Review of Hilton Ocean City Oceanfront Suites (Maryland): Our pros and cons…

 

Ocean City, Maryland has been one of our favorite places on the east coast of the United States for several excellent reasons.  It has the usual suspects including the fantastic ocean that is open to the public (not always the case in places like the Jersey Shore where you need to purchase a beach pass to go to the beach), plenty of things to do, plenty of places to eat, and that beautiful, very long wooden boardwalk!

Although my wife and I hadn’t visited this city until we had moved to Pennsylvania in 2006, we are so glad this place exists relatively close to the suburbs of Philadelphia.  At a driving distance of roughly 170 miles, it’s not a very long distance, but it certainly can be a long drive depending on when you’re visiting the city.

During its peak season (summers), traffic heading into the city can be daunting.  If you happen to take DE-1 South, passing all those cute beach towns like Lewes, Rehoboth Beach, and Dewey Beach, with its many traffic lights, you’re in for a nasty surprise.

Traffic can backup as soon as DE-1 ends (the highway portion) near Air Mobility Command Museum at the Dover Air Force Base.  Sometimes, the traffic will come to an abrupt halt, followed by the inevitable bumper to bumper traffic heading southbound.  

The traffic doesn’t let up until you enter Ocean City’s limits, just past the Delaware/Maryland border near Fenwick Island.  What should be a 3 hour drive can take several hours if you’re to visit there on busy summer weekends.

But even with all this serious traffic congestion going on during summers, we still love visiting the city.  Lucky for us, we never visited there during summers, choosing to visit during the offseason. *This is even more so after our early retirement in 2020.

Our first visit to the city was back in March 2007, just after I’ve been fired from my sales consultant position selling luxury cars.  I had been preparing to get back into the IT (Information Technology) field again after a 4 year hiatus, and even for all the studying to get certified on the then Windows XP Operating System, I had plenty of free time left over.

It was this exact reason why we chose to visit the city for the very first time.  Our hotel for our 2 nights stay was the Hilton Ocean City Oceanfront, the same hotel we are reviewing in this post.

We really liked the upscale atmosphere of the hotel with its separate living room and bedroom.  We had plenty of space to move around without bumping into each other, and we particularly liked the oceanfront balcony with fantastic ocean views.

During our short stay, we walked the famous boardwalk and the beach even though it was rather chilly.  That trip would be the start of our love affair with the city.

Later on, I would take my parents there for an overnight stay just to watch the sunrise, which my parents really appreciated.  Since our retirement, we spent something like 3 months in the city using a combination of long term rentals like Airbnb and hotels.  

Ocean City would end up being one of our favorite second homes (we definitely have quite a few, especially since we retired like New York City, Philadelphia, Myrtle Beach).  Besides the reasons mentioned above, these days we visit Ocean City for several other reasons which are as follows:

1. During the offseason, prices for long term rentals come down dramatically (for example, we got month long rentals for $865 and $870 in October 2020 and April 2024 respectively)
2. Also during the offseason, hotel prices are much, much lower (we stayed 20 nights at two different Hilton hotels using points, which would not have been possible during peak season)
3. There are supermarkets within a 10 mile radius from Ocean City making it ideal for long term stays, especially if you cook most of your own meals at “home”
4. Ocean City has many fast casual national chain restaurants also within a 10 mile radius like Chick-Fil-A, Panera Bread, etc.)

We’re always looking for great deals on lodging in Ocean City, and when we saw one at the Hilton Ocean City Oceanfront Suites in November, we jumped at the chance!  We paid a total of $270 including taxes for a 2 night stay which I consider reasonable for a 4 star hotel. *Note: we visited this hotel in November 2024, just before their renovations in December.  For more up to date photos, please visit Hilton’s website below:

https://www.hilton.com/en/hotels/sbyofhf-hilton-ocean-city-oceanfront-suites/

Here are our pros and cons of this hotel:

Pros

• Ideal location 

Located just 5 blocks from the famous Ocean City boardwalk, the hotel is ideally situated.  It is close enough to the action on the boardwalk but feels so much more quiet and serene compared to hotels right on the boardwalk.

The beach is just steps away, thanks to the hotel being right on the beach.  There are plenty of beach to go around for every guest to the hotel which is not always the case near the boardwalk.

If you like a little privacy and a bit of peace & quiet, then this hotel is for you.  We certainly liked these features ourselves.

View from the balcony 

• Amenities galore

Befitting a 4 star resort, it features plenty of amenities including a beautiful hotel lobby, restaurant, big pool, EV chargers, a concierge, and easy beach access.  Although not as big as some of the mega resorts we’ve visited like the Borgata, MGM Grand, Bellagio, Aria, this resort is just the right size for Ocean City.

Lobby area (2024 November)

Nice view of the bay near the elevators

• Spacious suites with practical amenities 

We really liked the configuration of the suite with the living space upfront, a kitchen, followed by the bedroom with a balcony facing the ocean.  Although we didn’t use the nicely equipped kitchen much during our short stay, we certainly appreciated having the kitchen in any case.

Living area has a dining table with 4 chairs, a sofa bed, ottoman, comfortable chair, and plenty of lights.  The bathroom has a nice luxurious feel to it with awesome water pressure.  Out of all of these, we liked the large bedroom with a sitting chair and the balcony!

We made good use of it checking it out each opportunity we got during our stay.  We got some epic photos like these below!

Views from the bedroom 

Full kitchen on right/bathroom on left 

Large sofa bed with plenty of space 

We spent some quality time out on the balcony listening to the harmonious sounds of waves lapping the shore, seabirds flying overhead, and at night, we got to enjoy the mysterious moon lighting up the skies.  Not a bad way to spend some time…

• Good service at the front desk

It is a rare sight these days to be greeted by someone when checking in these days at most hotels.  We found the front desk employee very friendly and welcoming at this hotel, which was like a breath of fresh air!

With increasing frequency these days, we run into the passive miens (or the so called “Gen Z stare”) of customer facing employees who rarely acknowledge our presence when checking into hotels.  A simple greeting would suffice.  Is it that difficult?

We’re not looking to be pampered while checking in, but at least act human, and not like a robot?  That, will come surely thanks to the advancements in AI (artificial intelligence) and robotics.  I hate to say this, but some people who currently act like robots will probably be replaced by robots in the very near future…

If as an employee, you don’t provide any value, then why would a company keep you???

Cons

• 32 Palm Restaurant 

For a 4 Diamond rated hotel restaurant, 32 Palm was just average at best for the price.  Nothing stood out:  Average food (not bad, but good either), average service (no greeting, not welcoming), and average views (we got a view of the street and not the ocean as the restaurant sits at the back of the hotel) from the restaurant.  

This isn’t the first time we’ve run into this particular issue.  It’s been this way since Covid-19.

It seems most restaurants are trying to cut corners when it comes to food taste & quality that most foods at most restaurants seem to taste just, average.  Is it me who thinks that many of these foods taste similar to what we can find in supermarket frozen foods aisle that are microwaved for us unsuspecting sucker customers?

While prices have crept up, quality and taste haven’t.  Even 5 diamond rated resorts like the Bellagio in Las Vegas, is no exception.  Their buffet used to be incomparable and absolutely delicious.  These days, it tastes just like a regular buffet like the Golden Corral while charging $50 per person for brunch…

I’m not hopeful this status quo will change anytime soon…

We had to use our Hilton food & beverage credit of $30 per night so we ended up eating there twice.  Had we not had this food credit, we probably wouldn’t have gone back after the first visit.

In conclusion:

It was good to be able to return to this nice hotel in Ocean City after all these years.  Resort looked almost the same as we remember it, and that’s not a bad thing.

Like our first visit, we stayed for two nights and it was a really relaxing time.  We’ve come to love the ocean more and more as the years pass, and Ocean City is one of our favorite beach destinations on the east coast.

We would love to return to this upscale hotel & resort in our future travel plans and we think you’ll enjoy your experience as well.  Although not perfect (which hotel is these days?), this hotel is still one of the best hotels in Ocean City.  If you can travel during the offseason, the prices are very reasonable.  

Who can resist oceanfront views?  We know we can’t. 

Thank you for reading and happy trails!

Jake

Wandering Money Pig

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