I recently stayed at the Park Hyatt Aviara hotel over two different weekends. Once in an Executive Suite, and once in a Park Suite.
I did a little video review of the Hotel, and the Park Deluxe Suite — if you’d like to see the hotel and rooms in a video, check it out here: https://youtu.be/6t0zEuQmM1A
The Park Hyatt Aviara is located in Carlsbad, California — which is about 25 mile north of downtown San Diego. The Park Hyatt Aviara is situated on the top of hill overlooking a huge property, home to ton’s of resort amenities including a golf course designed by Arnold Palmer. In addition to overlooking the golf course, the hotel also overlooks the Batiquitos Lagoon, and the Pacific Ocean (about two miles away).
The main hotel building is 5-stories, has 327 guest rooms and about 40 suites. All of the rooms have balconies, which is nice to enjoy the warm Southern California sun.
Unless you’re planning on just being a “resortist” and never leaving the hotel, I’d advise that you bring your car, or a rental car, because there isn’t much of anything within walking distance. Parking is 100% valet parking — there is no self parking option. That valet service was always quick, prompt, and courteous.
We arrived at the hotel at about 2:30pm — they said our room wasn’t ready, but they gave us a “house key” so that we could wander around the property while we were waiting for our room which would be “guaranteed” to be available at 4pm. Ordinarily 90 minutes would seem like a long time to wait for a room, but there is so much to see and do on this property that the time went by really fast.
When 4pm rolled around and we went back to the front desk to “check-in” again, lo and behold we found they’ve upgraded us to a Park Deluxe Suite. Definitely worth the wait! This room was amazing… but more on the room later.
The Park Hyatt Aviara is home to three main restaurants.. California Bistro for breakfast, and Vivace for dinner. For lunch options, there is a cafe in the swimming pool pool area, the main lobby bar area, and afternoon tea in the lobby as well. Breakfast at California Bistro was a tasty American buffet breakfast, with cooked to order Omelettes, Pancakes, Waffles, and French Toast. As a Hyatt Diamond member, the breakfast was complimentary.
Vivace is an Italian restaurant that has a few different “pre-fixe” menu options. Their specialty is their pasta (made in house every day) and the lobster risotto. The night we were there the restaurant was featuring live music, a classical guitarist. The food here was quite good, but do plan to spend at least 2 hours on your dinner. It’s not quick! Also — there is a dress code, no shorts, sandals, etc.
There are two main swimming pools, a “family” pool, and an “adult” swimming pool for those 21 and up. The adult pool is definitely the cooler looking of the two. The adult pool is situated on the edge of the hilltop overlooking the golf course and lagoon. Two bars flank the sides of the adult pool so that your cup will never be empty!
As a resort hotel, there are tons of other amenities. The Spa has two jacuzzis, a steam room, a sauna, massage, etc, etc, etc. There’s also a tennis complex with about 10 tennis courts, volley ball, lawn bowling, croquet, horse shoes, and more. Use of the tennis complex is free if you’re staying at the hotel, and they also include all the equipment you need to play, including tennis rackets, tennis balls, and complimentary bottles of water. On the golf course, hotel guests also get complimentary use of the putting practice green, and driving range.
Now on to the room: The Park Deluxe Suite is amazing, and huge! It’s 1,100 square feet, with two bathrooms, two closest, two balconies, two televisions… there’s almost two of everything! Hard to describe everything in the room — check out the video to “see” it — thats a lot better! 🙂