Caliente - Eric & Karen, Nov 2020
My wife and I just returned from a 3-day stay at Caliente Resort in Florida. We had a wonderful time and will definitely be back.
For context, we are in our late 30's and have been to Hedo 3, Desire, SMI, Caliente, Azulik, as well as several family friendly nudist resorts. We are not in the lifestyle but enjoy the people and atmosphere.
It's like a great nudist resort and a great lifestyle resort hooked up and Caliente is their love-child. It has all the amenities you'd expect at a traditional nudist resort such as tennis, pickelball, volleyball, several pools, spa, restaurants, and golf carts buzzing around with full-time residents, but then add in the sexy with adults only, clothing optional, a club with sexy theme nights, and a staff that lets you dress and play to your desire. I'm not aware of another resort that encompasses all of this, so it's unique in that way. The clientele is certainly more lifestylers, but a nudist would have a great time there as well (albeit without children). There's enough space and freedom to have whatever level of experience you'd like.
Pools and grounds are well kept and beautiful, the restaurants serve good food (although not exactly cheap), and the staff and fellow guests are very friendly in our experience.
There are a few critiques and wishlist items.
First is accommodations. It seems the hotel rooms book out very early, and I suspect members are given priority on these. The other option is "casitas" which are single-wide mobile homes located about a 5 minute walk from the main clubhouse and pool area. They will come pick you up on a golf cart, but there's just nothing like having your room close to where you're spending most of your time. The casitas are also very dated. Ours was clean and such, so it was tolerable, but it wasn't exactly romance inspiring like Desire. The bigger deal for us was just the location, feeling like you have to leave the action any time you need a break or to freshen up.
Second is value, and is somewhat subjective. Because we have kids at home, longer trips are less practical for us. Caliente being in FL allows us to make the most of a quick 2-3 day weekend trip. It's difficult to do that with the Caribbean/Mexico resorts, especially now with COVID. So in that way, Caliente offers tremendous value. That being said, the pricing is not too far off what you're going to pay at Desire or Hedo once you account for accommodations, membership cost, and eating at the resort. We don't drink, but if you do that's going to be pricy too. So for those short trips, absolutely Caliente wins. But if you're looking at a longer 6+ nights or something, the scales are really going to tip to a beachfront tropical resort.
Those are my two main beefs with Caliente. They aren't dealbreakers at all, but I would say if either one or both were resolved we could see ourselves frequenting the property a lot more.
So onto the wishlist...
1. We wish there was more to do indoors. Tampa gets cold in the winter. Sure, you have some warm days, and that's great if you're able to take last minute trips when the weather is nice. But if you need to plan your trips weeks or months in advance, you're risking the weather not working out. There's really not much to do there if the weather is bad. We'd love to see a large indoor pool/hammam/spa area that can be used year-round. We love getting away in the winter when it's cold, and would love to have Caliente as a reliable option in the less predictable months.
2. We wish there was a larger hotel poolside. Something like the quad at Hedo 3 would probably put Caliente in the big leagues. I don't know how feasible this is financially or with permits, but if it were possible I think it would really be a game changer. The outdated casitas far away from the action are really a deterrent for us, and any weekend worth going the current hotel is usually booked well in advance.
3. We wish the large pool you see in all the pics was heated. It is such a beautiful pool and setting, and we imagined ourselves spending most of our time there. We wondered why no one seemed to be in it, until we jumped in and learned really fast.... cold!! It's just too cold for us to play/converse/lounge in. The other pool (where everyone is packed in) is warm, as is the "conversation" pool, and obviously hot tub. We've seen these areas over capacity, standing room only, while the picturesque pool with grotto and waterfall are absolutely vacant. A pool heater would change that and be very nice.
So that's our thoughts on Caliente. We will absolutely be going back, and regularly. It's worth checking out if you're looking for an alternative with all the travel restrictions.
