I've admitted this many times and I'm honestly not afraid to say it - my boyfriend and I are insane. Now that I've made that disclaimer, I'll mention that we took a quick weekend trip to San Juan, Puerto Rico in June. We flew out of SFO on Friday night, arrived in San Juan on Saturday morning, hung out for the day, and were back on the plane home on Sunday afternoon to arrive at SFO on Sunday night. Yeah, okay, flying over 7,000 miles for a 24 hour stay is a bit ridiculous. 

That said, it was a really fun trip and it was awesome to visit Puerto Rico for the first time! I love that you don't need a passport, but it absolutely feels like you're in a totally different country. Since we were in town for a very short while, we decided to book a room at the Ritz Carlton San Juan, which is conveniently located very close to the airport (with that, keep in mind that the hotel is actually quite far from Old Town San Juan and necessitates a $25-30 cab ride each way).

Our flight arrived a bit before 10AM, so we arrived at the hotel shortly after. Chris booked our stay through American Express Fine Hotels and Resorts, which offers a 12PM early check-in benefit, so we figured we wouldn't need to wait long for a room. Unfortunately, we were quite wrong. Our room didn't end up being ready until almost 2PM, which was a huge disappointment when we had less than a day to enjoy our mini vacation. The front desk agent offered to hold our bags for us and said that we could use any of the hotel's facilities, but after an overnight red-eye, we really wanted a room to change and leave our things in. Because of the extremely late availability of our room, we were hoping it meant we got a good upgrade for our room (another benefit of AmEx FHR is a complimentary room upgrade). Again, we were wrong. We ended up in a standard king room with no view to speak of except for a small sliver of ocean if you leaned against the glass. Oh well. Since we were in Puerto Rico for 24 hours, we didn't plan to spend much time in the room anyways. 

As I mentioned, our room was a standard king room and, despite this being a Ritz Carlton, which I always associated with the epitome of luxury, it wasn't much different from any other hotel room I've stayed in. The room had a bed, a love seat, and a desk. The bathroom was nice and had double sinks with a separate enclosed toilet area. 

I had the privilege of attending a friend's wedding outside of Tucson, Arizona in May so Chris and I decided to stay at the Westin La Paloma Resort. It was a quite affordable option and the setting was absolutely gorgeous. My family lives in Arizona, but over three hours North of Tucson, so I always seem to forget the fact that Tucson is located right in the middle of the desert. 

The Westin La Paloma Resort is nestled up against the Santa Catalina mountains and almost appears to be a natural part of the desert itself. 

The resort has five pools, a golf course, a spa, and several restaurants (including a swim-up bar). Unlike the city hotels we've been staying at lately, everything is quite spread out - so much so that you can get a guy with a golf cart drive you to your room from the lobby. All parking is in a two-story lot directly in front of the lobby, so if your room is on the other side of the resort, it might be quite the trek if you have a lot of luggage. Luckily, our room wasn't too far, so we passed on the golf cart and headed to our room to hit the pool and relax before the wedding.

The rooms at the La Paloma are quite spacious. All appeared to have an attached patio to enjoy the desert views and a wonderfully large bathroom with double sinks and a separate shower and bath. In addition, our room had a Heavenly king bed, a seating area with a couch, and a desk. The La Paloma underwent a $35 million renovation that was completed in 2013 and the resort was quite nice, but the decor was understated and muted in traditional Westin style, which can be a bit boring.

The weekend after we checked out the Andaz West Hollywood, we returned to SoCal for Memorial Day weekend. Much like the Andaz West Hollywood, the Andaz San Diego had a previous life outside of the Hyatt family. The Andaz San Diego was formerly known as The Ivy Hotel and aimed to offer a "sexy" boutique experience. In some cases, your room came complete with a stripper pole! I'm not quite sure if Hyatt retained those or not, but the hotel vibe was definitely very party-like. The rooftop pool and restaurant turns into a club on the weekends and it was definitely poppin' (more to come on the roof later on).

We upgraded our booking to a one bedroom suite and checked in on Friday night to a room that was sans stripper pole but definitely very chic. The room was very nice and I loved how it was decorated, but I honestly wouldn't call it a "one bedroom" at all. All that separated the bedroom from the rest of the room was a wooden wall in the middle of the room and open on either side. 

The living room had two couches, a desk and chair, a coffee table, a TV mounted on the wall (with another TV mounted on the opposite side of the wall facing the bed), and a small bar area complete with refrigerator, coffee maker, and wine and spirits for purchase. 

Basically the entire right wall of the suite was windows, but disappointingly, our room faced an interior "courtyard" of sorts and if you had the window coverings open, you could see straight in to other rooms and vice versa. In fact, there was actually quite the bachelor party going on in the multi-level suite across the way from us. Cue the first time during our weekend stay that we felt old and boring!

The bathroom had a very interesting design as well. The sink area was only partially enclosed by a glass wall which offered absolutely no privacy at all, but looked cool at least. Luckily, the shower and toilet were enclosed, but only by a frosted glass door. 

The toiletries were a nicer looking version of Hyatt's typical LATHER toiletries.

One of my best friends had a graduation party in May in LA, so Chris and I booked a room at the Andaz West Hollywood for the trip. Chris was in the middle of a Hyatt Diamond Challenge, so he wanted the chance to check out one of Hyatt's more unique properties. Hyatt's Andaz properties are designed as boutique hotels and there are currently only 12 of them located around the world. According to Hyatt's website: 

The Andaz West Hollywood had an awesome location right on Sunset Boulevard and was previously known as the Continental Hyatt House and the Hyatt on Sunset during its heyday, which, according to Wikipedia:

The property was transformed into the Andaz West Hollywood in 2009. It was definitely a unique hotel and a lot of the renovation was tastefully done. However, it was also obvious that the hotel was older and that it had been repurposed from its previous iterations.

Since we drove down from San Francisco on a Friday night (terrible idea), it took ages and we didn't arrive until very late at night. You can look forward to paying $36/night for valet parking if you drive! 

One unique aspect of the Andaz properties is the lack of a traditional front desk. There's an iPad that the staff uses at check-in and that's really it. 

We were upgraded to a one bedroom suite after Chris used one of his Hyatt upgrade certificates from the Diamond Challenge and headed immediately upstairs since it was about 2 AM. 

City Guide: Vancouver, British Columbia
Review: Fairmont Waterfront Vancouver
Review: Shangri-La Hotel Vancouver
Review: YVR Maple Leaf Lounge

American Express Fine Hotels and Resorts

When we visited Vancouver for a weekend back in March, Chris, and I wanted to take advantage of American Express Fine Hotels and Resorts' hotel deals so we stayed one night at one hotel and one night at another. If you've never heard of AmEx FHR, it's an awesome program that you get to take advantage of if you're anAmerican Express Platinum card holder. Since the Platinum card comes with a pretty hefty annual fee ($450), I don't have the card myself, but luckily, Chris does. When you book through FHR, you get the following benefits: 

• Noon check-in upon arrival, when available
  
• Room upgrade upon arrival, when available
  
• Daily breakfast for two people
• 4pm late checkout
  
• Additional special amenity unique to each property, such as a $100 food and beverage credit or a massage for two people

Depending on how often you travel and stay in hotels, this can be an awesome value. Back in March, all of the big Vancouver hotels were having awesome deals, so AmEx FHR's pricing was extremely reasonable as a result. 

Shangri-La Hotel Vancouver

There are really no words to describe how much I loved the Shangri-La hotel. It was, without a doubt, the nicest hotel I have ever stayed at with the nicest room. It was simply amazing! 

We decided to relocate right after breakfast at the Fairmont so that we could drop our stuff off and take advantage of the noon check-in from AmEx FHR. When you walk in from the street-level, you will see a concierge desk to your left and seating to the left and in front of you. Interestingly, you don't check in here, you have to take the elevator down a level to the front desk. Luckily, the concierge noticed the confused looks on our faces and walked us down to the front desk right away. We got our early check-in and were thrilled to hear that we had been upgraded to a one-bedroom suite. I was in Heaven.