Hilton Archives - asthejoeflies

Feb 23 2017

Discovering the family friendly Embassy Suites

For one reason or another, we’ve stayed at Embassy Suites two separate times in the past two weeks. I booked the Doubletree near Disney Springs during our daddy daughter delay which I found family friendly, but Embassy Suites (also Hilton) tops it. My wife stayed in the Charleston property and finally for the last two nights we’ve stayed at Embassy Suites Charlotte.

What have I learned? Just how family friendly Embassy Suites can be! I’ve often spoken about how apartments like AirBnB make more sense for my young family, but perhaps I need to do more research. Embassy Suites represents a great middle ground – here are some quick hit reasons why.

You get a suite regardless of your status

Amol posed a fun question the other day:

Random question for twitter: what are the minimum things a hotel suite should have above a regular room?
— Amol (@PointsToPointB) February 11, 2017

I’d advise you read through those responses for some amusement. I think a good rule of thumb is that a suite should have a separate room with a separating door. People rave about Hyatt’s confirmed diamond suite upgrades (and now Globalists are entitled to suite upgrades if available too).

Well, at the family friendly Embassy Suites, every room comes with a separate living area. How did I not know this!? This obviously comes in super handy when traveling with sub 5 year olds. The baby can nap separate from everyone else, parents don’t have to sit in the bathroom with the light on, etc. etc.

As far as I can tell, you can only receive one upgrade at this particular Embassy Suites – to the Presidential Suite. But hey, everyone enjoys a suite when you stay here.

I've come to realize that Embassy Suites can be a great option for family travel. Here are some reasons I think the hotel chain deserves a look! — Having a pool to yourself is nice too

Free made to order breakfast

Breakfast matters. One of the reasons I love staying in apartments is we can cook our own breakfast. My sister’s family, my family, and my parents went through 24 eggs in four nights in Charleston this past week!

Embassy Suites comes with free hot breakfast, including made to order omelettes. That means we can just wake up and roll downstairs to eat breakfast. That also means we don’t need to worry about buying groceries or cooking eggs without oil. 😛

Complimentary drinks at night

Sometimes parents just need something to take the edge off. Every night, Embassy Suites has a happy hour with some light appetizers. You also get a few drink coupons to get free drinks – some pretty nice stuff. I had a scotch and M had an orange juice. Everyone had cheese and crackers.

Refrigerator, microwave, and no minibar

If you have kids, you know that they often wreak havoc with the minibar. Especially egregious? The minibars that get triggered electronically! Thankfully, the family friendly Embassy Suites rooms come with both a refrigerator and a microwave, both with nothing inside of them!

That means you have the utility of an entire fridge for milk, fruit, yogurt, etc. You have a microwave to heat up leftovers if you’ve eaten out, and at any Embassy Suites you can guarantee that those things will be in your room.

Final Thoughts

One of the toughest things about family travel can be deciding where to stay. While I still might gravitate towards apartments, the family friendly Embassy Suites is quickly shooting up my list. Plus, at 30,000 points a night while we were here in Charlotte (a busy time due to the CIAA basketball tournament), the price is right too! Where are some hotels you enjoy taking your kids, young and old?

Nov 22 2014

Lazy Weekend in Lyon: The Hilton Lyon, Parc Tete d’Or, and Salon du Chocolat

Hilton Lyon

Normally on a short weekend location is the most important factor for a hotel for me, but on this trip I wanted to make sure we had breakfast too. I ended up booking a 100 Euro/night rate at the Hilton Lyon.

We were put on the executive floor and given executive lounge access due to my HHonors Gold status (still 100% on executive lounges outside of the USA). The room was small but comfortable, nothing to write home about pro or con. There was a really nice view of the Parc Tete d’Or from the hotel – supposedly one of the largest parks in Europe.

...which just means regular room on the top floor with lounge access — …which just means regular room on the top floor with lounge access

Breakfast was simple but satisfying, generally just eggs, bacon, sausage, and an assortment of continental breakfast type foods. During happy hour and “sweet time” there were various snacks out, including hot hors d’oeuvres, which I found pretty tasty. And all the chips I could eat, woohoo! We avoided the hotel restaurant due to the fact we were in the food capital of the world.

The Cite Internationale has some fun sculptures

The biggest downside of the hotel is its location – it’s about a 30 minute walk to the city center. Still, it’s in a nice little convention center complete with a movie theater, casino, and restaurants. The architecture of the complex, both the hotel and the entire Cite Internationale, is actually pretty cool. Though I wouldn’t recommend it, you could stay there and never leave.

Parc Tete d’Or

The best part of the hotel’s location is its proximity to the Parc Tete d’Or, a beautiful, expansive park that made me wish it was summer. We wandered around the park in the rain and I was still impressed with its natural beauty (the fall foliage didn’t hurt).

There is a large lake in the middle of the park; you can rent boats during warmer weather. The park is also chock full of playgrounds and there is even a zoo – a FREE zoo. I thought the free zoo would be, um, not that great but it actually was pretty nice (the price obviously factoring into my evaluation). I mean the Stone and Franklin Park Zoos here in Boston are great and all but they cost money!

An interesting thing we noticed in Lyon is that it seems to be a city for runners – it feels like Boston in that way. We saw people jogging at all hours of the day and night and there are tons of beautiful paths that you can jog on – in the park, along the two rivers, or even through the city center itself. I kinda wish I had brought my running shoes to burn off all the calories I ate! Then again, I haven’t run more than a mile in……let’s just move on.

Walk to the City Center

Since the hotel is so far away, it’s worth noting your options for getting to the city center. There is a convenient bus that takes you right in there but to be honest we didn’t even bother inquiring the price. We’re walkers and that’s what we did.

It’s about a thirty minute walk to the city center and there are multiple ways to get there from the Hilton. You can walk along the river, you can walk through the Parc Tete d’Or, or you can walk through more urban areas. They all felt super safe (we asked the hotel and they said it’s fine at all hours and our experience echoed this).

Would love to know the story behind this badboy

Lyon is home to two rivers – the Rhone and the Saone – the Hilton and Cite Internationale are along the Rhone. Walking along the river is beautiful and there is a path that runs along a large part of the river. I wasn’t sure if it was a permanent thing or what (it rained most of the weekend) but a lot of the paths on the Saone looked flooded. Weird.

Anyway like any European city there are a billion bridges you can choose to cross the rivers on including a handful of pedestrian ones. I have an affinity for walking across bridges so I really just loved strolling around the city. I always found it to be a pleasant walk but if walking is not your thing you might want to take the bus or find a different hotel.

Salon du Chocolat

The absolute best part about living in the Cite Internationale was that we were a two minute walk away from the Salon du Chocolat. What is the Salon du Chocolat, you say? Only a traveling chocolate exhibition featuring some of the best chocolatiers in the world! And it just happened to be in Lyon the weekend we were there.

The exhibition was in some kind of exhibition hall – and it was crazy. I mean its like a convention, except instead of weird gadgets or gizmos, everyone is featuring chocolate and candy at their booths. Free samples? Yes, thank you very much. And chocolate for sale of course, including some really unique things like hard candies flavored with flowers (Maison Boissier), a Coca-cola flavored chocolate bar that crackled when I ate it (Newtree), and of course products from Lyon’s very well known, very amazing Bernachon.

Almost finished product - ridiculous. — Almost finished product – ridiculous.

Jess was in heaven and I had a pretty good time too. Besides just gorging yourself on samples and spending way too much money on chocolate bars, there were also demonstrations by famous chocolatiers (with free samples!) and also an ongoing “chocolate art” creation station. Some of the stuff these people made out of chocolates blew my mind.

Gigantic mirror for the cooking demonstration

Not convinced? There is also a fashion show featuring clothes that have chocolate on them! What?! Who thinks of these things? And finally, there are demonstrations/lessons/workshops both for kids and adults. The kids dressed up in aprons and making chocolate are especially cute and make me want to return with Little M when she’s old enough.

So it cost us 10 Euros each to get in but we spent a few hours there and I thought it was well worth it. We had a lot of fun, got a nice little sugar high going, and Jess got to sit on an Eclair. All in all, a great time.

Final Thoughts

The Hilton Lyon is located a bit far away from the city, but that doesn’t mean you’ll lack things to do. The Parc Tete d’Or is lovely and the Cite Internationale has a lot of things to occupy your time. We almost went to the movies just because we never get to do that at home (we missed our show because we slept in, haha). And if you happen to be in town when the Salon du Chocolat is visiting – cha-ching!

Other Posts in this Series

Introduction

British Airways First Class and the Ghost Terminal at Heathrow

The Hilton Lyon, Parc Tete d’Or, and Salon du Chocolat

Michelin Starred Meals at La Mere Brazier and La Remanence

Nov 17 2014

Lazy Weekend in Lyon: Introduction

Lyon is all about eating... — Lyon is all about eating…

Last week my wife and I spent a quick long weekend in Lyon, France with a nice little layover in London to boot. It wasn’t the cheapest trip, but it was some much needed R&R away from the little one. I haven’t seen a lot of stuff out there about Lyon, so hopefully this trip report will remedy that. I decided not to do it live because I needed the rest – hopefully it won’t take me too long to finish!

Before we get to the fun stuff, a little bit about how we got there.

Flights: British Airways First Class Boston to Lyon

Back when US Airways switched to Oneworld there was a small window of time when you could book British Airways tickets without fuel surcharges. We took advantage of that opportunity to book two first class tickets from Boston to Lyon for 125,000 US Air miles and $265 each (that includes a $50 phone processing fee for US Airways).

Got to add another set of pajamas to the pile

The majority of our miles were earned via the Barclays US Air card sign up bonus and butt in seat miles. The remaining 40,000 or so came from one of those share miles promotions where you could get miles for 1.1 cents a piece, costing us an extra $440 dollars (a deal I no longer thinks works for me, but I was younger and less wise then). So all told our cash outlay for flights was about $485 each – or the cost of a good cash fare to Europe in coach.

I wouldn’t say this was a great deal by any stretch, but we got to fly in British Airways’ first class cabin for a decent price which dovetailed with my goal to travel as comfortably as possible for less. Our original routing was BOS-PHL-LHR-LYS // LYS-LHR-BOS, but after an equipment change I managed to switch us to BOS-LHR-LYS on the outbound. I wrote about how my obsessiveness pulled that off here.

Taking afternoon tea together at 40,000 feet

Hotel: Hilton Lyon

I really wanted to book a hotel on points, but the Radisson Blu in Lyon is currently under renovation. So instead, we booked the Hilton Lyon for 100 Euros a night – I figured getting free breakfast (with HHonors Gold) would make up for the slightly distant location. And hey, we ended up getting a ton of exercise. There was also a Crowne Plaza nearby the Hilton, but even though I had IHG points I didn’t want to stay there, believe it or not I have faith that Hilton will treat us well and we were not disappointed. Free breakfast is big for Jess and I needed that to be guaranteed.

The Hilton Lyon is located right by the Parc de la Tete d'Or — The Hilton Lyon is located right by the Parc de la Tete d’Or

Layover: In and out of London in six hours

The final thing we had to consider was our layover in London on the way home. We were arriving in London from Lyon at 7:45 AM and departing at 4:25 PM. I love London and wanted to make a quick trip into the city. You can get to the city from Heathrow via the London Underground or the Heathrow Express. The Underground is a lot cheaper (we would have bought £17 daypasses to ride the Tube all day), but it takes almost an hour to get into the city. I found a deal where we could buy two roundtrip tickets on the Heathrow express for £50 pounds total – that got us into the city in fifteen minutes. In this case time was more important to us than money. We ended up spending another £18 total for Underground daypasses, so £68 total for our little jaunt into London. That works out to £34 to save 1.5 hours of travel time which was worth it to me. We got to see the poppies at the Tower of London, eat at Jess’ favorite vegetarian restaurant, and take a walk through some of our favorite spots.

Porcelain poppies at the Tower of London - in memoriam — Porcelain poppies at the Tower of London – in memoriam

Final Thoughts

It was a quick trip, and though it wasn’t cheap, we saved a lot of money thanks to the points and miles we’ve accumulated over the years. Of course, we blew a lot of that on eating…but hey we got to relax and Little M was well taken care of at home with grandma and grandpa – can’t put a price on that!

Other Posts in this Series

Introduction

British Airways First Class and the Ghost Terminal at Heathrow

The Hilton Lyon, Parc Tete d’Or, and Salon du Chocolat

Michelin Starred Meals at La Mere Brazier and La Remanence

Aug 15 2014

Bavarian Summer: Rating the Toddler Friendliness of Our Hotels

I wasn’t planning on reviewing the hotels we stayed in on our trip, but I got to thinking I would have loved to see a parent’s view on the toddler friendliness of these hotels before we got here. So instead of a “review”, I just wanted to give a few thoughts on how each of the hotels we stayed at were equipped to deal with toddlers. As always, bear in mind we were in a unique situation having only one child and grandparents in a nearby room.

Crowne Plaza Salzburg

I booked two rooms at this hotel for 30,000 IHG points per night – the going rate was about 190 Euros/night so it was a pretty good deal. In terms of location, the Crowne Plaza worked out well for us. It was far enough away from downtown that we didn’t have to deal with parking issues (the garage was less than 20 Euros/day), and the hotel was right Mirabelle Gardens which was great for walks.

The scenic walk along the river to Old Town

The 15 minute walk to downtown might be a deterrent for some, and it definitely prevented us from just hopping out of the hotel to eat in the city. There are a lot of food options just one street over though that we found to be perfectly decent. Personally I didn’t mind the location because the walk to town was a scenic stroll along the river.

I’d say my biggest concern about the Crowne Plaza was the temperature of the fridge, it was only slightly cooler than the room, so we were a little worried about the milk. We had them clear out the minibar so that we could keep our food and baby supplies in there. The crib was older but seemed safe and it was on wheels which made it really useful to move around the room. Little M was also given her own blanket and towel which was cute.

There was enough space to picnic in the room

Bathtime was a cinch due to the bathtub and removable showerhead. If you’re fine with walking, Salzburg is a great city for kids and the Crowne Plaza will suit you just fine. It should be noted they are still finishing up some renovations – so some sections looked much more updated than others.

Intercontinental Berchtesgaden

To sum it up in a sentence, the Intercontinental Berchtesgaden was the hotel that worked the hardest to accommodate our toddler but was also the hotel where M was the most out of place, so to speak. It cost us 35,000 IHG points per night. We’ll start with the negative.

Bad weather made Berchtesgaden tough to entertain Little M

Like I wrote before, we were hit by a spat of terrible weather in Berchtesgaden. That really hurt because we weren’t able to walk any hiking trails with M – a real shame because the Intercontinental has a free BOB Revolution that you can borrow for free! There was a playground but it was kind of on the bottom of a hill with no stairs so M had to be carried down there – kind of weird.

Taking shelter in the playground structure

But what the weather really meant was that we were confined to the inside of the hotel the whole time – and the Intercontinental was a quiet, peaceful place so we kind of didn’t want her running around screaming. The only restaurant in the hotel is also pretty fancy. To their credit, they had a kids menu and crayons and things like that, but it just wasn’t the ideal environment to be eating dinner with a toddler (especially because we had to eat inside). In terms of location, it’s a 15-20 minute drive down or up the mountain to get to any civilization, which is definitely much less convenient than being able to walk into town.

"Why couldn't the weather have been like this for longer than two hours!?" — “Why couldn’t the weather have been like this for longer than two hours!?”

Now, to the good stuff. I was really impressed with the amenities the Intercontinental Berchtesgaden provided M with. First, she was given her own bath soap and lotion. Next, she was given a nice pack and play, Euro style, complete with a blanket and pillow. But perhaps the cutest amenity I have seen ever were the little bathrobe and little slippers! We didn’t keep the bathrobe (not sure if that was even an option) but we did take the slippers home!

Still a little too big... — Still a little too big…

Probably the best activity at the hotel for a toddler is the pool. There are two pools, an indoor and an outdoor pool. The outdoor pool is actually warmer, think they have the heat up more on that one. Anyway, I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves – the outdoor pool is pretty nice.

Anyway, I give the Intercontinental Berchestgaden credit for trying to cater to families with young children. I think if the weather had been better our experience might have been different, but you definitely don’t want to be marooned there with a toddler in bad weather. Though I guess when would you want that situation ever?

Hilton Vienna Plaza

In terms of location, the Hilton Vienna Plaza is on the outskirts of town (on the ring), but still just a fifteen minute walk to where all the action is. It’s in a nice, quiet location that’s busier during the week since it’s more towards the business-y area (as far as I could tell).

The hotel is still under renovation so there are only two floors of rooms open. Our room was spacious and gave M enough room to run around. Probably the best part was having executive lounge access as a HHonors Gold member – there were snacks at happy hour which were useful for tiding M and ourselves over before dinner. There was no bathtub so that made things tough – if your child can’t take showers yet that’s something to bear in mind.

If you give your kids candy, the executive lounge is pretty useful

Other than that, I don’t think there’s anything too special to write about the Hilton Vienna Plaza toddler wise – it was perfectly passable though not spectacular. Hilton definitely had the most attentive staff – the staff at the executive lounge knew me by name (from e-mail correspondence before we arrived) and was the most friendly and welcoming.

Final Thoughts

I realize this isn’t the most thrilling post, but hopefully it’s been useful to anyone who will be traveling to Vienna, Salzburg, or Berchtesgaden with young children. We had a blast and so did Little M!

Other Posts in this Series

Introduction

Final Preparations for the Little One

Lufthansa First Class with a Toddler

Slow Days with a Sick Toddler

Sightseeing in and around Garmisch-Partenkirchen

Observations After a Week in Germany

Climbing to AlpspiX and Neuschwanstein Castle

Zugspitze and Mittenwald

Sound of Music Bike Tour in Salzburg

Lazy Sunday in Salzburg – not

Rainy Days in Berchtesgaden

Visiting Museums and Biking in Vienna

Food in Germany and Austria

Rating the Toddler Friendliness of Our Hotels

Lufthansa First Class Terminal – Good for Toddlers?

Jul 30 2014

Bavarian Summer: Visiting Museums and Biking in Vienna

M lounging on our chaise in the Hilton Vienna Plaza

We had a three and a half hour drive from Berchtesgaden to Vienna – managing to get through with only one toddler meltdown (too hot in the car seat). After we got to Vienna, I dropped everyone off at the Hilton Vienna Plaza and then drove to drop the car off at the other Hilton in town. To be honest I wasn’t sure what to expect from Hilton, but we ultimately really enjoyed the city and it was a great way to end our trip.

Dinner our first night was at the food stalls set up for the film festival at City Hall (the Rathaus)

We spent the first day visiting two museums – the Kunst Historiches and the Haus der Musik. The Kunst Historiches is one of Vienna’s premier art museums – it has an excellent collection the majority of which I did not see because toddlers just have a hard time staying quiet! M was bored so we mostly just played with her stroller and sat in the cafe.

Jess, M, and some random lady outside the Museums Quartier

The Haus der Musik was much more kid friendly – there are a lot of interactive exhibits and plenty of things you can touch and mess around with. We actually went to this museum at 8 PM (after dinner), when it becomes half price. We only saw a little over half the museum in our hour and a half there – I actually think it could take up an entire afternoon if you are into classical music.

The second floor of the museum is…kind of weird. First of all, it’s all kind of dark like a haunted house. I think the idea of the floor is to break music down scientifically – there is a lot of stuff on harmonics, sound generation, etc. The problem is, it feels like a haunted house! The first room, I kid you not, is designed to simulate the sounds you once heard when you were in the womb. Completely with weird projections of babies onto some half orb thing. Despite the exhibit being kind of new age-y and even a little scary, it actually is quite a bit of fun. You can tap on a gigantic drum, there are various buttons to press to play different sounds, and quite a few interactive stations (mostly computers with headphones).

"In the womb" Okayyyy.... — “In the womb” Okayyyy….

The third floor of the museum is the real star of the show as far as I’m concerned. It has ten rooms dedicated to nine composers who are related to Vienna. Each room has its own specific feel and flavor, with some items related to the composers (including big boys like Mozart, Beethoven, and Haydn), and again plenty of interactive exhibits to pass the time by. We were actually rushing at this point but M was really enjoying the music in the different rooms. Apparently the proper way to dance to a Mozart Sonata is by waving your arms around like you just don’t care.

The most fun part of the third floor is this exhibit where you get to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic. Since they were at the Salzburg Music Festival, this was our only chance to see them. You use this plastic wand and can choose from one of six pieces to conduct. It’s a lot of fun though a bit janky at times. Here’s M finishing up her set.

By the end our daughter was pretty delirious so we headed home. The next day was my parents’ last of the trip, so they took M to another children’s museum while Jess and I got a morning off. We took advantage by renting a couple bikes from Vienna’s bike share program.

It only cost us 1 Euro total for the morning since we kept all our rides under an hour (it was 1 Euro to sign up). Simple and painless and we did it with our credit cards (you don’t even need a chip). Much cheaper than Boston where 24 hours costs $6 and 72 costs $12.

Yes that's a treble clef in front of the Mozart statue — Yes that’s a treble clef in front of the Mozart statue

The city is super easy to bike around – we took a tour around the city ring using Rick Steve’s guide, stopping at a few places along the way. It was flat and smooth ride. Eventually we ended up at the Belvedere, one of the palace museums in Vienna. Unlike most palaces, it’s not just looking from room to room, it’s been converted to an art museum. I appreciated that since frankly I’m kind of sick of looking at palaces at this current point in my life. Seen one seen them all!

Cafe at the Belvedere - I guess we ate dessert twice that day — Cafe at the Belvedere – I guess we ate dessert twice that day

Jess and I capped off our date with lunch at Cafe Landtmann which boasted a serious coffee and dessert selection, of which we did partake.

On our last full day in Europe, my parents were off to the airport and the three of us took a trip to the Naturhistoriches Museum (Natural History). M slept through the first hour, and then woke up to the sight of more ducks, elephants, and dinosaurs than she had ever seen in her life.

It’s funny seeing a toddler light up when they see their favorite animals. There’s a song we sing to her in Chinese about how big an elephant’s “nose” is; if she didn’t understand the reference before I am sure she does now!

We finished our time in Bavaria and Austria with a lot of walking around Vienna and some good food. After we put M down for bed, it was time to pack and get ready for our flight home. Seventeen days is a long time to be away from home and I personally was ready to get back.

Final Thoughts

Vienna definitely exceeded my expectations as a city. It’s very walkable (or bikeable), which is a major plus for visitors especially if you don’t have kids. I think there are enough kid friendly museums and activities to spend your time with, and if you let your kids eat dessert they will not go wanting in the least. After the rainout in Berchtesgaden, Vienna was the perfect coda to our trip.