office team moved us the next morning into a very quiet comfortable suite. Lovely. We have enjoyed our stay because everyone has been very friendly and welcoming. However some constructive feedback. The lack of labelling on foodstuff both in the cafe and restaurants has made management of my diabetes really tricky. Cafe food can be up to five days old, I returned a salad because it was past its best. Thankfully dressings are served on the side which helps. If I’d known more about the lack of options I’d have stopped at Publix and stocked up. The cafe doesn’t have a price list for products either, easy solutions. Pools here are lovely. The loo in our second room was very cracked and needs a good clean.

Have been here a bunch of times and will be back. We were in a 2 bedroom harborside villa and found it worked well for our family of 5. For us, the pool is the crown jewel of the resort. Love the gym, the convenience of Angler and Ale at night or Tiki Bar for lunch. There are usually items to nitpick about but the overall experience and vibe keep us coming back. Have used Sole for a sunset cruise and snorkeling/sandbar boat trip, also great.

It is a lovely setting for a family escape to be together. Our goal was simply being together in a house with the amenities to cook, play, and relax. The attitude received from staff at check in was one of "wow" you are staying in the "sanctuary". Well the beds and kitchen did NOT live up to expectations. No coffee maker, no salt, no pepper, not even a cookie sheet. This house sleeps 10! I would expect basic necessities to be provided or told empty kitchen on the front end. I will say the staff was very responsive to our requests for items needed. The beds were another story. Very old, lumpy and overall sad. This rental has been "ridden HARD" very basic almost to seeming cheap. But the drinks, setting, music, fishing, food all lovely. We had fun despite my need for a therapeutic massage post vacation due to the pathetic bedding.

We stayed at the Hawk's Cay Resort mostly for it's proximity to a sailing trip one of my son's was taking so we didn't look as far as Key West or Key Largo, but we wished we would have considered a few others places after our experience. We travel a lot as a family (kids 14, 12 and 9) and I travel extensively for business so we stay at dozens of hotels each year around the world. We stay at nicer places when we can (Four Seasons, Ritz Carlton and Fairmonts), but we also stay at more modest hotels (Westin, Hilton, Hyatt). We think we had the appropriate expectations for Hawk's Cay coming in, but we should have paid more attention to the other 2 and 3-star reviews. On the positive side, the hotel lobby has clearly been renovated and is in good shape. Duck Key is also nicely separated from the neighboring keys, but also close to places to eat in town (we went out for dinner every night to either Marathon or Isamorada versus eating at the resort). The Angler & Ale restaurant looked great, but we weren't able to get a reservation there during our stay. The excursion options (Dolphin Discovery and boat tours) are good options and worth doing, but also very highly priced for what you get. On the negative side, our general impression of most of the resort outside the main lobby is that it is dated and worn out. Our room (a sunset three-bedroom) was the biggest disappointment and a constant reminder that we should have looked at other hotels before booking our trip. The kitchen was functional, but the cabinets and drawers weren't well maintained, the furniture was all quite dated and bedrooms very small for more than one person in each. The one bathroom upstairs wasn't very clean when we arrived and was very small...barely any counter space for one person's toiletries. The second bedroom was two beds was very cramped with the beds sticking out and partially blocking the doorway...stubbed our toes at least once a day. Storage space was very limited even when using the dressers. The carpeted stairs were dirty and wornout. We ended up wearing shoes or flip-flops everywhere in the place as it just didn't seem very clean. The patio area was nice, but the view wasn't that great as most of the units look out at the highway and large boat storage building. The pool area was average with the chairs clearly showing many years or wear. Like most places if you don't put a towel down on a chair by 8am you won't have anywhere to sit the entire day. Overall, we are glad we visited the keys for the first time, but wouldn't come back to Hawk's Cay. Hopefully the larger units are slated for remodel sometime soon.