On my recent trip to Key West, Florida in January 2009 I stayed at the Reach Resort, which recently became a Hilton Property under the Waldorf Astoria Collection.
The Reach appears to have been recently renovated before becoming a Hilton Property as everything appeared to be sparkly and new. The Casa Marina — The Reach’s sister property 2 blocks away also became a Hilton property as well.
The check-in experience was good– I walked up to the counter fairly late in to the night, 10pm perhaps on a Thursday, told them my name and was greeted with a “We’ve been expecting you!’ — I’m thinking that I was the last person to check in that evening. It appeared the hotel had a pretty low occupancy during my visit as the parking garage was near empty. Parking is $12.
The Reach Resort has a pretty good location, one block off of Duval St and is located on Key West’s only natural sand beach. Some might say that the Reach is on the “wrong” end of Duval — but I would say it is the quiet end of Duval where you can actually get some sleep away from the bars . Being a resort property, there is a $20 a day “resort fee” which doesn’t really include anything that I would consider a perk, but the front desk will tell you that the resort fee covers the “Pool towels, fruit in the lobby, newpapers, and beach chairs.” Being a resort property that also means no concierge lounge. The hotel also has water sports rentals and rents Jet Skis, kayaks, snorkeling equipment, etc.
I booked the 1 bedroom boutique sweet with ocean view, and it was sweet indeed! My room was on the Fifth floor — which is the top floor — and was very airy/light with perhaps 12 foot ceilings. The room included a refrigerator, and a Nespresso coffee machine (the one that has the little coffee cartridges). There was a bar area with two bar stools for eating, a love-seat sofa, and an arm chair. The bed was a king size bed with very comfortable bedding and mattress.
The bathroom was clean — had a large shower, no bathtub. It sort of disturbed me that the bathroom also included a set of ear plugs. Turns out the hotel was very quiet and I didn’t need to ear plugs (thank goodness!). Perhaps during times of higher occupancy the hotel is noisier?
My favorite spot at the hotel was definitely the hammocks strung up on the beach — there is just something really cool about lying on a hammock that is suspended between two palm trees!
I’d definitely recommend the Reach Resort to anyone traveling to Key West Florida!
The Reach Resort is located at: 1435 Simonton St, Key West, FL
http://www.reachresort.com/
Posted 1 year, 7 months ago at 5:14 pm. Add a comment
On a recent business trip to Newport, Rhode Island, I had the pleasure of staying at the Newport Marriott. The Newport Marriott is located right in the middle of old town Newport on the harbor.
The design of the hotel is a bit strange, as some of the rooms face outside, and other rooms face the “inside” atrium of the hotel — which is covered. The rooms on the inside of the hotel don’t get any fresh air — some of the windows of rooms actually face in to the hallway. If you have a preference, an outside facing room is definitely preferable.
I was staying in January, which is the snowy season in Newport, therefore occupancy is super low. I paid $120/night for a harbor view room, which can go for up to $400/night in the summer time. The concierge lounge was closed “for the season” — so as a Platinum I was given complimentary breakfast in their restaurant. I’ve had the breakfast buffet in the restaurant before, so I was pretty stoked about that — but again, because it was the slow season, they didn’t have the buffet, but allowed guests to order up to $16 of food off of their breakfast menu instead. The food was good, but I really prefer the buffet so that my breakfast will be quick. It just takes awhile to order breakfast, have it be prepared, get a check, etc.
The hotel was a nice gym in their “Spa at Long Wharf”. The machines are new, and many of the aerobic machines such as the elliptical trainers have televisions on them. There is also an indoor heated swimming pool and jacuzzi. It’s pretty neat to go for a swim in the pool when it’s snowing outside!
The room itself was a decent size — not huge, but not too small. The bedding was clean and comfortable. The television was a flat panel TV, perhaps 32″ in size, a bit smaller than typical Marriott’s. It also had the inputs for external video. The desk had four (4) power plugs which is really nice. I personally carry a power strip with me on travel because one or two power plugs are never enough for the true geek on travel, so having four is a nice touch. The bathroom was a bathroom, nothing particularly special, sink, toilet, and tub with shower.
Posted 1 year, 7 months ago at 10:11 pm. Add a comment
The Renaissance Esmerelda Resort and Spa is located near Palm Springs, CA in the “resort hotel” district of Indian Wells. It is about a 20 minute drive to “downtown” Palm Springs. This is considered a “resort” property so there is no concierge lounge, and a $20 resort fee is added. The $20 resort fee includes a few things such as bottled water, high speed internet access, and resort bicycles. The resort fee also includes “free self parking” — but I don’t really consider that to be a benefit.
It has been reported by flyertalkers that the hotel gives free breakfast buffets to platinum members… well not anymore. The front desk staff said that they stopped giving out free breakfasts to plats in December, and that they were pretty bummed about it too. The breakfast buffet really is quite excellent — omelet bar, juice bar with watermelon/cantaloupe juice, etc — but I’m not sure that it’s worth the $22 price tag.
The hotel is quite a large property and is situated on a golf course. The fitness center looks to be recently renovated and has all new machines with some spiffy workout software installed on them. The outside common areas have fireplaces at night that one can lounge around at. Being a resort hotel it’s definitely a place that you could spend all day and never have to leave. The rooms are nicely appointed — flat panel televisions with laptop/video hookups.
Unfortunately our first room wasn’t cleaned all that well, or there was a really “hairy” person in there before us, as the bathroom was full of hair. We asked the front desk staff for a new room, and they put us in to a different room without any fuss. The new room was actually bigger than the first so that was a bonus. Check out the video for more details.
Posted 1 year, 7 months ago at 11:15 pm. 3 comments
. Being a resort property, there is a $20 a day “resort fee” which doesn’t really include anything that I would consider a perk, but the front desk will tell you that the resort fee covers the “Pool towels, fruit in the lobby, newpapers, and beach chairs.” Being a resort property that also means no concierge lounge. The hotel also has water sports rentals and rents Jet Skis, kayaks, snorkeling equipment, etc.