Hilton

Lodging Review: Home2Suites by Hilton Joliet/Plainfield

Four friends stayed here for a weekend while visiting another friend who lives in the area. We had two rooms, one with a king bed and the other with two queen beds. Otherwise the rooms were identical. As part of our reservation we asked to be on the same floor and that request was honored, which was nice. Our rooms ended up being just catty-cornered across the hall from one another.

We arrived mid-morning, knowing we were too early for check-in and, unsurprisingly, our rooms were not ready. We asked to be notified when they were available and went to visit our friend at her house. A few hours later when we went to lunch I got a call saying our rooms were ready, well before the official 3 PM check-in time.

We were checked in promptly and given a couple of bottles of water. I later got an email stating that I’d receive points as my gift due to my Gold status. As a limited-service property, I was not expecting any kind of upgrade so this was just fine.

We were on the second of the three floors, right in the middle of the building. My window actually overlooked the awning over the front door. There’s not much of a view at this hotel as it’s in an area where there are a few other hotels and a mall, but it’s convenient to the interstate and there are quite a few restaurants in the area.

Guest Room

The room was identical to other H2S properties I’ve visited: upon entering you’re in the kitchenette, with the bathroom to one side.  The kitchenette features a full-sized fridge, a microwave, a dishwasher and a coffee machine.

Step in further and there’s a sleeper sofa with an ottoman across from a shelving unit that features a rolling table/desk and a desk chair. One thing that has always puzzled me about H2S setup is that this room can sleep 4 people (plus up to two kids on the sleeper sofa) yet there’s only one chair in the room. When we went down for breakfast on the Saturday morning, it was so busy there was nowhere to sit, so we brought our food back to the room. We ended up with two sitting on the sofa, we rolled the table out and used the desk chair and the ottoman for the two other seats. Not ideal, but we made it work.

At the far end of the room is the closet and the beds.

Each bed has its own night stand with a lamp, an AC outlet and a USB outlet. In the middle is a small chest with another lamp. It, too, has an AC outlet on it. I love that Hiltons in general have a lot of easy-to-access outlets!

The bathroom has a nice, wide counter and two drawers for storage, with the hair dryer kept in one of them. There’s also a bit of storage under the toilet paper rolls. Lots of fluffy towels were provided as well.

The shower stall is across from the sink. The doors slid easily and there were wall-mounted toiletries from Zero that worked just fine. I also liked that there were two upper shelves, one in each corner and in the back of the shower there was a low shelf, just perfect for propping up my leg for shaving.

The hotel was opened in 2017 and still seems to be in great shape. I didn’t notice any nicks or rust in our room. Our only gripe was how heavy the bathroom pocket door was. Yes, it had a little pull that popped out but still, no weaklings allowed here!

Second Floor Hallway

Common Areas

Lobby

Breakfast is served in the lobby from 6-9 AM weekdays and 7-10 AM on weekends and holidays. It’s not huge but there’s a decent variety. Three kinds of juice and water is available on tap.

Coffee is available all day at its own station.

Fresh yogurt, fresh fruit, and a toaster for pastries were on hand.

Cereal and oatmeal, with a selection of goodies to add to it were on offer as well as several different kinds of milk.

Hard-boiled eggs and cheese and this warmer which had all the pieces so you could assemble your own breakfast sandwich. The eggs were in little round shapes, perfectly sized for the sandwich. Though I didn’t try it, that pretzel bread looks pretty good!

There were lots of seating areas – and the business center computer is in this area too – but breakfast can be a very busy time as we found out on the Saturday. On Sunday things were much calmer but I suppose that all depends on what’s going on in the area.

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There’s also outdoor seating at a fire pit though it rained a good part of the day during our visit.

Next to the Front Desk is the mini-mart which has snacks as well as cold beverages and frozen meals.

Spin2Cycle

This area has both the gym and the washers & dryers. The gym is not large but there are several aerobic machines as well as dumbbells and a universal machine. Both areas are open 24/7.

The laundry area has two pairs of washers and dryers, each of which cost $2 per load.

There’s also an ATM in this area.

Pool

The pool is open from 6 AM to 11 PM and children under age 16 must be accompanied by an adult. It’s not a large pool but it looked to be in good shape and it even had some beach balls available.

Not only was there seating around the pool, but there was a door that opened onto a patio where there were tables with umbrellas. Pool towels were provided so you don’t have to bring your room towel downstairs.

In the end

We had a choice of three Hilton properties for our stay. As we thought we might want to sit and talk at some point we chose Home2Suites because we knew the rooms would be bigger. That worked out well when we needed to eat breakfast in the room. The staff was friendly, the room was clean, I have no complaints and would be happy to stay here again if I’m back in the area.

Categories: Hilton, Home2Suites, Hotel, Illinois, Lodging Review, North America, United States | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Lodging Review: Hampton by Hilton Krakow

Passage to Eastern Europe: Trip Introduction
Flight Review: LOT Polish Airlines 797-9 Business Class, ORD-WAW
Lodging Review: Hampton by Hilton Krakow
Our Time in Krakow, Poland
Flixbus from Krakow to Budapest
Lodging Review: Corinthia Budapest Hotel
Our Time in Budapest, Hungary
Our Time in Kalocsa, Hungary
Our Time in Osijek and Vukovar, Croatia
Our Time in Belgrade, Serbia
Our Time in Golubac, Serbia
Our Time in Vidin, Bulgaria
Our Time in Ruse, Bulgaria
Our Time in Bucharest, Romania
Lodging Review: JW Marriott Bucharest Grand Hotel
Flight Review: SWISS Airlines 777-300 ZRH-ORD

After a long day of travel, it was already early evening by the time we arrived at the Krakow airport. While planning our trip we had considered public transportation from the airport to the hotel but had decided to just use an Uber (or Bolt) and that turned out to be a good decision. Though it wasn’t raining at the time we were waiting for our ride, it had been raining a good part of the day. Be aware that the ride share pickup area is not covered.

Location

The hotel is located on the eastern side of the city so it’s about a 40-60 minute drive from the airport during evening rush hour. It’s not particularly close to the Old Town (Rynek Główny) but it’s about a 10-minute walk to the tram that runs along Mogilska street. The sidewalk along this route is inconsistent and sometimes quite bumpy so I would not want to be dragging my suitcase this way. In addition, it’s not well lighted in the evenings so I would be wary of walking this way even though it’s not a particularly busy road but it still might be difficult for cars to see people walking.

Hampton by Hilton, Krakow

The hotel is just around the corner from the Dąbski KS Kraków, a local sporting club, and there are associated athletic fields across the road from the hotel. Even though our room faced these fields, we never experienced much in the way of noise (they seemed to be mostly practice fields) and even the lights did not bother us in the evening.

The Hampton is connected to the DoubleTree just next door and the hotels share some facilities as I’ll explain. In general that’s a good thing for those staying at the Hampton.

On the Sunday of our visit (the second Sunday in October), there was a running race that I believe began at the Decathlon (Sporting Goods) Plaza not far from the rear of our hotel. There were quite a few runners staying at both the Hampton and the DoubleTree. When we walked down to Mogilska on Sunday, we found we were trapped on our side of the street until enough runners passed that the police would allow us to cross the street. I’m going to guess, based on bib numbers, that there were about 16,000 runners. It was a good 30 minutes before we were able to cross and even then the tram was not running in our area so we had to walk a good portion of the way to the Old Town. Continue reading

Categories: Europe, Hampton by Hilton, Hilton, Hotel, Lodging Review, Poland, Trip Report | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

Passage to Eastern Europe: Trip Introduction

Passage to Eastern Europe: Trip Introduction
Flight Review: LOT Polish Airlines 797-9 Business Class, ORD-WAW
Lodging Review: Hampton by Hilton Krakow
Our Time in Krakow, Poland
Flixbus from Krakow to Budapest
Lodging Review: Corinthia Budapest Hotel
Our Time in Budapest, Hungary
Our Time in Kalocsa, Hungary
Our Time in Osijek and Vukovar, Croatia
Our Time in Belgrade, Serbia
Our Time in Golubac, Serbia
Our Time in Vidin, Bulgaria
Our Time in Ruse, Bulgaria
Our Time in Bucharest, Romania
Lodging Review: JW Marriott Bucharest Grand Hotel
Flight Review: SWISS Airlines 777-300 ZRH-ORD

I’m kicking off year 12 of this blog with my next trip report and this one includes some eastern European countries I’d never visited.

This year’s trip centered around a river cruise on the eastern part of the Danube. We’d previously cruised the western part of the river back in 2016. That trip left from Erlangen, Germany (just outside of Nuremburg) and ended in Budapest, Hungary. This trip departed from Budapest and ended in Bucharest, Romania.

As the cruise/tour was only 10 days, we decided to go to Krakow, Poland for a few days ahead of the cruise to visit yet another country we’d not been to.

Transportation

I flew from Memphis to Chicago to meet up with my friend who lives in the area. I used cash for a round-trip positioning flight on American Airlines. From there we flew LOT Polish Airlines to Warsaw and connected to Krakow. The government shutdown in October meant our flight out of Chicago was delayed causing us to miss our connection. Fortunately we were accommodated on the next flight to Krakow and even ended up in exit row seats. I used 70K Air Canada Aeroplan miles + $78.03 for my business class seat which would have sold for about $3064, giving me a fantastic value of about 4.38 cents per point. My friend used 40K Aeroplan miles + $78.03 for her seat in economy. While her ticket “only” worked out to about 1.4 cents per point, it still saved her over $500 out of pocket. Continue reading

Categories: Award Travel, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cruises, Europe, Hampton by Hilton, Hilton, Hungary, JW Marriott, LOT Polish, Marriott, Other Hotels, Poland, River Cruise, Romania, Serbia, Star Alliance, SWISS, Trip Report, Viking | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Lodging Review: Home2 Suites by Hilton Rapid City, SD

A Quick Trip to the Northern Plains
Lodging Review: Home2 Suites by Hilton Rapid City, SD
Our Visit to the Crazy Horse Memorial and Custer State Park
Our Visit to Mount Rushmore and Theodore Roosevelt National Park
Lodging Review: TownePlace Suites, Dickinson, North Dakota
Lodging Review: Fairfield Inns & Suites, Chicago O’Hare

We arrived in the Rapid City, SD area on a sunny, windy afternoon. The temperature was quite pleasant with only a light jacket required. The Home2 Suites is located on the south side of I-94 in an area with four other similar hotels. The Home2 Suites, La Quinta Inns & Suites and Fairfield Inn are all connected to the WaTiki Indoor Waterpark Resort. There’s also a Residence Inn next door so it’s obviously a popular area for tourists like us. To reach the entrance of the Home2 Suites you take the road past the Fairfield Inn, take a side road that runs between the Residence Inn and the La Quinta and drive past the side of the Home2 Suites before turning right towards the main entrance.

Home2 Suites Rapid City Exterior

I’m very familiar with the Home2 Suites brand as I often stay at the one in the Bellevue area of Nashville when I visit my parents so I had a good idea what to expect and by and large the hotel met my expectations. Home2 Suites’ color scheme involves a lot of neon yellow both on the building’s exterior and in the guest rooms. One of my companions found it garish but I must admit it doesn’t really faze me anymore as I’ve become accustomed to it. We were met by a couple of friendly reps at the desk who checked us in quickly and let us know that we wouldn’t receive housekeeping except by request or complimentary after the fourth day. That was fine by us as we were only staying two nights. Continue reading

Categories: Hilton, Home2Suites, Hotel, Lodging Review, North America, South Dakota, United States | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

A Quick Trip to the Northern Plains: Introduction

A Quick Trip to the Northern Plains
Lodging Review: Home2 Suites by Hilton Rapid City, SD
Our Visit to the Crazy Horse Memorial and Custer State Park
Our Visit to Mount Rushmore and Theodore Roosevelt National Park
Lodging Review: TownePlace Suites, Dickinson, North Dakota
Lodging Review: Fairfield Inns & Suites, Chicago O’Hare

Due to not taking my usual two-week international vacation in the fall of 2021, I found myself with some extra vacation days to use before my company’s fiscal year ended. My two travel pals and I had not all been together since our trip to New Zealand and Australia in the fall of 2019 so we were all glad to get to be together again. In the past we’d discussed domestic trips we’d like to do but had just never gotten around to so this seemed a good time of year to explore the Dakotas a bit.

Despite doing a road trip around the Southeastern US about a year ago, I’m not a huge fan of road trips. I’d rather fly and get a car. Flights into Rapid City, SD aren’t exactly cheap and my friend from Chicago said she’d be driving anyway, so we decided my LA-based friend and I would fly to Chicago and we’d all spend a little quality time together on the way out and back.

Driving there and back was an all-day affair each way. With a very early morning start we drove from the WSW suburbs of Chicago to Rapid City, SD with a sit-down lunch break and a few gas stops and arrived around 4 PM. On our return, we left Dickinson, ND just after 7 AM and arrived at an O’Hare-area hotel right at 10 PM with only a brief stop to grab-and-go some lunch and a few more gas stops. Rapid City and Dickinson are both on Mountain Time so while we gained an hour going there, we lost an hour coming back.

We save our points to use on vacation so even if this wasn’t the best use of points or certificates we got to stay free which was most important to us. We stayed at a Home2 Suites by Hilton in Rapid City on points, a TownePlace Suites in Dickinson and the Fairfield Inn & Suites O’Hare, both using Marriott free-night certificates that otherwise would have gone unused.

In between we visited the Crazy Horse Memorial, Mount Rushmore, Custer State Park and Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Our weather ran the gamut from sunny and pleasant to windy with sleet/snow.

As the whole trip was less than a week and we really only had two days on the ground, it’s a pretty quick trip report.

Categories: Fairfield Inn, Hilton, Historical Site, Home2Suites, Illinois, Marriott, North America, North Dakota, Road Trip, South Dakota, TownePlace Suites, Trip Report, United States | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Lodging Review: King Accessible Tub Studio Suite, Homewood Suites, Steamboat Springs, Colorado

Homewood Suites Steamboat Springs

Since I stayed at this property just two years ago, this review will be brief. I’ll only highlight the differences in the room. During my previous stay I was in a King Bed One Bedroom Suite but on this trip I had stayed in a King Accessible Tub Studio Suite, normally meant for those who need accessible amenities. Since I’d already reviewed this property, I’d planned to stay at the Hampton Inn in downtown Steamboat. But on Thanksgiving weekend I received an email stating that the hotel would be closing permanently as of December 1 (I think that was the date). As the email did not come from someone with a hilton.com or hamptoninn.com email address I was a bit skeptical but decided I should go ahead and move my reservation since there are very few properties in Steamboat that are available on points or by using a free night certificate (which I did). Thank goodness I swapped reservations quickly as I got one of the last available rooms and that’s why I ended up with an accessible room. I later learned the Hampton and a Fairfield Inn were being converted to employee housing.

The room was at the end of the hall. The door opened directly into the kitchen. The kitchen counter and appliances were all on the right and a door connected to the adjacent room was on the left.

Homewood Suites Steamboat Accessible Suite Entry

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Categories: Colorado, Hilton, Homewood Suites, Hotel, Lodging Review, North America, United States | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

Lodging Review: Anderson Ocean Club and Spa, Myrtle Beach, SC

Southeastern US Road Trip
Andaz Savannah
Embassy Suites Charleston Historic District
Anderson Ocean Club and Spa
Country Inn & Suites Asheville Outlet Mall

It had been several years since I last visited Myrtle Beach but I found it hadn’t changed all that much. It was still very touristy with high-rise after high-rise along Ocean Boulevard along the beach. Compared to the historical sites we’d seen in Savannah and Charleston, Myrtle Beach can be a step down culturally but we enjoyed great weather and had a lot of fun walking on the beach, playing mini-golf and just relaxing.

As mentioned in the intro to this series the primary reason for our visit was to fulfill a Hilton Vacation Club timeshare presentation in exchange for a few nights of lodging. Originally that presentation was going to be in Hawaii but after the pandemic struck I just wanted to get that obligation fulfilled as quickly as possible. So this fit in well as a stop on our road trip.

Anderson Ocean Club and Spa. The mini-golf you see here is free to guests.

We arrived at the mustard-yellow building in the afternoon. The loading/unloading area is a half-circle ramp that leads to the back of the building. While valet parking is available, you can self-park for free in the same garage (albeit on higher floors) and it’s only a block away.

Check in was quite simple and we were given wrist bands to wear that would allow us certain privileges. The only thing we used them for was the free mini-golf across the street.

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Categories: Condos, Hilton, Hilton Vacation Club, Lodging Review, Myrtle Beach, North America, South Carolina, United States | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Lodging Review: Embassy Suites Charleston Historic District

Southeastern US Road Trip
Andaz Savannah
Embassy Suites Charleston Historic District
Anderson Ocean Club and Spa
Country Inn & Suites Asheville Outlet Mall

The next stop on our road trip was the Embassy Suites Charleston Historic District in Charleston, SC. We arrived in the early afternoon on a rainy day and didn’t have to wait too long to pull under the covered area where we were met by the valet. We had taken our time on the drive up from Savannah but had still reached Charleston well before check-in time. However the valet proactively offered to check to see if our room was ready and, to our delight, it was. Not only that but as our bags were being unloaded from the car, someone from the front desk actually brought out our room keys to us. I can only assume my Diamond status played a part in that.

There is no free parking anywhere in the area. The valet service is $35 per day and the cars are parked right across the side street. There is a parking garage next to the valet lot that is the same price or slightly higher. The hotel does mention another garage that’s a dollar or two cheaper per day but the bottom line is that you’re going to pay a pretty penny for parking here. We used the valet the first day as it was raining and we were still getting our bearings but the second night we parked in the nearby garage. When we checked out we found the valet charge had automatically been extended to the second night but I mentioned we had not used the valet the second day and was assured the charge would be removed. I did have to follow up a day or two later, but the charge was eventually credited back.

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Categories: Embassy Suites, Hilton, Hotel, North America, South Carolina, United States | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

Southeastern US Road Trip

Southeastern US Road Trip
Andaz Savannah
Embassy Suites Charleston Historic District
Anderson Ocean Club and Spa
Country Inn & Suites Asheville Outlet Mall

In 2020 a couple of friends and I had planned to go to Hawaii. This decision had been based on attending a Hilton timeshare presentation on the big island but we got 5 nights there for free along with an included rental car. Of course that got cancelled. But I still had to sit through a timeshare presentation somewhere. Rather than push it out any further, my friends and I decided on a Southeastern US road trip and I’d attend the presentation in Myrtle Beach, SC.

In addition, I had a number of free night certificates I’d received from my various hotel credit cards so we set out to use as many of those as we could. We both had Marriott 25K certificates but once we’d settled on the cities we wanted to visit, we found that none of these cities had Marriotts where we could use our certs, which was quite disappointing. In all we spent 9 nights on the road and used free night certificates for 5 of those nights. The three nights in Myrtle Beach were part of the Hilton timeshare presentation package.

In three of our destination cities we only stayed two nights each; in Myrtle Beach we spent three nights. As such I won’t be doing detailed descriptions of our activities but will mention a few items below.

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Categories: Georgia, Hilton, Hotel, Hyatt, North America, North Carolina, Radisson, South Carolina, United States | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Review: Home2Suites by Hilton Nashville Bellevue

Home2Suites Nashville Bellevue

After spending four months in a hotel this year already, staying in another one was not necessarily at the top of my list. After all, I needed to get my house back together after the fire. But I have mostly accomplished that and after having to cancel my fall vacation to Hawaii I really wanted to go somewhere. I normally would have been to Nashville in May and June for Mothers Day and Fathers Day but was told by my parents not to visit then. But now, as things are starting to get better in our part of the country, we all felt it was fine for me to come up for a long weekend. I decided to stay long enough to visit my ski club friends at the monthly membership meeting on Tuesday night. (Side note: the Nashville Ski Club generally meets the first Tuesday of each month. Check out the website if you’re interested!) Continue reading

Categories: Hilton, Home2Suites, Hotel, Lodging Review, North America, Tennessee, United States | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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