Embassy Suites Orlando on International Drive South: Affordable Luxury

The Embassy Suites Orlando located at International Drive South is a great hotel. There are three Embassy Suites hotels in Orlando, but this is the only one that I've visited. I was very well pleased with my all-around experience, and this has been my favorite Florida hotel outside of the Disney resorts that I've booked on vacations. In fact, this hotel actually has some advantages compared to the Disney resorts if you are going to be visiting any of Orlando's other tourist attractions, but I'll tell you about that later.

For starters, the hotel is beautiful on the inside. It may look like every other hotel on the outside, but what did our mothers always tell us? It's what's on the inside that counts. Here I found excellent service, a lovely and grand marble atrium, a warm atmosphere, clean rooms with plenty of space, fast elevators, and an easy to follow layout. As we all know, sometimes finding your room in a hotel can feel like looking for a room in a maze, but due to the open concept construction inside, navigating the halls here is a snap.

Just one room was enough to accommodate my large family, with some extended family tagging along. There's nothing worse than being crammed into a hotel room with just two beds in that traditional tiny rectangle layout, so we rented the King Suite, which I highly recommend for any family who has more than four members.

The location of the hotel is ideal for people visiting Orlando that want to go to more than one theme park, and let's face it, Orlando has a lot to do. Outside of Disney World, there's also Sea World, Universal Studios, and many other smaller tourist attractions like dinner theaters and golf courses. So choosing the Embassy Suites at International Drive puts you in an ideal location to drive to each one of these. However, there are shuttles that run to and from some of the major theme parks. This takes the worry of parking your car off your mind, but you do have to remember that you will be following the hotel's schedule now and not your own. So, it's a trade-off.

I'm a huge fan of hotel pools. If you can afford to, it's always great to look for a hotel that will allow you or your kids a really great swimming experience. It's one of the best parts of a vacation. This Embassy Suites has two great pools, both were always warm, very spacious, and spotlessly clean when I visited. The Embassy Suites has always been well known for having great pools, and even their indoor pools always have a little something extra to them, great lighting and an always functioning hot tub. Did I mention all the space? Well, there's plenty of it in both pools. Especially around mid-day, so don't miss out on this experience. Not every hotel keeps their pools at this level, so enjoy it.

The Embassy Suites in Orlando at International Drive are a good value, even though they are more expensive than many of the other hotels in town. In this case, you get what you pay for, which is a far more pleasant hotel experience. This Embassy Suites is sort of like a fancy hotel minus some of the unnecessary services offered by some ritzier places. This is great because you get the high quality atmosphere, but you don't have to pay for thrills you don't want. It's an affordable luxury experience built for tourist families. I highly recommend it, especially if you will be visiting multiple theme parks in the area.