The Highlands Lodge has become the go-place for our ski group to stay when in Beaver Creek. We had five units inside the Lodge, which is the building where the reception desk is located.
Welcome to unit 203
Posts Tagged With: Lodging Review
Lodging Review: Highlands Lodge, Beaver Creek, Colorado
Categories: Beaver Creek, Colorado, Condos, Lodging Review, North America, United States
Tags: Beaver Creek, Colorado, Condos, Lodging Review, Ski Condo
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Lodging Review: Hyatt Place DFW
I hadn’t planned on spending the night in Dallas. But after the delays in flying out of Aspen, I arrived at DFW too late to make a connection to Memphis, so I had no choice. While on the plane waiting for boarding to complete in Aspen, I used the Hyatt app to book a room near the airport.
Photo from Hyatt.com
I had spent a night at the Hyatt Regency DFW in October 2015. I thought about booking a room at the Grand Hyatt since it’s connected to the terminal. But since I knew I’d be paying for this stay out of pocket I opted for the Hyatt Place DFW. It’s a fairly new property, having been open just less than a year.
In general, I love Hyatt Places because I love their consistency. I know I’ll get a large room with a separate seating area, good wi-fi, an airport shuttle and free breakfast – things I value highly. This hotel was no exception.
My flight landed in Terminal B and I called the hotel from baggage claim. Their shuttle picks ups at either end of the terminal so I scooted down to the B1 end of the terminal where I found two others waiting as well. The shuttle arrived in less than 10 minutes, which was great since I’d already had a long day. Fortunately ours was the last pickup before heading towards the hotel.
On arrival, I was able to go directly to the check-in desk since I only had two small backpacks. Fortunately I’d planned for the possibility I might get stuck getting out of Aspen and one backpack contained clean clothes and personal grooming items. Yay, me!
At the front desk I was greeted by Mary, a grandmotherly-type who called me “hon” and welcomed me “home” after noting my Platinum status. Normally being called “hon” is not on my list of favorite things but after my long day, being welcomed “home” made me feel like I really was home. Continue reading
Categories: Hotel, Hyatt, Lodging Review, North America, Texas, United States
Tags: Airport Hotel, Hyatt, Hyatt Place, Lodging Review, Texas
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Lodging Review: Top of the Village Condos – Snowmass, CO
The Gatehouse, home of the front desk, pool and hot tubs
I stayed here for almost a week with my ski club. TOV has lots of good things going for it but could use a refresh.
There are four buildings: Leaf, Slope, Trails, Summit. Each building is slopeside (ski-in with a small hike to ski-out) and each condo has a slope view. Our group utilized both 2BR and 3BR condos. I am not sure if there are larger or smaller units. Each unit is independently owned, so furnishings and decorations are up to the owner. As you might expect, some units have been refreshed more recently than others. Each unit has its own wi-fi router though I was surprised at how my signal sometimes dropped when I was in a bedroom with the door closed.
Each building has only one (slow) elevator and sometimes it seemed to get stuck. As we were on the second floor we’d walk up on those occasions, but at altitude that’s a lot more difficult than it looks!
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Categories: Colorado, Condos, Lodging Review, North America, Snowmass, United States
Tags: Aspen, Colorado, Lodging Review, Ski Condo, Snowmass, Top of the Village
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Review: Hyatt Place Denver Downtown
After spending a night in Vail in August, my friends and I drove back down to Denver to spend a day sightseeing there. We mapped out things we wanted to do and then looked for a hotel central to those locations. Since there were three adults I specifically looked for a Residence Inn or a Hyatt Place knowing that the layout of these hotel rooms usually works well for us and that breakfast is included.
The only hotel-provided parking available is with the valet. We thought about parking on the street but the valet pointed out it was cheaper to park at the nearby Pavillions shopping center. He even watched our car for us while we checked in. Of course that meant we had to walk a few blocks to the car but that was not an issue for us since the weather was so nice.
What we like about Hyatt Places is that there’s a separate area with a large sleeper sofa which along with the 2 queen beds meant that we each had our own place to sleep.
Hyatt Place Denver 2 Queen Beds
Categories: Colorado, Hyatt, Lodging Review, North America, United States
Tags: Denver, Hotel Review, Hyatt, Lodging Review
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Review: Holiday Inn Vail
My travel buddies and I needed a weekend getaway to escape the heat of our respective cities. I read an article about fun things to do in Vail and as Colorado is a 2-3 hour flight for each of us, it made a nice, central place to meet up.
Knowing that lodging wouldn’t be nearly as hard to get in the summer as in the winter, I’d hoped to get a 2-bedroom condo at a reasonable price. That way we’d each have our own bed and plenty of space. It turns out that most of the condos can’t be rented for a single night. I did have a travel agency track down one place but they wanted $300 for the one night. No thanks.
I looked at what hotels were available on points and there weren’t a lot of reasonably-priced choices there either but I did find the Holiday Inn had a room that could sleep three adults. The hotel is actually across I-70 from the resort but during the summer, there’s no charge for the parking deck at Lionshead so we were only a short drive away.
The valet greeted us promptly upon arrival. Leaving the car with the valet is really the only parking option but the price is cheaper in the summer than in the winter. In the end, we were not charged at all. I don’t know whether that’s due to my Platinum status, because we booked the room on points or if they just forgot. But when I checked out there were no charges billed to the room.
Once inside we had a brief wait while other customers were being assisted but then were welcomed warmly and our room was assigned quickly.
Hallway to our room. Carpet could use refreshing.
Categories: Colorado, Hotel, IHG, Lodging Review, North America, United States
Tags: Holiday Inn, Hotel Review, IHG Hotels, Lodging Review, Ski Lodging, Vail
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Review: Hyatt Place Milwaukee Airport
For the second night of my long weekend visiting friends in Milwaukee I used the free night certificate from my Chase Hyatt Visa for the Hyatt Place Milwaukee Airport.
I chose this hotel for a few reasons:
- I knew there would be a nice large sitting sofa where my friends and I could gather to watch one of our favorite shows
- Breakfast was included
- The hotel had a free airport shuttle
Even though my room was just across the street from the airport, airplane noise was never an issue.
I’d reserved a king room and received one on the fourth floor. Just inside the door was the living area with the sleeper sofa, a desk and a cabinet which held the mini-bar and on top of which sat the coffee maker.
Sleeper Sofa with Ottoman
Categories: Hotel, Hyatt, North America, United States, Wisconsin
Tags: Airport Hotel, Hotel Review, Hyatt, Lodging Review, Wisconsin
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Review: Landmark Condominiums in Vail, Colorado
On my second ski trip this season I returned to Vail, Colorado for the first time in 9-10 years. Our group stayed at the Landmark Condominiums – a property that I don’t think even existed during my last stay.
It’s got a terrific location – right on the frontage road of I-70 and just a block away from the slopes on the other side. There’s an underground garage for those who need to park. Even without a car it’s easy to move around the Vail Valley as the public bus stop is right at the end of the Landmark’s driveway. The free bus can take you wherever you need to go on its route and can even connect you with the (paid) bus to Beaver Creek, if you want to ski there.
Each unit is independently owned so decor varied from unit to unit. Most of our group had 2BR units but my friend and I had a 1BR. Not surprisingly that meant that the bedroom contained only a single queen bed. I used the sleeper sofa and after finding a quilted duvet to help act as an additional mattress pad, actually slept pretty well.
The hallway led past the bedroom into the living room. It had several hooks on the wall, which was great for hanging up our coats so we didn’t have to try to squish them in with our clothes.
Hallway with front door
Categories: Colorado, Condos, Lodging Review, North America, United States, Vail
Tags: Colorado, Landmark Condominiums, Lodging Review, Ski Condo, Vail
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Review: The Summit at Big Sky Resort
I love to ski and went on two trips this past ski season. The first one was to Big Sky, Montana, which is one of my very favorite places. It’s a little remote – the closest major airport is Bozeman (BZN), which is about 90 minutes away – but being a little hard to get to means it’s not crowded. And by “not crowded” I mean that if there are two groups of people in front of you in a lift line, that is a lot. They define a “busy day” as one with more than two people per skiable acre. As someone who is not overly fond of crowds, this is just fantastic for me.
My first trip to this resort was in 1994 and I’ve stayed in four different accommodations over the years since our ski club visits every 2-3 years. By far the best choice is The Summit.
View of the Summit from the slopes
Categories: Lodging Review, Montana, North America, United States
Tags: Big Sky, Lodging Review, Montana, Ski Condo, Summit
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SPB Hyatt Regency DFW
SPB Trip Planning
SPB Qantas First Class to Sydney
SPB Park Hyatt Sydney
SPB Sydney Opera House
SPB Around Sydney
SPB Flying to/from Uluru
SPB Emu Walk Apartments
SPB Uluru and Kata Tjuta
SPB Park Hyatt Melbourne
SPB Around Melbourne
SPB Flying to Fiji
SPB Hilton Fiji
SPB Snorkeling Trip
SPB Fiji Air Business Class to Los Angeles
SPB Hyatt Regency DFW
It was after 11 PM when my flight from Los Angeles touched down in Dallas. I was rather tired after starting my day in Fiji, flying overnight to the States and it was now approaching midnight central time. I used the phone in baggage claim to reach the front desk of the Hyatt Regency DFW, which is on the airport grounds. I was given instructions as to where to meet the shuttle and was told it would be along within about 15 minutes.
I had debated between the Grand Hyatt DFW, which is attached to the terminal, and the Hyatt Regency for the last night of my trip. The Grand Hyatt is a category 3 hotel, which means 12,000 points per night, while the Hyatt Regency is a category 2 hotel for 8,000 points. While I loved the convenience of the Grand Hyatt, I thought I’d be better off saving those 4,000 points for the future.
Once on board the shuttle we made stops at several other terminals and I believe the van was nearly full by the time we reached the hotel. Since I only had a carry-on (my large suitcase was checked all the way through to Memphis) I was able to head straight inside to check in. Due to my tiredness I was a bit dismayed to see a long line of people waiting to check in. There were three people working the front desk and they were all working to reduce the line but there were just quite a few of us. That’s when I noticed the kiosk. I’d not seen one of these before but decided to give it a try. There were still only a few people behind me in line so I didn’t have much to lose if the kiosk did not work.
I was thrilled to find I was able to check in, swipe my credit card and the kiosk issued me a key to a room on the 12th Floor. Success! I found the elevator and had a solo ride up.
Categories: Hyatt, Lodging Review, North America, Texas, United States
Tags: Airport Hotel, DFW, Hotel Review, Hyatt, Lodging Review, Texas
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SPB Hilton Fiji
SPB Trip Planning
SPB Qantas First Class to Sydney
SPB Park Hyatt Sydney
SPB Sydney Opera House
SPB Around Sydney
SPB Flying to/from Uluru
SPB Emu Walk Apartments
SPB Uluru and Kata Tjuta
SPB Park Hyatt Melbourne
SPB Around Melbourne
SPB Flying to Fiji
SPB Hilton Fiji
SPB Snorkeling Trip
SPB Fiji Air Business Class to Los Angeles
SPB Hyatt Regency DFW
After our early morning arrival in Nadi we were whisked away to our home for the next few nights, the Hilton Fiji Resort and Spa. Check in took a little while as there were several folks on our flight checking in at the same time. The large open-air lobby has lots of comfortable seating and is a great place just to sit and relax.
Hilton Fiji Lobby Waiting Area
Hilton Fiji Reception
Categories: Fiji, Hilton, Hotel, Lodging Review
Tags: Fiji, Hilton, Hotel Review, Lodging Review
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