Whether you’re shopping around for a hotel in connection with your cruise/flight or just curious about the Cambria brand after so many stays at Hiltons and Marriotts the Cambria Hotel Dania Beach is an interesting proposition when it turns up in online searches. It was interesting enough to check out on a recent two night stay. Let’s check it out.
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I stayed at the Cambria on a Tuesday and Wednesday after booking about a week in advance.
The nightly rate for my stay was $106.75. This hotel has a rating of 8.6 on Expedia, where it can typically be found between $99 and $130. Check the Expedia rates for your dates.
I chose this hotel because I stay in Dania often and wanted to maximize Choice Hotels’ current promotion which is receiving 8000 points for a two night stay. Choice also awards a $5 Starbucks gift card for weeknight stays which is currently doubled to $10 at Cambria and Ascend locations.
Cambria Hotel Dania Beach Location
The property is tucked up on a dead end street with two other hotels just off I-95. Of course it’s very near the airport and cruise terminals. It’s also in between Dania’s casino and the famous Seminole Hard Rock with the giant guitar hotel.
Stirling Road is a typical suburban retail stretch catering to middle/upper middle class tastes. There’s nothing directly adjacent to the hotel but anything you could wish for is two minutes away by car.
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It’s also just a few minutes’ drive to the beaches at Dania or Hollywood even though it doesn’t sell itself as a beach hotel.
Cambria Hotel Dania Beach Property
Cambria is pretty much the top dog in the Choice Hotels brand hierarchy. This particular location prices out about $25-30 above the chain’s Comfort Inn also on this street. That hotel is currently priced the same as the Four Points right next to it.
Check in was far from smooth in this hotel. I waited in line behind a single customer for twenty minutes at check-in time before being told my room wasn’t ready. The FDA and general manager were clearly strained as a long line formed. Housekeeping was scrambling all over in the halls and common areas.
By 3:45 I had my room. Fortunately, this hotel is nice enough to overlook something like that. The pool is as nice as you’ll find at an airport hotel and better than some others here in Dania. The gym is large, clean and modern. The sundries market is well stocked and charging reasonable prices.
Cambria Hotel Dania Beach Guest Rooms
I’m currently holding platinum status with Choice Hotels through a status match and using this stay to get upgraded via their Diamond Elite Status Jump. I didn’t book a suite and wasn’t told I was upgraded but this room would qualify as a suite. There’s even two televisions.
The rooms here are frankly fantastic. You won’t find a better $100 room in an airport hotel anywhere. Touches like colorful accent walls and decorative vases make it feel like an apartment.
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The desk is particularly good here with a comfortable chair. Anyone traveling on business should be quite happy working from the room or from a communal area in the lobby. There’s a printer in the business center as well.
About Dania Beach
I’ve been familiar with Dania Beach for several years because it’s home to the AMO Union headquarters and the STAR Center. The city’s position along with neighboring Hollywood in the South Florida conurbation is very convenient. You can reach anywhere from Pompano to Coral Gables easily by car. It’s also a bit overlooked, being overshadowed by the three largest cities of Miami, Fort Lauderdale and the Palm Beaches.
Dania is very much old-school Florida. There’s a casino with a jai-alai fronton and an OTB. There’s a Publix and another Publix. A beach and fishing pier and a smattering of old school motels you won’t find in online searches. Once you get away from either the beach or Route 1 it’s pure suburbia, with chains and shopping centers and a million houses that look like the one from the Golden Girls.
I like it here so much that it’s become my base of operations. My storage space is here, along with my car storage, mailbox and package delivery, pharmacy, etc. Having three airports nearby and scores of hotels that cater to cruise passengers makes this area extremely convenient as a base for a nomadic lifestyle.
Bottom Line
This hotel is perfect for me. If you want to live in hotels and stay within a budget and have the rooms be nice you really can’t get much better than this.
I was a little trepidatious after some false starts with Choice recently including the Bedbug Room of Doom. But having even a few good, affordable options here in South Florida will make the Choice Privileges program worth exploring further.
There are a lot of good hotels here catering to airline and cruise passengers and prices are typically very reasonable. The Cambria Hotel Dania Beach is one of the better ones, and worth a bit more if you’re comparing prices online.
