Category Archives: Reviews

Spring Break in Dubai: Part 1, Seattle Overnight at the SeaTac Inn

by

For Spring Break we are heading to Dubai, United Arab Emirates.   This was not on our radar at all as a vacation destination, but when Emirates Airlines announced special fares to promote their new service from Seattle, we jumped on them.  We booked these tickets back in May 2016 for less than $1299 round trip for the both of us.  I’ve heard great things about Emirates, so although the flight is over 14 hours long non-stop, I’m actually looking forward to this…

But first we have to get to Seattle.  Our flight leaves Saturday morning at 9:40am, so we had two options:

#1:  wake up early around 3:00am and drive up to Sea-Tac airport by 6:00am; we’d have to find some parking and leave our car for a week and hope that we didn’t have any mishaps on the drive up that might delay us from getting to the airport

#2:  leave Portland Friday night and fight through all the traffic up to Seattle and then pay for a hotel and pay for parking.

Lisa prefers the peace of mind of getting to Seattle early, so we opted for #2.  We packed up our car early this morning and left soon after work.  Instead of slogging through Highway 26 and then I-5 North, we followed the advice of the Waze app and took Cornelius Pass Road to Highway 30 and took this up to the Longview Bridge.  Aside from a major slowdown on the bridge, this was a quick and efficient way to go.  We made a dinner and outlet shopping stop in Centralia, and arrived to the SeaTac Inn a little after 8:00pm.

For less than $120, this motel provides a basic room for our overnight, parking for nine days, plus a free shuttle to take us to the airport.  If we were truly hardy, we could actually walk to the airport from our motel, it is that close to the airport!  Alas, while this is no-frills basic room economy, it does have a tube TV with plenty of cable channels, hot water, room to spread out, plus a small microwave and fridge that we won’t use.  As long as we don’t get any bed bugs or weird bites from mysterious critters, and my car is still here when we get back, I’ll give this place the full amount of stars on TripAdvisor.  I wish there were more outlets to recharge our electronics, but that is a minor inconvenience.

image

image

image

Tube TV!

image

image

No shampoo, but there are small bars of soap

image

Very secure lock! Well, at least there is a deadbolt

 

Hotel Review: Hyatt Place Phoenix Tempe Airport

by

It has almost been a month since our trip to Phoenix over my birthday weekend.  This is a quick review for our hotel accommodations at Hyatt Place Phoenix Tempe Airport.

First off, the more Lisa and I say at Hyatt properties, the more it becomes our go-to choice and first place to look at when staying overnight somewhere.  We have grown fond of the Hyatt Place brand, and this visit just reinforced our image of it.

The property is located about ten minutes via car to Sky Harbor International Airport, which  makes it ideal for their free hotel shuttle.  We called while we were walking through the terminal to the baggage area, and once we got outside to the hotel shuttles pick up area, we only had a five-minute wait.  The driver was friendly and we arrived to the hotel at 9:45am — too early for check-in, but just in time to take advantage of their free Skillet Breakfast offerings, which end at 10am.  After eating, we were able to leave our luggage in their storage room for our day of sightseeing.

The hotel shuttle provides complimentary transportation within 5 miles, and we used it to take us to the light rail station and also for a pick up at the Desert Botanical Garden.  And while I missed the shuttle the morning of the half marathon, the hotel is close enough to downtown Tempe that it only took about 45 minutes to walk there.  Additionally, Tempe offers these free community shuttle buses that run on loops around town — one loop took us close enough to our hotel that it was less than a fifteen minute walk from the bus stop, so that was super convenient, especially if you don’t want to pay tickets for the regular bus routes.

The hotel is clean and modern and well appointed for what we paid — in this case, just 5,000 Hyatt rewards points.  Otherwise, it would have costed us around $115 for each night during that weekend, which is very reasonable.  However, on other dates that rate can go up to over $250 per night, so using just 5,000 Hyatt points makes for a very good redemption.  The rooms were pretty large with plenty of room to spread out, including a work desk with task lighting and plenty of outlets to recharge electronics.  There was also a small refrigerator and sink and coffee maker.  A fitness gym and small outdoor pool were available, but we didn’t use them.  Our favorite feature is the morning breakfast with plenty of offerings to satisfy you — fresh fruit, oatmeal with fixings, pastries, bread, cereals and a hot plate area with breakfast sandwiches and other rotating items like pancakes and French toast.  The only warning though is that when the breakfast hours end at 10am, they put that stuff away quickly so don’t be late!

Overall this was another winning stay at a Hyatt Place with very minor issues, and we would definitely stay here again if we return to Phoenix for another visit.

Hyatt Place two bed configuration

TV and work space area

 

Hyatt Place Los Cabos Review

by

We stayed at the Hyatt Place Los Cabos for the first two nights of our vacation in Los Cabos.  Our quick review…

Points used:  5000 per night.  This is a Category 1 Hyatt property, and therefore the lowest cost in points.  The regular rate is around $90 per night.  There are no resort fees.

The property is practically brand new, opening its doors in late 2013.  However, a hurricane swooped in October 2014, which resulted in a lot of damage, so much in fact that the hotel had to close and undergo extensive renovation work.  So it is a brand new hotel twice-over!

The hotel has a prime location with bus transportation, ATMs, shopping and restaurants all within a five-minute walk.  It is also in a safe area with lots of activity and lights.  The staff are friendly and bilingual and the hotel has pretty much all that we could want — outdoor swimming pool, well-appointed 24-hour access gym, room service, bar service, computers and comfy sitting areas indoors and outdoors.  Our favorite part was the extensive breakfast buffet that featured fresh fruits, a granola bar, different juices and a wide variety of hot foods.  Seriously, since breakfast goes until late morning, you can pretty much fill up and not need to eat again until the late afternoon/early dinner.  Wifi in the hotel was pretty strong and fast.  Our room was spacious and well-appointed with plenty of plugs to recharge.  

About the only thing we didn’t like was one of the elevators was out for almost an entire day, so there was just one to service all five floors and all the guests.  Normally this wouldn’t be a big deal because we could just take the stairs, but the stairs up are not accessible through the public spaces.  So we were forced to use the elevator going up, but we could use the stairs going down because they would empty out into the employee-only area but we could find our way out to the main lobby.  Not a huge deal, but the waits for the elevator could be tiresome.

All in all this was a fantastic place to stay, offering a great value for all that you get.  We were very satisfied with our experience and we would most definitely stay here again!

image

Our room featured a separate sitting area

image

View from our fourth floor window

image

Breakfast spread

image

Variety of juices

image

image

Flying Home: the Perks of the Ritz-Carlton Credit Card

by

We savored our last hours at the Hyatt Ziva and then took our scheduled shuttle van to the airport.  We arrived two hours before our scheduled flight, so we used the perks offered by our Ritz Carlton credit card to gain entry into the VIP Lounge Club, which was just steps away from our boarding gate.

image

image

The lounge offers a menu of mixed cocktail drinks

image

Plus sandwiches

image

Hand salads

image

The lounge features two levels. This upper level also has our service and food plus more rooms

image

This room is for families or Recreation, with a pool table and a video game console to play on a TV

For our return flight, we still had $100 left over from the annual $300 travel credit that the Ritz Carlton credit card provides for baggage fees, lounge membership, upgrades and more.  We used $62 to upgrade our seats to the exit row for more leg room, then we spent about $30 to enjoy food from the menu and Lisa also purchased a glass of wine.  

image

image

All told, our upgrades to first class on the flight down and to the exit row for our return flight were practically free using our credit card.  Plus having the VIP lounge to stretch out and have drinks and more food is such a great way to travel with less stress, we are certainly glad that we signed up for this credit card that offers so much.