Hotel Reviews Archives - The American Travel Project

Filed Under: Residence Inn Baltimore Downtown Inner Harbor : Hotel Review

March 11, 2014 by

Residence Inn Baltimore Inner Harbor, Studio with 2 Queen Beds

Residence Inn Baltimore Downtown Inner Harbor

Where: Downtown Baltimore, Maryland (about a 5 minute walk to the Inner Harbor)

When: March 2014

Who: 2 adults & 2 elementary school-aged kids

The Hotel:

We spent a Saturday night at the this link is what I found at the time of this writing, but when we applied it was 70,000 bonus points). This hotel was a good value because the annual fee is $85, and this hotel was going for around $185 + tax on the night that we stayed.

We were given a 2 Queen Bed Studio (no upgrade this time…boooo). Last time we stayed at this same hotel (about 7 years ago), we were given a huge 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom suite. No luck this time (I didn’t ask though). The room was large enough for the 4 of us to spread out. It had a kitchen area that we did not use at all. There was a pull-out sofabed for the American Girl dolls to sleep in too. We barely spent any time in the hotel, but it was clean, albeit basic.

Plenty of room for the AG dolls to sleep

The hotel (like all Residence Inns) came with a free breakfast. Although these types of breakfast spreads aren’t always the best, this one was decent & had a good amount of choices. For a family, it is nice to have a hotel that comes with breakfast because it is convenient, easy, generally quick, and can save some significant money. My kids love the kinds of things that this breakfast offered (cereal, waffles with whipped cream & chocolate chips, toast, yogurt, and juices). They also had eggs, sausage, and biscuits. The coffee was available in the lobby all day.

We didn’t use the kitchen, but I do like this feature for longer stays

The Location:

This is where the review is going to get mixed. The relative location of this hotel is good. It is within walking distance to the Inner Harbor area (a pretty short walk). However, the exact area of the hotel is a bit seedy, especially at night. Now, you might just say that is Baltimore (and I would guess that you’ve watched The Wire – if not, go watch it right now, it’s the best). However, there are other hotels that are in better exact locations.

The worst part of the whole review is coming now….the noise! I don’t know if it’s something about the insulation or just the noisiness of the general area, but it was LOUD at night. Like seriously LOUD. I remembered this from the first time we stayed here, but I thought (hoped!) it was a fluke. Wrong. It was a hard to sleep kind of loud. Sirens and people screaming in the streets. Bachelorette parties and car alarms. And I forgot the melatonin. Good thing the kids can sleep through anything (see this if you don’t believe me).

Filed Under: Embassy Suites Waikiki with Kids: Hotel Review
March 5, 2014 by Leave a Comment

Embassy Suites Waikiki Hotel – view from the pool

Embassy Suites Waikiki with Kids – Review

Where: Waikiki Beach, Oahu, Hawaii

When: July 2012

Who: Family of 2 adults and 2 young school aged kids (that would be the 4 of us!)

The Hotel:

We spent 2 nights at the here in this post about Disney Hotels, so it was free for us to stay here. I don’t remember the exact cost (in miles) for the room, but I do remember that we got an excellent redemption value. Hotel prices were very high because we were there for the July 4th holiday, and using miles worked out perfectly for us. For some reason that I am not quite sure about (cute kids is my guess), they upgraded us to the largest room type (2 bedroom, 2 bathroom) and we were told that it was the best room in the hotel. It had a huge balcony with ocean views as well.

View from our balcony at the Embassy Suites Waikiki

Bedroom #1 in our suite

Bedroom #2 in our suite

Because who doesn’t want to see a picture of a toilet

If you have to see one toilet, might as well see both

The Embassy Suites Waikiki includes a decent cook-to-order breakfast (like all Embassy Suites hotels) and also includes a happy hour where you can get as many watered down drinks as you are willing to stand in line to get. Actually, the happy hour at the Embassy Suites Waikiki was great. It was at the pool, and the drinks were pretty good.

The Pool:

For our family travels, the pool is always an important factor. We aren’t super picky about it, but do enjoy a good pool when one is available to us. The pool at this hotel was nice and the kids had lots of fun making friends and playing in the pool until dark.

View of the pool looking down from our balcony – those tiny dots are the kids

The Location:

There are tons of places to walk that are close to this hotel. You can walk across the street to Waikiki Beach. There are plenty of restaurants within easy walking distance as well.

Surfing lessons are a great Father’s Day present!

Overall…. We really loved this hotel, our huge upgraded room, and the location. We would definitely stay here again if we go back to Waikiki.

Filed Under: JW Marriott Ihilani with Kids : Hotel Review
February 27, 2014 by
JW Marriott Ihilani, Ko Olina, Oahu

JW Marriott Ihilani Review

Where: Ko Olina, Oahu, Hawaii

When: July 2012

Who: Family of 2 adults and 2 young school aged kids (that would be the 4 of us!)

The Hotel:

We spent 5 nights at the Disney’s Aulani Resort, and even shares a lagoon with Aulani.

Disney’s Aulani Resort next to the JW Marriott

The JW Marriott Ihilani was a beautiful, well-maintained hotel in a gorgeous setting. Just thinking about it kind of gives me butterflies in my stomach, remembering my first view of a Hawaiian sunset from our balcony.

Sunset view from our balcony at the JW Marriott Ihilani

The rooms in this hotel are large (average 640 square feet), and ours had plenty of room for the 4 of us. The bathroom was huge! We were given a Deluxe Ocean View room (we didn’t have any status with Marriott, but got upgraded anyway). There was a very large balcony with a chaise lounge and a table and chairs where we could enjoy the view.

Balcony in an Ocean View room at the JW Marriott Ihilani

The Lagoon:

The hotel has a man-made lagoon with a beach area (this is shared with Disney’s Aulani next door). There are rafts and other toys for rent at the lagoon. This was our first stop on our Hawaii trip, and I am glad that it was. If I had compared it to other beach and ocean areas we visited, we would have been disappointed. The water is very, very calm. This can be great for babies, toddlers, and non-swimmers. For my kids, it was a bit boring. They like some waves in their oceans!

Swimming in the lagoon at the JW Marriott Ihilani

The Pool:

The kids had tons of fun at the JW Marriott Ihilani pool. This pool doesn’t have the bells & whistles (aka water slides and lazy rivers) that many other resorts have, but the water was clean and warm. There were plenty of pool chairs and towels. The service was very friendly, and they even gave out water ice and popsicles to everyone at the pool. There were also fruit-infused water dispensers, which is a nice touch.

Pool at the JW Marriott Ihilani

JW Marriott Ihilani for Kids:

This is definitely an upscale resort hotel, but it was very family friendly. There were lots of other families there, so we did not feel out of place at all. In fact, with Disney’s Aulani being right next door, the whole area felt like a kid-fest. The lagoon had tons of kids and families playing in the water and the sand. I am sure that this hotel was a much quieter option than Aulani would have been (plus this one was free for us, so a no-brainer). They have some activities for kids, like feeding the fish in the lagoon and the stingrays in the marina.

View of marina water feature (and stingrays!) from our balcony

Checking out the stingrays at the JW Marriott Ihilani

The Ko Olina area:

Ok, so it’s Hawaii. It is fabulously beautiful. With that said, this was not our favorite area. It was more contrived than other places we visited. Don’t get me wrong, we loved our stay here. But it was far from many of the places on the island that we wanted to visit and explore. The restaurants in the area tended to be more expensive, so we ended up driving to a shopping center a few miles away to eat many of our meals.

The grounds of the hotel itself are gorgeous, but there are other areas in Hawaii that ended up being much more appealing to us.

One of the walkways at the hotel

Checking out the rocks and tidal pools near the JW Marriott

Overall….

We adored the hotel itself & Hawaii is probably our very favorite destination. However, we are returning & are not going back to Oahu at all this time. It was our least favorite of the islands that we visited (although that’s like saying chocolate is my least favorite ice cream among chocolate, chocolate marshmallow, and chocolate peanut butter….can you really go wrong with 3 great choices?). The Hawaiian islands each have their own special and unique features. My favorite was Kauai and my husband’s was Maui. So we are going back to Kauai:)

Filed Under: Mono Lake to Mammoth Lakes, CA : What is that smell?
February 24, 2014 by
Our Route from Yosemite to Mono Lake to Mammoth Lakes, CA

Mono Lake to Mammoth Lakes, CA

As part of our National Parks Road Trip that I keep mentioning, we drove from Tioga Pass, we made our way to Mono Lake while seeing some amazing scenery along the way. We parked the car in the lot and paid a cash donation to support the restoration of this ecosystem (I think that’s what it said, but I can’t really remember).

Walking to see the Tufas – Mono Lake, CA

What are Tufas? What is Mono Lake, for that matter?

As we approached, we started to see the tufa towers sticking out of the lake (cue my excitement at seeing something new and different). Mono Lake is ultra salty and it’s one of the oldest lakes in North America. By some magic of science and calcium, the tufa towers form and make this a really special place (see here for a much more scientifically accurate explanation if you care). There are different places around the lake to view the tufas, and unfortunately I didn’t get photos of the really cool looking ones. Because we definitely did not choose the best viewing area available. As we walked we noticed that we were kind of getting stuck in the “mud”.

Mono Lake Tufas – the white things sticking out of the salt water

And then….what is that smell?

We tried to ignore it for a few minutes & act like the naturalists that we so clearly are not. Like, this is just nature kids, hold your noses and enjoy the looks of these cool limestone piles sticking out of the lake. God created this beautiful lake and these neat looking pillars for some reason, and I’m sure there is some amazing scientific fact behind the horrid stench that we are mouth-breathing right now. Luckily there was a naturalist onsite who was happy to answer the question we were dying to ask. What is that smell?

I think we caught Mono Lake on a bad day, because she told us that it isn’t usually as strong and awful as it was that day. The water levels were very low, and because of that what used to be covered with water was exposed. Therefore, the smell was basically rotting sea creature carcasses (or something like that). Oh, and the bird poop. Birds LOVE Mono Lake and the area where we decided to view it was their personal favorite toilet. And the billions of flies.

Stepping in bird poop at Mono Lake

Mammoth Lakes…a new kind of smell

So we hopped back in our (thankfully) rental car with our bird poop covered shoes and drove to Mammoth Lakes, where we were spending a night at the Westin Monache Resort (yes, it was free, in case you had any doubts) before heading on to Las Vegas. We knew that there were forest fires in the area, as we could see the smoke in some places. However, as we got closer to Mammoth Lakes it was very, very smoky. We were visiting as the Aspen Fire (a wildfire caused by a lightning strike) was happening, and the air was thick with smoke. The smell wasn’t unpleasant the way Mono Lake was, but it was definitely disturbingly smoky.

Eating ice cream in Mammoth Lakes, CA

Our short Mammoth Lakes visit

Since we were only stopping for one night along the way, we didn’t have a lot of time to spend in Mammoth Lakes. We walked a very short distance from our hotel to a pretty shopping and dining plaza nearby. There were tons of places to eat. There was also a festival with live music going on, and there were games for the kids to play. This was off-season for this ski resort town, but there were still lots of people out and about. I imagine it is a wonderful place to be in the wintertime if you like to ski (or drink hot chocolate while everyone else goes skiing).

Westin Monache Resort

Steps from Westin leading toward the shopping plaza

This is an SPG Category 5 hotel, which is normally 12,000 points per night. We were able to use an additional 1,500 points to guarantee an upgrade to a suite. We planned ahead and figured we would want the extra space after our 2 nights in the Yosemite Curry Village tents. The hotel did not disappoint. The room was very large and comfortable, with a separate King bedroom, a living room with pull-out sofa bed, and a kitchen. It had a large bathroom. It felt like heaven after 2 practically sleepless nights prior to this stay.

So, our tips for going to Mono Lake and Mammoth Lakes: Take this review with a grain of salt (get it?) and just do it. Be prepared for some interesting smells. And go to the less bird-poopy part of Mono Lake (hint: there’s a visitor center and a boardwalk to walk on…doh!).

Filed Under: Hyatt Regency San Francisco Review (Hint: it was free!)
February 18, 2014 by
Hyatt Regency San Francisco lobby – free babysitting???

Hyatt Regency San Francisco Review

We spent 3 nights at this San Francisco hotel as part of a larger trip. See here for information about what we did while we were in San Francisco .

We chose this hotel for a few reasons:

1. It was a Hyatt & that’s what we were looking for

2. We could use our Hyatt free night certificates

3. The Regency Club had good reviews

4. Location

Why were we looking for a Hyatt hotel?

First of all, Hyatt is probably our favorite hotel brand. We have had great experiences every time we have stayed in a Hyatt hotel, no matter which of the Hyatt Brands (Grand Hyatt, Hyatt House, Hyatt Regency, etc). At the time we were booking this hotel, we had Hyatt Diamond status as part of a trial that we did where we had to stay 12 nights in order to get Diamond status. The benefits of Hyatt Diamond status are many, but our favorites are upgrades (YMMV but we are 100% for getting good upgrades so far – it helps to have really cute kids), and the Regency Club (or free breakfast if they don’t have one).

Another reason was that we each have a Hyatt Credit Card, which gives us a “free” night each year in a Category 1-4 Hyatt hotel (after we pay the $75 annual fee – so not truly free, but you get the point). This hotel was a great value for these certificates, as it was prime season in a very popular city. I don’t remember how much the hotel was going for (this was way pre-blog so I was not making notes or taking great photos) but it was in the $300-$400 range. Maybe even more, as we were upgraded to a larger room, with a view, and we had access to the Regency Club. We used 2 free night certificates and 1 night we paid for using points (15,000 points).

What is the Regency Club?

Hyatt (and other hotels) have certain hotels, definitely not most, that have a “special” area that is for certain guests only. If you are a business traveler or a high roller, you probably don’t need this explanation. As a typical American family, this was new to us before we discovered this whole Miles & Points world. It is a level 2 skill, so if you aren’t there yet, don’t worry. At some point this will be really boring for you to read & you’ll be like “Duh! Pass me the Canvas Chardonnay and shut up!” According to Hyatt, “Regency Club guests have private access to the Regency Club Lounge, where continental breakfast, cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, snacks, beer and wine are served daily.” This is a fantastic benefit for a family, as you don’t have to pay for food and you don’t have to cook it either (score!).

In order to stay in a Regency Club room (where you are given the benefit of access & are sometimes on the same floor where you need a special key to make the elevator button light up & you will feel important), you have to be upgraded either by status or using an upgrade certificate or pleasing the upgrade gods, pay extra for the Regency Room, or use extra points (21,000 for this hotel vs. 15,000 for a regular room).

I will state that it is important that your children are well-behaved while you are in these club lounges (and everywhere else, but if you can pull that off please email me with some tips). There are business travelers here who want peace and quiet. Do not disturb them. They sometimes look like they might bite. Seriously though, I have read lots of complaints on various websites about kids running around in the club lounges. You can argue that they are not the private domain of any one guest who is enjoying the benefit. I agree, but I feel more comfortable keeping my kids quiet and as still as possible by bringing things for them to do like drawing, playing handheld games (with earphones), etc. That way we are all happy & everyone can eat their free food & drink their Canvas Chardonnay in peace. And no nasty looks from the businessmen.

View from the Club Lounge at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco

This particular Regency Club was fabulous. There was tons of seating, it was not crowded (when we were there), they had massage chairs, and the VIEW! I actually love the food in the Hyatt Regency Clubs I have been to. They usually have a decent light breakfast (perfect for us), good coffee, and I like the evening offerings because there are lots of vegetables. This saves us tons of money because we aren’t huge eaters, and the food generally serves as meals (at least for us adults). And I like the Canvas Chardonnay (I’m easy to please, wine-wise).

Hyatt Regency San Francisco Location:

They say that this hotel is in the Financial District. I guess that’s a good thing because we felt that the location was great. It was very close to the Ferry Building, and was easily walk-able to other areas. We do like to walk a lot, so it worked out well for us. It felt very safe, even at night (naive? maybe). There was a Big Bus Tour stop close by as well, so we could hop on there.

Would we stay here again?

Yes, in a heartbeat.

Hyatt Regency San Francisco lobby art

Filed Under: Marco Island : How to Travel for Free
February 13, 2014 by
If we can do it, you can do it too!

How we went to Marco Island for FREE

Right after Christmas of 2013 we were able to to escape the cold and spend 4 nights in beautiful Marco Island, Florida. It was our first time there, and it will not be our last. We enjoyed the trip so much. It was totally free (for flight and hotel and hotel breakfast), which made it even better! How did we go to Marco Island for free, you ask? I will let you in on the secret (it’s not a secret at all, everyone and their brother is doing it). We saved about $5000. Five. Thousand. Dollars. We would not have actually SPENT 5 grand on this trip, as that is approaching our travel budget for a whole year & we can usually get 50 hotels nights out of that. Because it was Christmas time, the hotel and flights would have been particularly expensive if we had purchased them.

Hilton Marco Island Resort from the beach at the crack of dawn

Hilton Marco Island Beach Resort and Spa

We chose this hotel because it was free, but I would stay here again in a heartbeat. It was right on the beach. We could walk out of our room and be on the beach within one minute. Perfect. There is a great pool that the kids loved. They made tons of friends over our four days at the hotel, as this is a very family-friendly hotel. There is a pool bar serving food and drinks. There are plenty of pool and beach chairs to use. I wish I was there right now.

Our room was large, with a king sized bed and a queen sized pull-out sofa. The kids are still young enough that this works for us. We know we are nearing the time when we will have to spring for 2 rooms, so we are taking advantage of this while we can. The hotel was completely booked, so they did not have a 2 bed room available for our whole stay. We could have switched rooms, but ended up being happy with the room we had, so we stayed put.

The pool at the Hilton Marco Island Resort

Hilton Marco Island Beach

I love love love seashells, and this beach did not disappoint. In fact, we had gone to Sanibel Island for a visit on this trip as well. It is supposed to be the shelling capitol of the universe, and I’m sure it usually is, but on this trip our Marco Island hotel beach proved to have even more shells (although Keewaydin Island had the mother-lode). I loved being able to wake up, stumble out of bed at the crack of dawn (my kids are NOT the sleep-in types), and be on the beach searching for shells within minutes.

Early morning shelling on Marco Island

Funny story: my son thought it would be a fun idea to bring a bag of goldfish crackers to eat on the beach. He was promptly attacked by seagulls. Even after he threw the bag and ran for his life down the beach, they still kept chasing him. I missed the whole thing because I was looking for shells. He said “I wish you were videotaping that so I could win the grand prize on America’s Funniest Videos”. True Story.

Free Hotel Nights

The ~~top secret~~ way that we got these free hotel nights is through applying for a couple of credit cards, meeting the minimum spend, getting the nights posted to our accounts, and then using them to book this hotel.

For 2 of the nights we used this card:

Citi Hilton Reserve Credit Card:

Earn 2 weekend night certificates each good for 1 weekend night (standard room, double occupancy) at select hotels and resorts within the Hilton HHonors portfolio after $2,500 in eligible purchases within the first 4 months of cardmembership

10 HHonors Bonus Pointsper $1 spent on hotel stays within the Hilton HHonors portfolio

5 HHonors Bonus Pointsper $1 spent on airline and car rental purchases

3 HHonors Bonus Pointsper $1 spent on all other eligible purchases

Enjoy the benefits of HHonors Gold status as long as you are a cardmember

This is also how we got free breakfast each day (the hotel gave it to us for having Gold status)

For the other 2 nights we used HHonors Points that we had accumulated from credit card spending, some hotel stay bonus points, and some other credit cards.

Free Flight to Fort Myers

We were able to fly from Trenton, NJ direct to Fort Myers, FL on Frontier Airlines using miles that we got from this credit card:

Frontier Airlines Mastercard -

Earn up to 50,000 bonus miles — starting with 40,000 bonus miles after spending $500 in the first 90 days.

That is enough for two roundtrip award tickets (plus fees/taxes from $10).

If you have an American Express card that earn Amex Travel. It is often a better deal to transfer the miles, but each situation is different.

Filed Under: Residence Inn Denver City Center – Hotel Review
February 5, 2014 by 1 Comment
Hotel Review: Residence Inn Denver City Center

We spent one night at this hotel as a part of a very long trip in which we visited 5 states and 7 National Parks. We were able to do a lot in the short amount of time we had in Denver (see this post), and the location of this hotel was helpful for that. The Residence Inn Denver City Center is located within walking distance to many of the attractions. We walked to the 16th Street Mall (very close) and to Coors Field (a bit further, but we needed the exercise) from here.

Residence Inn hotels are Marriott’s all-suite style of hotels. They are often marketed toward business travelers with extended stays, but I also think that they can be perfect for families. This particular Residence Inn was very clean and updated. The room that we had was very large, with a kitchen, living room, dining area, and bedroom. I like these kinds of rooms because we can spread out. I also like having a kitchen area because we can often save money on snacks (and some meals on longer stays). The breakfast was included in the dining area near the lobby, and I thought it was great for a ‘free’ breakfast. It is included in the price of your stay, which for us was free!

How did we get this hotel for free?

At the time when we stayed at this hotel (July 2013), it was 20,000 Marriott points per night. At the time the hotel was going for about $275+ tax per night, so we got a great deal by using our points and getting it for free. Note: you don’t have to pay the tax on free point redemption nights, so the savings is even greater than the room rate.

My husband had gotten this Marriott credit card from Chase. At the time when he got the card, and at the time of this writing (these things can change quickly and often) the card offered:

- Earn 70,000 points after spending $1,000 within 3 months

- 1 free night stay now (at Category 1-4 hotel)

- 1 free night stay every year (at Category 1-5 hotel) after account anniversary (and after paying annual fee)

- $0 annual fee for the first year, $85 each year after

- 5 points for every $1 spent at over 3600 Marriott Locations

- 2 points for every $1 spent on airline tickets purchased directly with the airline, and at car rental agencies & restaurants

- 1 point for every $1 spent on purchases anywhere else

So just by getting this one credit card we were able to stay at this and some other hotels for free!

Filed Under: Hotel Reviews
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DoubleTree Beach Resort Tampa Bay – North Redington Beach : Hotel Review

DoubleTree Beach Resort Tampa Bay – North Redington Beach : Hotel Review

The Hotel

The Room

The Location

Overall

Radisson Blu Aqua with Kids : Hotel Review

The Radisson Blu Aqua Club Lounge

Radisson Blu Aqua 2 Queen Bed Guest Room

Radisson Blu Aqua Common Areas

Indoor Pool:

The Lobby:

The service and staff:

Radisson Blu Aqua Chicago Location