Guest Reviewer: Chris An avid traveler and obsessive points and miles hound, Chris is my travel buddy extraordinaire. I love him for his enthusiasm, his sense of adventure, and his American Airlines Executive Platinum status benefits. Hope you enjoy his perspective! Background While Jen was toiling away in China on a business trip a couple of weeks ago, I decided to make a quick weekend trip to Honolulu to take advantage of a cheap American Airlines flight I found. I would only be in Hawaii for 24 hours, so I looked for a hotel that was both reasonably priced and not too far from the airport. The Hilton Hawaiian Village fit the bill, and while I’m normally not a fan of mega resorts, in this case it made sense. I booked the hotel through American Express Fine Hotels and Resorts, which is an online booking site available to Platinum and Centurion cardholders. Its rate that was about $25 higher than the one on Hilton’s own website, but it came with a bunch of extra benefits such as a $100 dining credit, free breakfast (about a $40 value per day), a subject-to-availability room upgrade, 12pm check in, and 4pm check out. On top of that, I got a $10 dining credit for being having HHonors Gold status. So in total, my $204/night room rate came with $150 in credits, which made it quite a good deal. Check-In My Uber dropped me off at the hotel just before noon, and the main check-in area was hustling and bustling with a horde of people. After making my way to the front of the check-in line, I was told that the tower I was in (Ali’i Tower) had a separate reception desk, so I had to go there instead. It wasn’t too far away, so I was soon able to check in for real. They offered me an upgrade to an ocean view room, but that room wasn’t ready yet, so I declined the upgrade in favor of the basic resort view room, which was ready. Had I been staying longer than a day, I would have waited for the better room, but in this case I figured I wouldn’t be spending much time in the room anyway, so would rather have something available immediately. I appreciated being given the choice - sometimes hotels just assume you want the upgraded room, and make you wait for ages. Room The room was on the 14th floor and was fairly basic, with two beds, a desk, a coffee maker, a TV with a PlayStation 3, and a balcony with two chairs. It looked a bit worn, but I’ve certainly seen worse. The balcony view consisted of some concrete buildings and bird-poop-covered beams, so I didn’t feel the need to spend much time there. The bathroom had Coconut brand toiletries and a western toilet (I was hoping for a Japanese one, given how many Japanese tourists visit Honolulu!). Resort The resort is large and has five pools (one of which is exclusive to Ali’i Tower guests), a lagoon, and is also just a few steps away from Waikiki Beach. The pools were all busy while I was there, and finding an empty lounge chair required a bit of effort. In addition to the many bodies of water, there are a plethora of restaurants onsite, including several chains (Starbucks, Dairy Queen, Round Table). Unfortunately, the Amex FHR dining credit only applies to a few select restaurants, so I couldn’t use it to expense any frappuccinos. Instead, I used all the credit toward a nice dinner at Bali, a seafood and steak house. It didn’t cover the whole meal (my steak alone was $60), but it took care of most of it. The free breakfast was good for any breakfast option at Tropics Bar and Grill (including juice and coffee). I opted for the Big Kahuna, which came with eggs, potatoes, sausage, toast, and pancakes. It definitely hit the spot. It’s also worth noting that both restaurants can be reserved through OpenTable, so I never had to wait for a table. Summary
Overall I had a pleasant enough time at the Hilton, but it’s not a place I feel a strong need to return to. It’s extremely crowded (which makes relaxing difficult), and feels overly commercialized, even by Waikiki Beach standards. On the plus side, it was relatively inexpensive, and its beachfront location can’t be beat. Cheers! Chris
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Review: Park Hyatt Shanghai City Guide: 5 Things to Do in Shanghai Review: Grand Hyatt Shenzhen Review: HKG Cathay Pacific “The Bridge” Lounge Review: Cathay Pacific Business Class HKG - SFO For the beginning of the first of many business trips to China last November (yes, seriously behind in posting this), I spent 7 nights at the Park Hyatt Shanghai. The hotel is located in the Shanghai World Financial Center, which, until the Shanghai Tower was completed this year, was the tallest building in Shanghai. The World Financial Center building is part of a cluster of three super tall buildings (including the Shanghai Tower and the Jin Mao tower) located on the Pudong side of Shanghai, which you can enjoy a view of while walking along the Bund. The Park Hyatt occupies floors 79 to 93 of the World Financial Center and it's absolutely breathtaking in every sense. I had stayed at the Park Hyatt Tokyo the month before I checked in here, which is a favorite hotel of the travel blogging community, but there was no comparison for me. The Park Hyatt Shanghai is perfection. I have found Park Hyatts to be a bit stuffy and somewhat old-fashioned in their decorating style from time to time, which I definitely thought was the case at the Park Hyatt Tokyo. However, the Park Hyatt Shanghai was just the right mix of modern and minimal. Upon arriving at the hotel, you'll walk in a set of glass doors and wind around a bit to elevators that only go to three floors: floor 1, floor 87 (the lobby) and floor 91, which is where the hotel's restaurant, 100 Century Avenue, is located. From the lobby, you will take another set of elevators down to the guest rooms, gym, and pool area. Unfortunately, the lobby area doesn't photograph very well, and there are so many employees standing around in case you need anything at all (seriously, there are usually like 5 or 6 just lingering around), getting good photos was nearly impossible. Once you come out of the elevator, you will see the front desk in front of you and lots of seating arranged behind it along the windows for the bar and "pantry". Since the lobby is on the 87th floor, the views from the windows are stunning. Check in went very quickly. The front desk agent was extremely polite and efficient. I presented my passport and credit card and confirmed I wanted the points rather than the Diamond amenity and before I knew it, I was off to my room. I had been upgraded very slightly to a Park Deluxe King, which as far as I could tell, just meant that I had a few extra feet in my room which fit a long and very random table and two chairs. The guest rooms are on floors below the lobby, so I took the elevator down a few floors and found my room. I really loved the abundance of dark wood throughout the hotel. It was used for accents and was all over the place, making everything look very rich and contrasting nicely to the white walls. The hallways were very dark but had dramatic lighting which made things very cozy. Once I entered my room, there was longish hallway with a closet on my left, then the main room straight ahead. The hallway also housed the minibar and coffee machine as well as the bathroom and the toilet, which was separate and several feet away from the bathroom itself. The bedroom was minimal, beautiful, and comfortable with a TV, a desk and chair, a long somewhat random table, a chaise lounge, and the bed. All of the lights and window coverings were controlled next to the bed, which is something I love in hotel rooms. It's so much easier to push a button once you're already in bed rather than having to bump around trying to find all of the light switches. Pure luxury.
We spent a weekend in LA a while back and decided to stay at Hyatt the Pike Long Beach. LA hotels are typically extremely expensive and we liked the idea of being a bit closer to Orange County, so we went with Hyatt the Pike. The hotel is located right in the middle of downtown Long Beach and it's actually pretty much across the street from another Hyatt property, the Hyatt Regency Long Beach, which is older and larger than the Pike. We arrived at the hotel in the evening and were able to park our rental car out front and unload our stuff. Parking at this hotel is done across the street in a city parking garage, but overnight parking was only $7, so it was actually quite a good deal. Unfortunately, check-in was very slow and the front desk agent didn't seem to know much about what he was doing. He forgot to mention the Diamond amenity, so I had to go back later for that, and overall, it just took far too long to check in. I was actually in the early stages of being very sick and my entire body was aching, so all I wanted to do was check in quickly and efficiently and get upstairs to lie down. Once we finally got our room key, we headed upstairs where we had a room on the 6th floor. The hallways were dark, but had lighted numbers on all of the doors and were fairly nicely decorated with some playful mirrors and sconces. We had been upgraded slightly but I honestly can't remember if it was to a Deluxe King room or an Executive King room. The room was a good size and had a desk with a minibar to the left and couch right in front when you walked in the room, then to the right was the bedroom area and bathroom. The bedroom had a closet with the safe, an iron and ironing board, and extra bedding. It was all one space and wasn't fully closed off, but the room was nicely divided by a swiveling TV so it could be watched either from the couch or the bed. The bathroom was gorgeous and bright with gray and white tiles all around and a glass enclosed rain shower. It was one of my favorite parts of the room. We had a pretty quiet night and got dinner to go from a nearby restaurant because it actually hurt for me to move at this point. Little did I know that the full body aches meant I was in the early stages of a flu and I was scheduled to fly to China for work two days later. By the next morning, I wasn't as achy, but I started feeling nauseous, so I wasn't very interested in breakfast. As a Diamond, we had $24.50 each to spend at the hotel restaurant, Bay Street Kitchen, so I went along anyway and tried to find something simple to eat. Chris went for the Cinnamon French Toast and I tried (and failed) to eat the Yogurt Parfait. The restaurant was bright and cutely decorated and service was attentive, so it was still a nice space to sit for a little while. After breakfast, we quickly checked out the rooftop pool, which was small, but deserted so early in the morning. It had a great view and some nice seating available and would have been nice if I was feeling a little bit better. Overall, the hotel was very nice. It had a bit of a boutique feel to it and it was a good option for our trip. The rooms were quiet and everything was comfortable. Aside from the slight service issue with our check-in taking longer than it should have, everything went smoothly. This hotel is a great option if you're in the area and it has a nicer, more personal feel than the massive Hyatt Regency down the street.
Happy Travels! Travel Planning: Fall in Asia Review: LAX Star Alliance Lounge Review: Singapore Airlines Suites Class LAX - NRT Review: Park Hyatt Tokyo Recap: Time in Tokyo Review: HND JAL First Class Lounge Review: JAL Business Class HND - GMP Review: IP Boutique Hotel Seoul Recap: Time in Seoul Review: ICN Cathay Pacific Lounge Review: Cathay Pacific Business Class ICN - HKG Review: Hyatt Regency Tsim Sha Tsui Recap: Time in Hong Kong Review: HKG Cathay Pacific “The Wing” First Class Lounge Review: Cathay Pacific First Class HKG - SFO The Hyatt Regency Tsim Sha Tsui (or TST), is located on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong and boasts a solid location. It’s a 5-10 minute walk to the water where you can watch the nightly light show and take in the stunning views of Hong Kong Island, and it’s directly in front of an entrance for the Tsim Sha Tsui MTR station. Granted, the TST MTR station isn’t Kowloon station, which has a direct line to the airport, but it’s convenient nonetheless. We arrived from the airport in late afternoon after taking the airport train to Kowloon station and then grabbing a taxi from there to the hotel. The hotel entrance is somewhat discreet, but can be found in the middle of Hanoi Rd inside The Masterpiece building, which houses the Hyatt on the first 24 floors and then has residences above. As a side note, one of my dreams in life is to live in a building that also houses a luxury hotel - that’s when you know you’ve made it! ...or when you know you’re paying more than a normal person should ever pay for a home, but I already do that in San Francisco, so what’s a few more dollars? Anyway, our taxi driver apparently wasn’t completely sure where we were going, so he dropped us off on the street in front of the hotel. (If your driver actually knows where he’s going, there’s an underground driveway that you can be dropped off in.) So, when you enter from the street, you’ll find yourself in a small lobby and the bellman there can help direct you to the hotel. You’ll take the elevator up to the third floor (which, I think, is as far as it goes) and arrive in the main lobby area. From there, we approached the front desk and since Chris was a Diamond member, we were offered to complete check-in from the Regency Club on the 23rd floor. We figured we might as well, so one of the associates took us up with our bags and found us a seat while they processed our check in. After checking us in and going over the Regency Club features (more on that later), we were assigned to room 2011, a Harbour View King Room. We entered the room and found the bathroom and a closet on the left with the rest of the room laid out in front. The room was crisp, clean, and tastefully decorated and after our last hotel in Seoul, it was an incredibly refreshing change. The room had a king bed with a chair and ottoman situated by the window, a desk, and a console housing the safe, coffee and tea set up, and minibar. The room also had a nice view of the harbour, but since the hotel itself is located a few blocks back from the water, the view was slightly obstructed by other buildings, though still impressive. One of the coolest parts of the room was undoubtedly the “Handy” phone they provide you to use during your stay. It’s an Android cell phone that you can use for free loaded with city guides, advertising, etc, but the BEST part is that you can tether to the phone’s 3G wifi for free. This is literally how we did all Instagramming, Facebook-checking, and map-checking we needed while we were in Hong Kong and it was awesome! You can also use it to make free calls to the US, UK, Australia, Singapore, and China, which I didn’t try, but I’m sure it would have been great - sorry mom! The most unique part of the room was the partition between the bedroom and bathroom that could be opened so you could, in theory, see the view from the bathtub or shower. Honestly, I didn’t really see much of the point of it, but it was a novelty that I’ve seen repeated in a few other hotels and can be fun.
The bathroom was quite large and featured a standalone tub, a walk in shower, and a fairly large sink and counter space. The toiletries were Portico branded and seemed pretty standard, but were nice enough. I was lucky enough to be in Maui two weeks ago thanks to some amazing airfare deals from Alaska Airlines over Black Friday. Chris and I had the most amazing time and even though it was only for three days and two nights, it was worth it to visit such a beautiful place! I had been to Hawaii before, but not to Maui, and after this trip, it is my favorite island so far (I've also visited the Big Island and Oahu). The icing on the cake (or the umbrella in our Mai Tai, if you will) was undoubtedly staying at what Chris and I both agreed is the most beautiful hotel we have ever stayed at - the Andaz Maui at Wailea. The hotel is incredibly beautiful and the decor was just our style - modern and minimalist, but with a bit of Hawaiian inspiration. Not to mention, the views are second to none. The Andaz Maui is located on its own stretch of beach and has views from seemingly every part of the hotel. Possibly the coolest feature of the hotel is the tiered infinity pools which cover 4 levels so that it's easy to get a great view no matter where you've spotted an empty lounge chair. All of that being said, the hotel is also incredibly expensive and it's one of the few in Hyatt's portfolio that is not available for cash and points stays. This means that you're either going to be paying cash (which can easily be $600/night and up) or full points, which will set you back 25,000/night. As luck would have it, Chris had just finished applying for the Chase Hyatt Visa and received two free night certificates for any Hyatt property in the world, so we chose to use those for our stay here. We got even more lucky when we arrived and were upgraded to a one bedroom partial ocean view suite without even asking. All in all, it was perfection. I plan to do a full review eventually, but wanted to share my initial thoughts on the property. Essentially, if you're looking for a place to stay in Maui, I really can't recommend anything more. While we have had issues with not feeling "cool" enough for Andaz properties in the past (see here and here), this one was absolutely perfect. It wasn't too hip or happening for us and really just offered (mostly) great service in a beautiful setting, which was exactly what we wanted. The pool and beach area were excellent and were better and much nicer, in my opinion, than the surrounding hotels that I visited in Wailea, including the Four Seasons, The Grand Wailea, and the Wailea Beach Marriott. I loved the smaller, boutique feel of the Andaz and amazingly, the hotel wasn't incredibly busy while we were visiting, which made it easy to find a great lounge chair by the pool and enjoy the quiet. Admittedly, there were a few things that weren't quite up to par during our stay, which included service in some cases, but the amenities and the resort as a whole more than made up for these issues as far as I was concerned.
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AboutJust a girl with a full-time job and a full-time obsession with traveling. It's best to LiveTraveled. Categories
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