At last it's time for my review of Calala Island. I never thought I'd travel to a private island off the coast of Nicaragua for vacation, but when World of Hyatt points became redeemable here, I couldn't say no. In the previous installment I shared the…
It's time to review my recent stay at Calala Island, though I first want to write a separate installment about getting to Calala Island. Why? Because as Ford described it to me while we were on our way there, "this is the most ridiculous thing I've ever…
I'll keep this review relatively short, because our stay was short. Friday night we had a quick overnight in Managua, as we were arriving at around 9PM, and had to be back at the airport by 5:30AM for our flight, as we were enroute to Calala Island.…
Last weekend Ford and I decided we wanted to get out of town. I started looking at options on Friday morning, and a few hours later we were on a flight to Cancun for our three night stay at the Andaz Mayakoba. This is a Hyatt property I had heard a lot…
A bit over a week ago I stayed at The Ben, a brand new Marriott Autograph Collection property in West Palm Beach, Florida. For those of you not familiar with Autograph Collection, it's supposed to be Marriott's collection of luxury, independent hotels.…
Here's an instance of a hotel that I found to be absolutely lovely, but that I wouldn't stay at again, because it just isn't for me. I had about 24 hours in Penang, so I needed a hotel for one night. Based on feedback from readers and my own research,…
I arrived at Gatwick Airport shortly after 1PM, though my flight wasn't until 9PM. Since I was doing two back-to-back redeyes, I figured it would be nice to get some rest in a "real" bed during my layover. Fortunately that was easy thanks to the Yotel…
For my second visit to Tokyo I had just over 24 hours on the ground, as I was arriving in the afternoon from London, and departing the following afternoon to Seattle. I was flying into Haneda and out of Narita, so I decided to book a hotel in the city.…
I had a roughly 24 hour layover at Heathrow, as I was arriving from Munich in the evening, and was flying to Tokyo the following evening. In a post shortly before the trip I talked about my thought process when it came to booking a hotel for this layover:…
I had a roughly 15 hour layover at Haneda Airport, as I was arriving from New York at around 9PM, and was departing the next day to Munich just after 12PM. Even though 15 hours is a reasonable amount of time to go into the city, I decided to stay at…
I had about 27 hours in Singapore, as I arrived from Helsinki at around 5PM, and was departing the following evening at around 8PM to Hong Kong. 27 hours should be plenty of time to go into the city and stay at a nice hotel there, but I decided to hang…
I had a roughly seven hour layover at Heathrow, as I arrived shortly before 7AM, and departed shortly before 2PM. I knew I wanted to check out the British Airways Arrivals Lounge, and my connecting flight was departing from Terminal 3, which has some…
After two nights at the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills and three nights at Las Alcobas in Napa Valley, the last portion of our trip had us staying three nights at Alila Ventana Big Sur. This was, without a doubt, the highlight of the trip, as Big Sur…
After two incredible nights at the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills, our next stop was Napa Valley for three nights, where we booked Las Alcobas, a Marriott Luxury Collection property that I've been wanting to check out for a while. Rates at Las Alcobas…
To kick off our eight nights in California we spent two nights at the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills. This is generally regarded as one of the top hotels in the area, and it's most definitely the most luxurious points hotel in the Los Angeles area. A…
I had a quick overnight at Heathrow Airport, as I arrived shortly before 9PM, while my flight the next morning was before 7AM. I was lucky in the sense that both my arriving and departing flights were out of Terminal 2, so this presented a great opportunity…
We had one night in London, as we were arriving at around 3PM from Bucharest, and were departing the next day at around 12PM to New York. We were going back and forth about whether to stay in the city or near the airport. Eventually we decided to just…
We spent our last night in Romania at the JW Marriott Bucharest Grand Hotel. As much as I loved some of the smaller properties we stayed at, I was kind of happy to be back at a major chain hotel for a night with easy access to coffee, a great shower,…
Our fifth (and last) night in Transylvania was spent in the town of Sinaia. Below Tiffany will share why she chose this property, and then I’ll share my review. While I looked at hotels in Brasov, in plotting out our activities and the distances between…
We've invented a new game on this road trip, having exhausted our previous car-ride favorite of Airport Code Jumble, and while I don't have a catchy name quite yet, the theme is "Name Hotels That Were Literally The Worst." I'm not quite admitting to…
Our fourth night in Transylvania was spent in the city of Sighisoara at Casa Savri, which was possibly our favorite hotel of the trip. Below Tiffany will share why she chose this property, and then I'll share my review. I debated whether or not to plan…
