“I am a Golden God” – Robert Plant 1975 looking down from the Continental Hyatt balcony to a large billboard on Sunset Boulevard advertising the album Physical Graffiti. This wall hanging on the second floor of Andaz West Hollywood is a limited edition of 5 at 44” x 57” selling for $7,000. Starting price is $300 for a smaller 13” x 19” copy.

Photographer Peter Simon captured this photo of Robert Plant in 1975 on the balcony of the Hyatt Sunset Boulevard, affectionately nicknamed “Riot House” in honor of the hotel’s reputation for rock band parties.

left to right: Jerry Garcia, Jimi Hendrix, Pete Townshend – The Who, Janis Joplin, George Harrison – The Beatles.

The Rolling Stones Keith Richards dropped a TV out of room 1015. John Bonham of Led Zeppelin is reported to have driven his birthday present motorcycle through the hallways when Led Zeppelin had rented out multiple floors of the hotel for their entourage. Here is a great first-hand account from a photographer who was at the Riot House in 1973 with Led Zeppelin.

Duffy – David Bowie Aladdin Sane Album Cover (1975)

A 40” x 40” signed copy will set you back $5,250. Or as low as $570 for an unsigned 15” x 15”.

David Bowie is one of my great influences. My FlyerTalk handle “satori” originated from the David Bowie song “Memory of a Free Festival” (1969). The stereo sound effect is pretty cool in the original version.

Oh, to capture just one drop of all the ecstasy that swept that afternoon
To paint that love
upon a white balloon
And fly it from
the toppest top of all the tops
That man has pushed beyond his brain
Satori must be something
just the same

- David Bowie “Memory of a Free Festival”

It took several years after I bought the Space Oddity album in 1972 before I was able to find the word “satori” in a dictionary.

Riot Hyatt coffeeshop was a hotel hangout for rock dj and “Mayor of Sunset Strip” Rodney Bingenheimer of KROQ Los Angeles. There is a documentary movie about Rodney Bingenheimer which illustrates the “impermanence of life and the bittersweet transience of things.” It is somewhat of a sad movie to watch Rodney, an L.A. legendary figure from the 1970s rock scene, as a caricature of a faded Hollywood rock star.

The balconies of the historic Continental Hyatt were replaced with picture windows and word art in the Andaz West Hollywood.

Los Angeles view from Andaz West Hollywood.

Tease me with albums and there is no record player in the room? Can I borrow an i-pod?

The front album cover is the hotel guide and room service menus. The back two albums are actually Robert Plant and Duran Duran album covers.

You don’t have to be an Ambassador here to enjoy Andaz free mini-bar.

Everything but the alcohol is complimentary as a hotel guest.

RH Bar

No worries if you drink alcohol and it isn’t free in the room since the Andaz RH bar is the place to be for Hollywood nightlife. But you got to pay for drinks. So here is my tip.

Caro plays music Sunday nights 8-10pm at the Andaz bar. There are happy hour drinks and appetizers and discount parking.

I don’t have pictures of the RH bar since it was filled with guests. I try hard not to photograph people in hotels. I like my privacy too.

The cool thing is Caro was the bartender when I was at the RH bar. I thought about asking Caro for a photograph of her at the bar, but I didn’t. Hopefully, I’ll go back on a Sunday and hear Caro sing. She received high praise for her singing from the hotel staff.

My worn out rock ‘n roll ears prefer the acoustic sounds now.

RH restaurant lets you see the food you will be eating. One of the restaurant’s features is glass door refrigerators revealing all the fruits, vegetables and stuffings to guests.

The entry lobby on the ground floor has the bar and restaurant and some seating. The second floor is a place to chill where most of the rock art is located.

There are many artistic creations adorning the hotel.

Dog art.

Light ornament art.

Word art.

Guitar art.

Wall art.

Live art.

Did I mention the rooftop pool?

Andaz West Hollywood is a place of legend.

I should mention that I was told the Andaz West Hollywood hotel is not really a party hotel these days.

Not that partying has left Sunset Boulevard. I spent some time at the Mondrian Hotel across the street and the staff there told me they regularly have parties happening at their hotel. I guess you can still party like it’s 1975 at the Mondrian and come back to the Andaz for a little sleep.

Andaz full suite room.

Andaz West Hollywood is a Hyatt Gold Passport Category 4 hotel for 15,000 points per night.

Published rates for my stay dates were $239 per night prepaid, nonrefundable or $269 AAA. 15% tax and $40 resort fee on top of that. At 4,000 points per night I was getting redemption value over $60 per 1,000 points.

The day I arrived was unseasonably cold with the temperature in the low 60s and windy. It was Monterey-like fine weather. The locals were wrapped in sweatshirts and jackets. Pool sun bathers were layered in pool towels and other wraps.

Snowbirds were still swimming in the pools in trunks and bikinis.

Cable Beach is the casino competition to Atlantis at Paradise Island. Cable Beach is on New Providence Island, home to Nassau and midway between airport and Nassau/Paradise Island, Bahamas. A toll bridge crosses the harbor from Nassau to the smaller Paradise Island.

Cable Beach is undergoing major development to build Baha Mar convention center project with plans for Grand Hyatt Baha Mar, Rosewood Baha Mar luxury brand hotel, and a Morgans Group hotel. 20 acres of pools are planned along 3,000 feet of uninterrupted beachfront adjacent to the existing Sheraton and Wyndham beach resorts with Crystal Palace casino between them.

Sheraton Nassau Cable Beach sand frontage.

The taxi is a set rate of USD$18 to Cable Beach from the airport. I arrived at 1pm and I was told I had an upgraded room with #915 on the top floor, however the room would not be ready until 3pm. I was checked in and able to use the resort facilities using my 915 room number and name.

I logged onto the internet at the Sheraton Kiosk with four terminals in the downstairs lobby.

I hadn’t eaten since the night before and lunch sounded good. The café had $17 pizzas. The buffet was $25 + tax from 12pm to 2pm daily. I checked the time to see it was 1:40pm. I skipped lunch at the hotel.

I snapped photos before heading into town looking for other food options.

Sheraton Nassau Cable Beach main pool with Edgewater pool bar.

Sheraton Nassau Cable Beach main pool with Dolphin Grill pool cafe. Most food items are $8.00 to $14.00 for hot dog, hamburger, chicken and fish sandwiches.

The hotel food is less expensive here than Atlantis on Paradise Island and the adjacent Wyndham Nassau Resort is even slightly less for food than the Sheraton.

Beach chairs facing away from ocean to maximize afternoon sun exposure to the southwest.

The outdoor activity area has two ping pong tables, checkers and foosball table free for guest play. The inflated tower is some kind of slide ride that I never quite figured out. It is deflated daily in the afternoon and inflated in the morning.

Telegraph Bar in Sheraton Nassau Beach Resort lobby.

Aside from the buffet at Bimini Market with breakfast, lunch and dinner seatings, the Caribe Café in the downstairs lobby is the main food outlet inside the hotel.

Bimini Market

• Breakfast = $21.75 ($19 + 15% tax)
• Lunch = $28.75 after tax.
• Dinner = $32.20 after tax.

Amici a Trattoria is the evening fine dining restaurant at the Sheraton.

There is a small shop with liquor and food snacks in the hallway between the Sheraton hotel and Crystal Palace Casino.

I walked around the hotel and beach and then I headed west into the small town where I had seen fast food and restaurants.

At 4pm I arrived back at the hotel to be told #915 was still not ready and my room had been changed to #415. Same room, but with a completely different type of view since the 4th floor is quite a bit lower than the 9th floor. After 36 hours without sleep I was not willing to wait any longer for a room.

Room #415 Sheraton Nassau Cable Beach Resort

The junior suite was a large room with interesting angles at the juncture where the hotel wing changes direction. The room offered plenty of seating. TV reception was poor with the picture breaking up regularly.

There was a large patio balcony with comfortable chairs.

The bathroom was standard.

The room had a coffee maker and a couple of bottles of water.

The ice machine was just outside my door.

One of my main issues with the hotel was the difficulty of reaching anyone by phone. Several times when I tried the phone there was no answer and there were no clear directions how to dial any of the hotel services.

During my first stay at the hotel I complained about the wireless internet not maintaining a connection in my room. Turns out that on my second stay there was a slip of paper stating that the rooms are wired internet and wireless internet is available in the hotel lobby. None of the staff members mentioned that fact despite my complaints to several staff during my first hotel stay.

The main difference I noticed between the Sheraton Beach Resort and Atlantis is the proactive service at Atlantis. My experience between the two hotels was night and day in terms of service levels. I felt like I was staying at a resort during my time at Atlantis, whereas, the Sheraton had a very laid back attitude.

That being said, I found many aspects of the Cable Beach area preferable to Atlantis. There were no crowds at Cable Beach and guests can swim in the pools even when lifeguards are not around. Both hotels have blaring music with dj banter during the day. The Sheraton pool offered daytime activities for fun and prizes.

Room 415 at the Sheraton was definitely a nicer place to vacation. I loved the space.

At checkout I received my folio and another folio for a couple who must have left a day early. I paid $110 + 4,000 points per night. The other couple who had been booked in the room for six nights paid $399 per night for six nights. The published BAR rate for the room category of #415 was listed as a 545 sq. ft. suite at $519 per night at the time I made my reservation.

Room 965

My second stay at the hotel had the identical room type located on the top floor on the opposite wing of the hotel.

The interesting thing about my second stay is the day before at the Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group Global Conference I had attended a Club Carlson loyalty workshop. They ran a film of frequent guests who participated in a focus group. A top tier Club Concierge member stated that 9 out of 10 times she was not told at check-in that she was upgraded, even though she had been upgraded by the hotel to a higher category room. As I thought about my experiences, SPG came to mind as being great about telling me I had an upgrade.

My first stay at the Sheraton Nassau I was told I was upgraded and then I felt downgraded when my room floor dropped from top floor 9 to the 4th floor, even though the room was the same the view was different. And I kind of felt downgraded after arrival.

Then on my second stay the desk clerk never mentioned that room #965 was a room upgrade.

There were only slight differences in the junior suite room labeled as a suite on the hotel’s website.

The room view #965 overlooks the pools and offers far better views of the ocean compared to the 4th floor room.

Wyndham Nassau Resort

One important benefit to point out is the shared use policy of the beach facilities between Sheraton and Wyndham. Guests of either hotel may use the pools and facilities of the other hotel.

Wyndham Nassau Resort.

Wyndham pool.

Tiki Bar at the Wyndham.

Cruise ships are a regular sighting from Cable Beach.

There was a Canadian man feeding the beach cats. He and his wife were heading home after a week. He recruited a young woman to take over feeding duties. Every night he saved some of his meat dinner to feed the cats in the morning. He reminded me of why I needed to get back home to my own beach town to be together again with my wife and cats family.

All in all I think the Sheraton Nassau is a great deal on category 4 Cash & Point reward nights. This hotel was listed as dropping to category 3 for 2012, but the Sheraton Nassau SPG award category remained unchanged. I suspect this hotel may even rise in category once the Baha Mar resort complex is completed in 2014.

Leaving Nassau, Bahamas.

Related posts:

Dispatch from Cable Beach, Nassau, Bahamas (Feb 14, 2012)

Dispatch from Paradise Island, Nassau, Bahamas (Feb 16, 2012)

Photo: Rest day on Paradise Island (Feb 18, 2012)

Nassau Bahamas Resort Traveler: 5 things to know (Feb 22, 2012)

Atlantis Resort Paradise Island, Nassau, Bahamas (Feb 25, 2012)

Aquaventure Atlantis, Paradise Island, Bahamas (Feb 26, 2012)

Atlantis Bahamas Marine Habitats (Feb 29, 2012)

Aquaventure rides are complimentary for guests at Atlantis hotels. Thousands of people visit Nassau everyday on cruise ships and a limited number of day passes are available at rates around $120/adult and $80 for children up to 12 years.

The Grotto Pool is one of perhaps four pools that featured a live dj playing reggae tunes with upbeat rhythms and frequent Bob Marley oldies blasting out across the resort.

This balcony sits between the two towers of Royal Towers and stairways lead to the Royal Pool.

Pools off to the sides were filled with stingrays.

Here is the same walkway viewed from my room balcony.

Staff were continually at work maintaining the pool marine life exhibits.

The Royal Pool.

Aquaventure

The Mayan Temple caught my attention where I could see the sharks swimming in the pool at night from my room balcony. One of my best memories of being at Atlantis was sitting out on the balcony in the warm breeze in the quiet hours after midnight watching the animals swim in the lighted pools.

View of Royal Towers standing at the shark pool of the Mayan Temple. A slide tube runs through the pool and riders emerge out in another pool below.

Teenagers, children and adults were loving the water slides of the Mayan Temple.

This photo was taken just after 5pm when the Aquaventure pools and most other pools around Atlantis closed during the week of my stay. I have read the hours are extended in spring and summer.

A children’s water big toy is near the Mayan Temple.

This water feature was wild with little kids during the day with screaming children and exhausted looking parents.

There are snack bars around the pools with burgers, sandwiches, drinks and ice cream.

Sample snack bar prices:

• French Fries $3.75
• Ice Cream $7.00
• Hot Dog $6.50
• Hamburger $8.50
• Pesto pasta salad $10.00
• Roast beef sandwich $13.00
• Drinks ? – prices were not listed on menu in my photo.

Power Tower is one of the other slide features at Aquaventure.

There are a lot of stairs to walk for these slide rides.

Mayan Temple and Power Tower each list four types of slides.

Lazy River Ride and The Current were two rides where an intertube carries you around the park. Two person intertubes are required for smaller children who must be accompanied by an adult.

One of the safety features I liked was the presence of numerous lifeguards and spotters around the rides.

Mayan Temple Pools leading to the Grotto Pool.

The Grotto Pool.

The large Paradise Lagoon was another area of Atlantis with water activities.

These are the Coral Towers hotel buildings in background. The Lagoon Bar & Grill is the shell covered feature. Beneath the Lagoon Bar & Grill are many of the aquarium exhibits at Atlantis including the clear underwater tunnel.

My next post on Atlantis Resort Paradise Island will describe some of the marine life exhibits around Atlantis.

Atlantis developed over the past two decades and consists of six different hotels at the resort. Royal Towers is the iconic feature most recognizable as Atlantis.

My room in Royal Towers was the top floor, third window in on right end. The central bridge is a nearly 5,000 square feet, ten room Bridge Suite that was ranked one of the most expensive hotel rooms in the world by Forbes magazine in 2003 at $25,000 per night.

View from room 15596 in Royal Towers.

This post will focus on the hotel properties at Atlantis and I will follow up with separate posts on Aquaventure water park, pools, aquarium exhibits and the beaches. I only ate at two restaurants of two dozen at the resort during my four days at Atlantis. While I walked through the casino several times, I did not gamble, so I have little insight to dining and gambling at Atlantis.

History of Atlantis

Atlantis opened in December 1998 after the former Paradise island Resort and casino went bankrupt and South African hotel and casino magnate Sol Kerzer purchased the property in 1994. Kerzer at the time was best known for developing the South Africa resort and casino Sun City.

I remember the 1985 MTV anti-apartheid video hit “Sun City” by Steve van Zandt (Springsteen’s E Street band guitarist). The Paradise Island Resort was transformed into Atlantis with the construction of one of the largest man-made marine habitats in the world and the design of Royal Towers on the west side of the casino as the iconic centerpiece hotel building for the resort.

The Royal Towers opened in December 1998 with a construction cost of $480 million and the Atlantis resort was an $800 million dollar project overall to construct the world’s largest marine habitat with lagoons, aquariums, pools, waterfalls and the largest casino in the Caribbean.

Coral Towers and Beach Towers

The photo above shows the older properties of Atlantis consisting of the Coral Towers on the right and the low level building close to the beach. The Beach Towers are three hotel wings around a central axis in the background behind the low rise hotel wing. The tallest building in the distance is the Riu Resort and not part of Atlantis. The Beach Towers and Coral Towers rooms tend to be the lowest priced rooms at the resort.

Beach Towers

Beach Towers is the oldest building of Atlantis and originally was named Trump Plaza when Donald Trump was invested in Paradise Island.

These rooms are the closest rooms to the convention center at Atlantis. I had to plan about 20 minutes to walk from my room at Royal Towers to the convention center meeting rooms for the Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group 2012 Global Conference.

Coral Towers

Atlantis is so large that I didn’t even wander around the grounds outside the Beach and Coral Towers until my fourth day at the resort.

Shark lagoon outside Coral Towers low rise wing. Coral Towers was a much quieter part of the resort compared to the pools around Royal Towers. One of the features of Atlantis is the opportunity to observe and even participate in activities around the resort. At the time I was exploring this portion of Atlantis I watched children feeding stingrays (free activity) and some teenage girls feeding the sharks seen in the photo above (fee activity available for booking through Atlantis Adventures desk).

Feeding stingrays in a Coral Towers lagoon.

The Library – 15 minutes Free Internet Access Daily

Coral Towers is where “The Library” is located offering about 10 computers where guests can access the internet for free for 15 minutes each day. The $20 per day internet fee kept me off my computer for most of my stay at Atlantis.

The Library in Coral Towers

View of the high-rise Coral Towers building from the Library.

Royal Towers

Atlantis is such a large resort that shuttles transport guests and luggage between the hotel buildings. I generally walked all over the resort after a couple of times waiting 30 minutes for a shuttle for what would be a 15 minute walk.

Entry drive to Royal Towers, Atlantis

The Marina seen from entry to Royal Towers.

Harborside Resort is a timeshare villas complex with nearly 400 residences and part of the Atlantis complex.

The fountain in the entry drive of the Royal Towers.

Reception area rotunda at Royal Towers.

Rotunda ceiling.

One of several murals around the rotunda at Royal Towers reception area.

Grand hallway leading to the Atlantis casino. Rotunda on right and the aquarium and lagoon views on the left.

The stairway to the floor below the Rotunda of the Royal Towers reveals the aquarium and the entrance to “The Dig” where visitors can view thousands of marine animals. I will cover this feature of Atlantis in a separate post.

My room 15596

The room was comfortable and offered a great view of Atlantis.

I had a full balcony with chairs which is an upgraded room for Royal Towers where most rooms have shallow French balconies without the space to sit outside.

Sunrise on Paradise Island – view from my balcony room.

There are two features of the room worth pointing out. An energy saving feature is the AC shuts down automatically when the patio doors are open. The other item of note was the Gilchrist & Soames bath amenities. I am kind of annoyed that I didn’t load up my luggage with the three bars of soap in my room when I checked out. I am running low on bath soap and one measure I use for the caliber of my hotel stays is when I run out of fine soaps at home, then I figure it has been too long since I have stayed in a luxury hotel.

Mayan Temple water slide with shark tank pool to the right of the temple. This is a view from my room balcony.

Atlantis is a full-service Resort

Beach resorts are not my thing, but Atlantis is nearly all I can imagine I’d want in a beach resort, except for the fact that there was not a hot tub or pool open after 5pm for guests. From reviews I read, the pool hours may go to 7pm in spring and summer months, but only 8 to 10 hours of pool time each day is one of the most annoying aspects of this resort. As in Las Vegas, the objective at Atlantis seems to be getting guests dining in the dozens of high-priced restaurants and bars around the resort and gambling in the casino during the evening hours.

From the moment I stepped out of the taxi I was impressed by the 5-star service I experienced at Atlantis. I was addressed by name upon arrival and I wondered how the person could possibly know my name. I then saw the Alaska Airlines paper luggage tag was open and the staff member had read my name off the tag.

Being addressed by name was a common occurrence during my stay as staff members read my name off the Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group Global Conference lanyard. I was amazed that so many people had eyesight that good. One of the signs of a 5-star resort is being addressed by name.

Blogger Disclosure

Atlantis was the Carlson Rezidor 2012 Global Conference venue (Radisson and Country Inns & Suites hotel chains) and is not a hotel property connected with Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group. The fact that my stay at Atlantis was paid by the Carlson Rezidor folks as a media representative for their global conference does not really impact my review of the hotel, except to say I enjoyed one of the most expensive hotel resorts in the world much more than I probably would have if I had been paying the high prices to stay and dine there.

Suffice to say that this is one expensive resort to experience, but my impression is Atlantis is one of the most expansive hotel resorts I have ever seen and certainly an interesting place to experience.

There are so many things to share about Atlantis. I will follow up this post with several more to detail more features of the resort and provide links between the posts.

Highway 1 runs by my house in Monterey and becomes the Big Sur coast road just about five miles south once past Carmel. Highway 1 Big Sur driving can be 100 miles of highway bliss or hell, mostly depending on the weather.

California rainy season is generally October through April. 90% of the annual rainfall occurs in these months. You do not want to drive Highway 1 along the Big Sur coast during a Pacific winter storm. When we get one to two inches of rain in Monterey, the Santa Lucia Mountains of Big Sur generally get four to ten inches of rain. The cliff-hanging Highway 1 pavement has a tendency to wash into the sea when heavy downpours mix with the roadside sandstone. There were several weeks in 2011 when the road between Carmel and Big Sur 37 miles south was closed for repairs.

The best thing about the central coast California rainy season is the beautiful weather when it is not raining. Days usually reach a high near 60 degrees. Summer months are about ten degrees warmer along the coast and it is entirely possible to drive the Big Sur coast and not see anything but gray fog when you visit in August.

Highway 1 Big Sur

Ninety miles south of Monterey-Carmel is Hearst Castle. The Hearst Ranch is 82,000 acres of forest and cattle range land in operation since 1865. Hearst Castle is a 165-room estate designed by architect Julia Morgan from 1919 to 1947 for all around wealthy guy and newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. The estate is now part of Hearst San Simeon State Historical Monument. This place tends to be crowded and guided tours at $25 per adult are required to see the estate grounds.

Hearst Castle on the hill seen from Highway 1.

I actually drove up to the visitor center only to learn the next available tour was a two hour wait on a weekday in November. Highway 1 turns inland from the coast about thirty miles south of Hearst Castle at Morro Bay and only skirts the coast briefly one more time at Pismo Beach for the next 80 miles. Vandenberg Air Force Base is a major Pacific region missile base that controls and restricts public access to a huge section of coastline in northern Santa Barbara County.

Google maps - Highway 1 goes mostly inland from Morro Bay to Gaviota State Beach

I continued south to Santa Barbara and my reservation at the Hotel Mar Monte.

Hyatt Mar Monte, Santa Barbara

Hyatt Santa Barbara

Hotel Mar Monte was acquired by Hyatt in 2010 and there was remodeling going on while I was there. I haven’t been back in 2011. Pictures of the guest rooms on the hotel website indicated the room furnishings may have changed, but my photos look quite similar to the photos The Points Guy showed in his post from a stay last month.

The roof was being retiled during my stay in November 2010. The lobby in the Hyatt Santa Barbara website photos looks upgraded.

The Room Dilemma – Should I Stay or Should I Go (and ask for a different room)

This was one of the few times where I went back to the front desk twice to ask for a better room. The first room given to me overlooked the construction waste dumpsite. The room actually had a decent view of the ocean, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the parking lot garbage patch.

The front desk then told me they had a room with a balcony and since I was a diamond member I could take that room upgrade. Great I thought. Turned out though the balcony room did not face the ocean and provided a nice view of the parking lot and Motel 6 across the street.

Hyatt Mar Monte balcony rooms.

Mountain view room and Motel 6 across street from Hotel Mar Monte.

Back to the desk for the third time and I received a room that was to my liking. I generally don’t complain too much about the rooms I am given, but I felt I needed an ocean view room when staying as a Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond member at an uncrowded hotel across the street from the beach. Although, I still received the only room in the wing without a balcony.

Hyatt Santa Barbara sunrise.

The room itself was a standard room with a comfortable bed and all modern conveniences.

Hyatt Santa Barbara

Hyatt Santa Barbara - TV, microwave and refrigerator in cabinet.

Hyatt Santa Barbara is a historic beachfront hotel built in 1931 in a Spanish Colonial style.

Hyatt Santa Barbara exhibits many Spanish Colonial architectural elements.

Hallway to Bistro 1111 at Hyatt Santa Barbara.

Hyatt Santa Barbara Bistro 1111.

The pool is a nice feature of the hotel. The roadside location can mean a bit of street noise at times.

Hyatt Santa Barbara pool.

Hyatt Santa Barbara is across the street from the beach.

The bad thing about waiting a year to write up a hotel stay is remembering details. I had two gorgeous photos of the pool and lobby, but then remembered that these were actually photos I took at Fess Parker’s Doubletree Resort which is just north of Hyatt Santa Barbara. I didn’t even realize I had walked over to the Doubletree Resort until I jogged my memory writing this post and realizing the pool and lobby photos were a different hotel.

Fess Parker's Doubletree Resort pool at night.

Fess Parker's DoubleTree Resort Santa Barbara lobby.

Hyatt Santa Barbara Fitness Room

Hyatt Santa Barbara Fitness Room.

There actually wasn’t that much to the grounds of the Hyatt Santa Barbara with most of the landscaping gardens located alongside the beach road. The interior area was mostly parking lot when I stayed at the hotel.

Hyatt Santa Barbara ocean view balcony rooms.

Hyatt Santa Barbara garden bench across from beach.

Parking

Brian Kelly mentioned a $20 valet/$15 self-parking fee to park at the hotel in Nov 2011. This is another hotel where I scored free parking on the street next to the hotel during my Nov 2010 stay. I don’t know if the parking regulations have changed since 2010. The rules during my stay were unrestricted parking except for 1-3pm Mondays when street sweeper comes through the road.

Unmetered parking on block with Hyatt Santa Barbara entrance if you are lucky.

Passports with Purpose: There are still two days left to enter the Passports with Purpose raffle for a chance to win 110,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points with a $10 donation to Passports with Purpose by Friday, December 16. We are trying to raise $80,000 within the Travel Blog community to build libraries in Zambia with the organization Room to Read.

I didn’t see these celebrities in person. Their signatures and artistic inspiration on surfboards are displayed this month in the lobby hallways of the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel as part of the surfboards in the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel Fourth Annual Holiday Surfboard Auction through December 31, 2011.  Surfboard auction proceeds benefit Surfers Healing, a charity to  support children with autism through surfing.

NCIS cast signed surfboard for Surfers Healing auction.

In the case of Kelly Slater, who gained his 11th and latest world title last month in San Francisco and is the oldest person at 39 years of age to win the surfing world title, a piece of his broken surfboard recovered from this year’s September 2011 Quiksilver Pro New York competition.

Kelly Slater surfboard tail from Quiksilver Pro New York Sep 2011.

The views are good from this top of the bluffs location of the Ritz Carlton Laguna Niguel sitting about 150 feet above the Pacific Ocean beach in the oceanside community of Dana Point, Orange County, California.

Raya Restaurant window view at Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel.

There are luxurious aspects of this hotel including the beachfront setting, fitness room and lobby. There are also some over-the-top features like gold painted fire hydrants in the entry drive.

Perhaps enriched water flows from gold fire hydrants.

The beauty of hotels for me is their design in places where you might not otherwise be able to locate yourself in a comfortable style. I have hiked to Monarch Beach with a six-pack of beer and sat in the sand drinking beer and watching the sunset. That is a great way to spend an evening. I even saw dolphins from my vantage point a few feet away from the Pacific Ocean surf.

I don’t have friends in California with beachfront mansions. So some hotels in coastal California are like my own public space beach mansions.  I can come as an individual, or with my wife or family and hang out for much of the day in a nice hotel without staying overnight. Some drinks and a meal in a lovely setting beats heading to Chili’s or a crowded brewery for socializing.

180 Blu Lounge on patio of Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel.

Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel 180 Blu patio

The fitness room sits below the 180 Blu Lounge patio with large picture windows for workout dreamy views.

Workout with an ocean view.

Ritz-Carlton spa has lovely sights and sounds.

Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel spa.

The pool area was not being used most of the day even though the temperature was in the low 60s and the water was warm.

Ritz Carlton Laguna Niguel main pool.

Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel main pool and tennis courts in background.

The main pool area is located by the south wing of the hotel. The north wing of the hotel has its own smaller pool.

Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel smaller pool by north wing of hotel.

The north side of the hotel looks out over Monarch Beach and the golf course. Through the golf course is the public beach access path from St. Regis Monarch Beach to the beach. The Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel has a beach access path along the south side of the hotel. Public access to California beaches through private lands since the 1970s requires beachfront hotels to maintain a public access walkway to the beach under the Coastal Access Program.

Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel north wing view.

Clifftop gazebo seating at Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel.

The views are good from the Ritz Carlton Laguna Niguel sitting above Monarch Beach and gazing out over the Pacific Ocean beach with views of the islands off the coastline of California.

Edible Paradise

Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel has a beach community take on the edible holiday art in the lobby.

Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel "The Pilgrim Tall Ship in Dana Point"

This is one of three edible art pieces at the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel. The ship’s sails are made of 100 pounds of white chocolate. The sea is 625 pounds of candy.

The Pilgrim tall ship edible art structure.

35 boxes of cereal, 254 pounds of gingerbread, 350 pounds of icing

This landscape required 1,600 hours of construction led by Executive Pastry Chef Brian Sundeen and Assistant Pastry Chef Daniel Dominguez. Jonathan Limebrook handcrafted the ship structure.

LOVE is one of two Anthony Kiedis surfboards in Surfers Healing auction.

There are beautiful spaces and objects all around to see.

Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel lobby surfboard display.

Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel private dining room.

Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel lobby glass art.

Surfers Healing auction items in Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel hallway.

Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel standard guest rooms are 400 square feet in size which is smaller than the average size room for a luxury hotel. Typical winter rates for standard rooms are in the $375 to $425 range for the lowest priced rooms with a $25 per day resort fee additional. Ocean view standard rooms run $100 to $150 per night more. $545 to $675 for Club level standard room depending on view type. Executive Suites are 784 square feet which is a good size room and come with views of the gardens or ocean and run from about $675 to $1,000 for a one bedroom coastline view.

Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel, Dana Point, California

Monarch Beach view from Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel.

Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel is a Marriott Rewards Tier 3 hotel at 50,000 points per night.

The upper right tab “Reviews” takes you to the message:

Write a Review

If you’ve stayed with us in the past 18 months and would like to write a review for this hotel, please sign in below or enter your reservation confirmation number and last name.

I checked more than a dozen hotels in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and London, but I was unable to locate any hotel reviews published since this new feature launched two days ago.

Here is your chance to be the first and make an impression – good, bad or mixed about a Starwood Hotel where you stayed and have something to say.

Message at bottom right "Write the first review".

I gave the “Write a Review” page a try while writing this piece. I kind of like the idea of writing the first hotel review for a Starwood Hotel on the hotel property’s webpage.

You must log into your SPG account to start the review process.

Step 1 – Your Hotel Rating asks you to rate the hotel in several categories:

Starwood asks guest to rate the hotel in these categories.

Step 2 Your Review

Guests are asked not to state room rate paid or give personally identifiable information. Guests are also reminded to keep the review focused on the hotel.

Steps 3 asks the month of your hotel stay and one aspect of the hotel guests should know.

Step 4 – Personal Information

I blacked out my nickname since the Starwood site remembered me from my first review when I made a screenshot of this step. My nickname is not LoyaltyTraveler or LT. The site asks if you traveled for business, leisure, your elite level, location, age and frequency of travel.

You can also check a box for an email notice when your review is posted on the Starwood hotel site.

Step 5 – Submit additional SPG feedback to customer service.

This page asks you to rate your likelihood of recommending SPG to another. Finding brand advocates is all the hotel industry rage in loyalty programs these days.

I submitted my review and received a “Thank You for your review” confirmation.

Followed by the notice that reviews for a specific hotel will not be posted on the site until there are at least five reviews submitted for the hotel.

So get writing SPG members.

I’ll follow up with a date when my review is finally posted. I am curious to see if it gets posted in 2011.

My visit to the InterContinental Chicago in October 2010 impressed me with the hotel staff courteousness, old-style hotel elegance and important looking guests dressed with more accessories than I could buy with last year’s writing revenue.

Nice thing is the InterContinental Chicago was available during my trip at 40,000 points a night as one option or Points & Cash at 30,000 points + $60 or plop down $300+ for a room.

Michael Jordan’s Steak House

The reviews are mixed. The TimeOut Chicago review “An ambitious steakhouse. But not exactly a slam dunk.” by David Tamarkin is a fun entertaining read for a little MJ mystique even for someone like me who rarely eats in restaurants and cares less for restaurant reviews. The Chicago Tribune has kinder dining words.

InterContinental Chicago on the Magnificent Mile

There is an historic building and a modern building in the InterContinental Chicago. The hotel property was a $250 million restoration project over 12 years from 1988 to 2,000. The historic building was originally the Medinah Athletic Club from 1929. The swimming pool is one of the finest hotel pools in the city. There is a detailed history of the hotel on the IC Chicago website. And even more details on Wikipedia.

Historic building of InterContinental Chicago.

The north building of the hotel is modern.

InterContinental Chicago north tower.

Michael Jordan’s Steak House is located on the second floor of the open lobby. The restaurant is new so I don’t have a picture of it from my hotel visit one year ago. The restaurant there at the time was totally packed with noise carrying across the four-story high ceiling lobby.

InterContinental Chicago Main Entrance

There is a lion theme to the historic tower.

Palindrome lion room 1661 - InterContinental Chicago

The room felt comfortable, although the bathroom was a bit small. Most bathrooms have a separate shower.

Sitting room in suite - InterContinental Chicago.

Heavy drapes help damper the noise of North Michigan Avenue.

Bedroom drapes and chairs in bedroom of suite - InterContinental Chicago.

King bed InterContinental Chicago

InterContinental Chicago bathroom.

Sitting room in InterContinental Chicago suite.

The fitness center on the 11th floor provides access to the historic 25-meter indoor swimming pool. This room is the only remaining piece of the Medinah Athletic Club facilities. The highlight of the InterContinental Chicago for me was the extended time I was the only person relaxing in this space one afternoon.

InterContinental Chicago pool.

InterContinental Chicago historic 25-meter swimming pool.

Mood lighting at mid-day.

North wall of pool.

Balcony seating around pool entrance.

Pool room wall mosaic.

South wall of pool room.

The fitness center offers workout space in addition to the pool room.

InterContinental Chicago Fitness Center equipment.

InterContinental Chicago fitness room.

Key Accessed Fitness Center InterContinental Chicago.

The InterContinental Chicago is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

InterContinental Chicago Elevators.

The InterContinental Chicago is convenient for touring Chicago as it is located just north of the river at the beginning of the Magnificent Mile. As you travel north you’ll encounter the Marriott, The Peninsula, Park Hyatt, Westin Michigan Avenue, the Ritz Carlton that is actually a Four Seasons Hotel, the other Four Seasons Chicago and Hilton Drake Hotel.

InterContinental Chicago North Michigan Avenue entrance.

InterContinental Hotels logo.

InterContinental Chicago

There are currently 41 W Hotels open around the world in the Starwood Hotels luxury boutique brand. W Hotels opened in the past year in London, St. Petersburg, Russia; Bali, Taipei and Santiago, Chile. There are several more W Hotels scheduled to open in the next year in Paris, Milan, Singapore and Bangkok.

W Washington D.C. lobby bar

Think lights and darkness, music and playful whimsy, style and attitude. Guests seem to either really love the W concept or find it pretentious. My wife is a lover of W style. I generally have a great time in W Hotels, but the rooms tend to be too small and the price too high for my comfort. Think $250 to $350 as average rates for this luxury boutique brand.

W Silicon Valley, Newark, California

Starwood’s W Silicon Valley is probably the hotel where I have booked more paid nights than any other hotel over the past decade. W Silicon Valley is undoubtedly the lowest priced of any of the W Hotels. By far the lowest priced during weekends and holidays. The published AAA rate for this Memorial Day weekend at the W Silicon Valley was $81. Even lower was my Starwood Best Rate Guarantee matched rate to Hotels.com price for $64 per night + 2,000 bonus Starpoints. And the hotel even upgraded me to a Cool Corner Suite for only the second time in 8 years.

W Silicon Valley in sunset glow

On top of the low price is the standard large room at W Suites Silicon Valley measuring 447 square feet. Most W Hotels will require a significant upgrade to land a room that size. The standard room at Silicon Valley is larger than any upgraded room I received at W San Francisco, W Washington D.C., W Chicago Lakeshore or W Chicago – City Center.

W Silicon Valley - all rooms have a couch.

All standard rooms at W Silicon Valley are basically junior suites with the TV table dividing the sitting room from the bed. The Cool Corner Suite has the same furnishings as lower category rooms, but larger space between the furniture and in the bathroom. Flat screen TVs arrived in the past two years to bring the hotel into the 21st century. The TVs swivel for viewing from couch or bed.

W Silicon Valley - Cool Corner Suite

All the rooms at W Silicon Valley come with a mini-bar refrigerator, microwave and sink.

W Silicon Valley - kitchenette in Cool Corner Suite

The refrigerator is spacious enough to put your own food and drink inside around the mini-bar items and no electronic sensors to inhibit moving the mini-bar items around to make space.

The bathrooms have both shower and tub.

W Silicon Valley shower and tub.

The rooms used to have large and beautiful blue drinking glasses. Now they are small and clear.

W Silicon Valley Bathroom.

Frankly, I am surprised W Silicon Valley hotel has survived as a W Hotel in the small southeastern San Francisco Bay city of Newark, California. There is no big city life in the vicinity of the hotel. There is actually not much of anything around the hotel. W Silicon Valley hotel is located between a business park, housing tracts and the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge on the shore of San Francisco Bay, at the eastern edge of the Dumbarton Bridge. The hotel is 8 miles from Palo Alto, home of Stanford University and 30 miles from San Francisco.

W Silicon Valley Newark wetlands

W Silicon Valley lobby is generally uncrowded unless a special party is happening. The bar, restaurant and lobby are a compact space.

W Silicon Valley lobby.

W Silicon Valley lobby.

There is a small fitness room and an outdoor pool surrounded by sand at W Silicon Valley. There is also an outdoor firepit. The wind tends to blow briskly at this southern end of San Francisco Bay which makes the hot tub a more popular ‘wet’ experience in my observations over the years.

W Silicon Valley WET.

W Silicon Valley spa tub.

W Silicon Valley near poolside seating adjacent to restaurant.

There are probably not too many people who would list the W Silicon Valley as their favorite Starwood Hotel, but for a loyalty traveler, Newark has been a home away from home since 2003 for this frequent guest seeking to maintain SPG Platinum elite and needing a high quality, low priced hotel within driving distance of Monterey. And the W Silicon Valley, Newark really is 90 miles from Monterey (W Silicon Valley website states 50 miles), so don’t take the W Silicon Valley Acura SUV for a 3-hour complimentary drive and expect to reach Cannery Row and back in the allotted time.

W Silicon Valley complimentary Acura SUV for guest drive.

Related Loyalty Traveler posts:

W Silicon Valley Fly-by in HD (July 28, 2009) – This piece touches on the adjacent wildlife refuge and history of sea salt production in San Francisco Bay.

W San Francisco in HD (Sep 4, 2009) – Loads of photos

W Chicago Lakeshore Hotel (Oct. 26, 2010)

W Chicago City Center in Blue Ray (October 27, 2010)

I look up the St. Regis San Francisco on Oyster.com and I find 337 high-quality photos of the hotel, urban surroundings, restaurants, lobby, room types and the kind of visual information lacking from most hotel property websites. I go to the St. Regis San Francisco hotel website and I find only 32 photos.

Oyster.com even has a section called photo-fakeouts to reveal the hotel website image discrepancy from an image taken by an Oyster.com reviewer.

Here is my example of a photo-fakeout from St. Regis San Francisco.

One of the photos is not even a real photo of Yerba Buena Terrace.

St. Regis SF website terrace photo

The Westin San Francisco Market Street Hotel white skyscraper would be towering in the San Francisco background if it were a true photograph from Yerba Buena Terrace.  

Actual Loyalty Traveler photo from Yerba Buena Terrace

St. Regis San Francisco website has three photos of a standard superior guest room. Oyster.com has 86 photos of the superior room.

St. Regis San Francisco website has one photo of an Astor Suite. Oyster.com has 39 photos of an Astor Suite.

St. Regis San Francisco website has one photo of a Metropolitan Suite. Oyster.com has 31 photos of a Metropolitan Suite.

I am baffled that the St. Regis San Francisco does not have more images of the Astor Suite selling at $900 for the night of June 15, 2011 or the $1,200 Metropolitan Suites. Here is my HD review Part One of the St. Regis San Francisco detailing a corner room upgrade from a June 2009 hotel stay. Part Two details the aspects of the St. Regis hotel that I did not like.

Oyster.com rates St. Regis San Francisco as the best luxury property in the city. I loved the beds and bedding.

I realize now I should do another Loyalty Traveler post on the St. Regis San Francisco to show more of my 400 or so images I photographed during three stays at the hotel in 2009 including two nights in a Metropolitan Suite. The hotel rooms and facilities are luxury living and I enjoyed the rooms, particularly the wide marble sills around the room allowing me to peer down and across the city from a large window seat.

Wide window ledge in St. Regis San Francisco Metropolitan Suite

The St. Regis San Francisco hotel Metropolitan Suite hovering over the corner of Mission and Third Street had a lovely urban architectural view.

St Regis San Francisco room view of other major hotels

This is a pretty picture, however, this image is unlikely to be seen on the St. Regis San Francisco hotel’s website since the photo shows three skyscrapers that from left to right are the massive Marriott Marquis hotel, Four Seasons hotel and the Westin San Francisco Market Street Hotel.

Traveler Tip for San Francisco:

Marriott Marquis San Francisco has The View Lounge, a bar-lounge on the 39^th floor offering some of the best 360-degree views in San Francisco. Here are two short YouTube videos I posted in July 2009 showing the views from the View Lounge looking south-east and west to north. This is a nice place to blow $20 or $30. Grand Hyatt San Francisco Grandviews Bar-Restaurant (36^th floor) is another good location for drinks or fine dining with a view.

Oyster.com Suffers from Limited Hotel Coverage

Oyster.com has the limitation of only providing hotel reviews for eight major cities in the U.S. and seven resort destinations in the Caribbean islands and Hawaii. Areas covered include hotels around Boston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Orlando, San Francisco and Washington DC. Beach locales include Aruba, Bahamas, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Hawaii, Jamaica and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The company has tackled destinations in a sensible way by building on the largest domestic travel markets. The site does a good job at covering a large number of hotels for each of the different cities listed. Hotels are categorized  to capture the ambience of experiential objectives travelers seek in hotel stays like Best Happy Hour or Most Romantic Hotels. Hotel review subjective ratings on quality and amenities are backed with written and photographic evidence.

Oyster.com sample of New York City website categories for hotel types

My Loyalty Traveler take on Oyster.com is if you want to “see” the hotel before you book, then Oyster.com provides a valuable resource for checking out hotels and different types of hotel rooms. Oyster.com fills the gap hotels leave open in their overall poor job of displaying their own images for the public to see.

I imagine Travel Channel financial backing will improve the Oyster.com hotel reviews photo library with video imagery. I am glad to see Oyster.com shows potential for continued growth in the hotel review sector of the travel marketplace. Whenever I check out a hotel review on Oyster.com I feel the urge to upgrade my camera!