A new Marriott on Florida’s Gulf Coast is accepting reservations beginning June 2, offering a new option for individual travelers as well as meetings and conventions.

Overlooking the Manatee River, the Palmetto Marriott Resort & Spa is the largest hotel in the Bradenton Area, offering 252 guest rooms, each 375 square feet, as well as two resort-style pools and one lap pool, a waterfront with cabanas, beach volleyball and pickleball courts, a spa and two state-of-the-art fitness centers, and an event “epicenter” with a 40,000 square-foot outdoor lawn and a state-of-the-art amphitheater. Its design is meant to “celebrate its coastal surroundings,” with architectural and design elements reminiscent of a ship on land.

The property connects to the Bradenton Area Convention Center, which is currently undergoing a $48 million renovation and expansion that is scheduled to be completed in 2025. Together, the resort and the convention center will offer 140,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor meeting and event space.

The hotel is less than an hour from Sarasota-Bradenton International (SRQ), St. Pete-Clearwater International (PIE) and Tampa International (TPA) airports. On-site dining options include The Social and the Oyster River rooftop restaurants as well as a food truck and an M Club executive club lounge.

In its quarterly report on May 1, Marriott International said it has added 46,000 new rooms, for a total of 1.6 million.

For more information, visit Palmetto Marriott Resort & Spa.

As of today, September 29, many airports in Florida remain closed due to the now downgraded tropical storm Ian.

The storm was a category 4 hurricane when it made landfall in the southwestern region of Florida. The center of the storm headed northeast, coming within 40 miles of Orlando.

Airports affected include Jacksonville, Tampa, and Orlando.

• Tampa International Airport is closed, but currently slated to open back up at 10am Friday.
• Jacksonville International Airport was closed today, and has no information on reopening as of writing this article.
• Orlando International Airport was also closed today, and the website had no specifics on when it was opening back up.

It is uncertain at this time the full damage dealt by the storm, as news is still coming out about the current flooding.