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Trip Report Index:
An Orange County Weekend – Introduction
Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach, California – Our Room
Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach, California – Hotel Grounds and Spa
Day 1 in SoCal
Day 2 in SoCal
Back to Kansas
Day 3
Emily Jablon: Daraius arranged for a 2:00 pm checkout and we rented bikes again because we wanted to go on the Huntington Beach pier. Our walk on the pier was great. We saw men fishing, a teenage boy singing a cover of “That’s what makes you beautiful” by One Direction, and lots of shops and eateries along the way.
We also had a great view of the famous Surf City surfers, and I was very impressed at their skills.
There were lots of people on the beach since it was the last day of the Memorial Day weekend.
After walking on the pier, we went to the beach and saw some beach volleyball.
There were tons of people of the beach grilling out and enjoying each other’s company for Memorial Day weekend, and there was a special ceremony honoring the service men and women who died in California. We took a slow pace on our bikes for the return trip to the hotel, wanting to savor every last moment along the boardwalk in Huntington Beach.
After checking out, we went to a taco truck to have some tacos. When we pulled up, there was a line of 8-10 people waiting for tacos, so I thought it must be pretty good. We ordered pork, steak, and chorizo tacos. Daraius also got a ham torta and a Coke.
Daraius: The folks on Chowhound suggested eating at Tacos el Chavito (a food truck) for cheap and tasty tacos. You can’t beat 2 small tacos for $1, but they were delicious. Our food came with a whole jalapeno, radishes and lime. I didn’t like the torta, but the tacos made up for it.
Emily Jablon: We both enjoyed the chorizo tacos so much that we went back for seconds, only this time Daraius wanted the brain tacos (cabeza). I told him I’d stick with my chorizo and he could have all of the brain he wanted! We paid $6 for 8 tacos, 1 tortas and a can of coke.
After enjoying our tacos, we drove to the airport. It was sad leaving beautiful, sunny SoCal, but we are thankful for the memories we made while here.
Daraius: We had a wonderful weekend filled with lots of Big Travel with Small Money! We had a very relaxing time at the Hyatt Regency Resort and Spa in Huntington Beach California. There’s lots to do near the hotel, and we barely scratched the surface during our trip.
This hotel is a top tier category 6 Hyatt and each night costs 22,000 points. Sure, you can use 22,000 points for the really expensive Hyatt hotels in Switzerland, Paris, Italy and the Maldives, but that’s irrelevant if you don’t (or can’t) travel overseas. Miles and points have no value if you don’t use them, so use them to create lots of good memories in ways which make sense to you!
I recently stayed at this hotel for $80 a night on Hotwire. Not a great use of 22,000 points.
Yep, we’ve used our free CC nights here with friends and kiddos 2 yrs. in a row. And to think this was a Cat 4 until a couple years ago. Of course, their room rates were a lot lower as well.
Using better bidding & matching amenities, you can still find some deals for this property on Hotwire, but this hotel dropped off in May & was replaced by The Shoreline as a 4-star Huntington Beach.
@James – The hotel is huge, so I suspect they will try to sell some rooms on Priceline or Hotwire.
I liked your statement about using 22K pts for really expensive hotels in Switzerland, etc but is irrelevant is one can’t travel overseas, etc. We were in Zurich last summer but didin’t use our two nights (from CC signup) for Zurich since it didn’t work out in our trip. We decided to take a car trip through Austria, etc for the week.
Fast forward to this past spring. I was in the hospital in Dec 2011/Jan 2012 with Stage 4 cancer and when I recovered enough to travel (We live in Southern Calif), we had our two Hyatt nights to use up. We spent one night in Huntington Beach and the other in Carlsbad at the Aviara resort. Both very nice hotels!! Not as expensive as Zurich by far!!! But both very nice & well worth the CC signup bonus.
Glad you had a great trip & we both enjoyed your trip report. Alot of people don’t understand why we are points hounds (even reading your blog when I was able to in the hospital & after) but we got alot of nearly free travel from CC signups, etc.
Bottom line: Have lots of fun (especially travel related!!!) while you are in good health & young. Enjoy all the travel thoughout your life. We certainly have & no regrets!!
@avery @avery – I’ve eaten brain before and it is quite tasty!
@chemist661 – Thanks for sharing and very glad that you recovered and are traveling again! We skimp on other expenses so that we have more money to travel and certainly don’t regret it.
So, how were the brain tacos?
“he could have all of the brain he wanted!” pause…..sounds like a great vaca to me