July 7, 2025 • 33 mins
The Grand Hyatt Indian Wells Resort offers a family-friendly getaway with luxurious accommodations and impressive water features including a lazy river and water slides. We share our experience staying in a penthouse suite and how we maximized our travel points to make this vacation more affordable.
• Recently renovated property rebranded from Hyatt Regency to Grand Hyatt
• Located 30 minutes from downtown Palm Springs in a quieter resort area
• Upgraded to 875-square-foot penthouse suite with king bed, separate living area, and balcony
• Multiple pool areas including family pool, splash pad, water slides, and a popular lazy river
• Food options include casual Carmocha restaurant, upscale Tia Carmen, and a lobby Starbucks
• Budget tip: bring your own alcohol and mixers for poolside drinks
• Summer visits mean extreme heat (110°F+) but lower rates as it's considered off-peak season
• Now a Category 6 Hyatt property requiring 21,000-29,000 points per night (previously Category 5)
• Reserve pool chairs early in the morning and get a second set when the lazy river opens at 10am
• Restaurant recommendation: Mi Cultura, a delicious Peruvian restaurant nearby
If you ever get any value out of our podcast, please leave us a rating or review wherever you listen. Next week we'll be sharing our experience at the hotel in Oceanside where we had our first real "pinch me" moment in points and miles travel.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you're looking for a family-friendly getaway in
the Palm Springs area, we aresharing a resort today that did
not disappoint, so listen in forour recap of our stay at the
Grand Hyatt Indian Wells.
Hi, I'm Raya.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
And.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
I'm Dwayne, and we are your hosts of the Travel
Party of Five podcast, where weshare how we travel as a family
of five around the world.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
We will also share how we use points and miles to
travel as affordably as possibleand sometimes even completely
free.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
So if you're wanting to travel more with your family
but you're not sure how, we'dlove for you to listen in.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
So welcome to our podcast, where we hope you learn
a thing or two to get youcloser to your next trip.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Hello friends.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Welcome back, hi.
Thanks for tuning in.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
We are fresh off of a full week in California and, in
full transparency, we returnedhome approximately three, four
hours ago.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Yeah, and it is 9pm.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Yes, it's been a long day Six hour drive for Dune,
not for me.
I was co-piloting and doing allthe things placing the grocery
order, like planning the meals,you know.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Posting on.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Posting on Instagram all the things Dealing with the
kids Mom, mom, mom, mom, mom.
But we stayed in two amazinghotels over the last week, and
one we've stayed in before, butthe one we're going to talk
about today was brand new to us,and so that is the grand hyatt
indian wells.
(01:58):
So we're going to share kind ofall the details and all the all
the fun stuff.
So, if this hotel has been onyour radar, we very, very much
recommend it.
Yes, we had a really good time.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
And if you're not familiar with Indian Wells, it's
basically Palm Springs, well,kind of.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
It's like 30 minutes from downtown Palm Springs.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
It's right next door.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Well, I think, like if you want to be like in the
mix in downtown Palm Springs,this is not the property for you
, but I think there is aThompson.
Let me check.
Hold on, yes, it is a Thompson,and the Thompson is smack dab
downtown, according to the map.
So I think if you're going forthat kind of vibe, then stay at
the Thompson.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
But if you have a family and If you want to stay
in the heart of Greater PalmSprings, then you choose Indian
Wells.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
It is.
Indian Wells is literally aseparate town than Palm.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Springs Reading.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
And there's also Palm Desert, which is right there it
says nestled in the heart ofGreater Palm Springs.
That's from the hotel websiteand that's probably to make it
appear as if it's closer to PalmSprings than it is.
It's 30 minutes, guys, 30minutes.
Okay, that's what I need you toknow.
Anyways, okay, this trip weplanned almost a year ago, so I
think like in the fall of lastyear, and then a couple of
(03:20):
months ago my sister had textedand was like, what are you guys
doing for the fourth of July?
And I'm like, well, we're goingto Palm Springs and then
Oceanside, california.
And she was like, well, can Itag along?
And I'm like sure so.
And my parents were alsosupposed to come and they have a
little RV that not RV, but likea camper van that my dad has
(03:42):
fully renovated and put in likea bed and a shower and a kitchen
and all that.
What is?
What kind of van is it?
Speaker 2 (03:47):
he didn't renovate it .
He built it from the groundwell, yeah, okay, yeah, they
bought a van, an empty van, andyour dad.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Yes, that's true yes, he did, and it's nice, af, it
is nice.
Yes, it's perfect for the twoof them.
They tool around the country init.
They are currently in new york.
They have driven that thing toto new york and back the country
and they're currently in NewYork.
They have driven that thing toNew York and back multiple times
and they were supposed to comeand camp kind of both in Palm
Springs and in Oceanside, butthat part didn't end up
happening.
But my sister did come and sowhen I knew that she was coming
(04:19):
she was like I'll, you know, getanother room or whatever.
But I was like that's going tobe really expensive because she
doesn't have the points that wehave, she's 31.
She doesn't have a ton of spendand so she does have a Chase
Sapphire preferred card, butthat's her only credit card
because she can't meet theminimum spend for most cards.
So I knew we needed more roomwithout getting another room,
(04:44):
because I wasn't going to givemore points, because we also
don't have very many points, butfor a different reason.
And so I kind of gambled alittle bit with the Palm Springs
and kind of hoped for anupgrade, and I used a suite
upgrade award for our stay inOceanside and we'll talk about
that next week because we won'thave time to do both today.
(05:05):
But we ended up getting a suiteat the Grand Hyatt, which was
fan.
It was amazing.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Amazing, it was the penthouse suite.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Well, it was a penthouse suite, a penthouse
suite, but still penthouse suiteTop flow.
Yeah, so I get the feeling theyhave quite a few of these suites
because they definitely didthat whole floor, I think yeah,
when we were on our very largebalcony, there were quite a few
other very large balconies, so Ihad been checking in the app,
(05:38):
like leading up to the day wechecked in, and they have both
what's called a penthouse suiteand a champions suite and both
of those were showingavailability and so what's a
champion suite look like okay,let's talk about that one first.
So the champion suite isactually bigger than the
penthouse suite, so it's 1100square feet.
(06:01):
Bed, separate living space witha sleeper sofa, two full
bathrooms and dual privatebalconies.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
A full-size refrigerator.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Oh yeah, it does say that Full-size fridge and
microwave.
Yeah, this is definitely alittle bigger than what we had.
Oh yeah, look, there's like aseating area.
So that was one of the suitesavailable.
And then they also had apenthouse suite, so the
penthouse suite is 875 squarefeet.
Again, king bed, separateliving and dining rooms.
(06:32):
They had a half bath plus afull bath, so that's one of the
big differences.
And, again, a huge balcony, andso that's the one that we got.
It was plenty of space for sixof us.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
It was a beautiful, beautiful room.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
We had a pool view so we could see, like the whole
resort pool, the mountains.
It was stunning.
I was super impressed.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Was highly impressed.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
We did request a rollaway for my sister and she
slept on that and the kids slepton the pull-out sofa bed and we
obviously slept in the king bed.
Yeah, it was.
Yes, it was incredible.
I um have a video of it oninstagram.
I have a highlight that sayspalm springs, indian.
Well, so if you want to seewhat the room looked like, you
can go and check that out.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yes, so this is top three rooms we've stayed in.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
One being the Oceanside, which we'll get into
next week.
Yes, this is number two on mylist, and number three would be
the room in.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Barcelona, the Grand High of Barcelona.
Yeah, because this one wasreally nice and had the view and
Grand High of Barcelona.
We didn't have like.
I mean, we had a view but itwas like not a yeah, it wasn't a
very good view and Grand Highat Barcelona.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
we didn't have like, I mean we had a view, but it was
like not a yeah, it wasn't avery good view.
I mean the room itself was, Imean the bathroom was.
It was incredible, yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
So, anyways, plenty of room.
The room that I had booked wasjust a regular king bed plus
sofa bed room, and we wereupgraded.
Because of my globalist status,I did email the hotel
beforehand and let them know wewere celebrating Dwayne's
birthday, um, and so they didalso have a little um amenity
(08:12):
kit in the room a littlechocolate cake, some champagne
and a little card, which wasvery nice, very nice.
And they, they did upgrade us,obviously, so that was also
fantastic.
Um, so that was also fantastic.
Let's talk about you.
Want to talk about the foodfirst?
Sure, so we ate on property afew times, yes, we ate at the
(08:33):
restaurant.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Well, what was the restaurant called Carmoca?
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Carmoca.
Yeah, we had dinner there twice, yes, I thought the food was
great.
It was pretty good.
Yes, the appetizers wereexcellent and I thought the main
well, some of the main entreeswere okay and some were really
good.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Yes, entrees I mean appetizers were definitely yes.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
The ceviche, which I did not expect in the desert.
The ceviche was very good.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Very good.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
You are going to pay regular resort pricing full
disclosure.
Yes, it was expensive.
Exp going to pay regular resortpricing full disclosure.
Yes, it was expensive,expensive, um, but again the
food was good.
The other restaurant they havefor dinner is called tia carmen.
That's like a fancy.
So car mocha is more like a barkind of casual vibe and tia
carmen is more upscale, kind offancy.
We did not go there for dinner,uh, number one we didn't want
(09:23):
to spend the money and numbertwo, we didn't have nice clothes
.
Yeah, we weren't really therefor like a fancy vacation, so
but for breakfast we did eat atTia Carmen.
So the breakfast is also servedat Tia Carmen.
They have a buffet.
They really don't have a menuyou can order off of, it's just
(09:44):
the buffet Buffet.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
They really don't have a menu you can order off of
, it's just the buffet.
Well, I think, because theywere offering the buffet, they
didn't offer the, the menu.
The menu, oh well, because whenwe checked in, the guy was like
um no, I don't think they havea buffet, it's, you know, a la
carte, you know.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
You don't remember that?
I guess kind of I do.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Which I thought was weird, Like them not having a
regular menu even though theyhad the buffet.
It was kind of weird.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
It was kind of weird and the buffet was expensive, so
it was $39 for adults.
I don't remember the kid price,but they, so some hotels.
Obviously we have six people,so like I wasn't expecting them
to cover all of it, but I wasmaybe hoping they were sticklers
for the two adults, two kidsbeing covered with my status and
(10:32):
not a penny more, which is fine, like those are the rules and I
get it.
There was one day where theydid not charge us for our five
year olds buffet and there was,but the other two days they did.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
So whatever they said , I think the first day we had
that really cool oldergentleman's server.
Yeah, that's why he wasprobably like you know.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Or he was like I don't know how old that kid is,
I think it was, but it was underfour, so four and above you
paid, and under four, so threeand below was free.
She could pass for four, butshe definitely can't pass for
three, so we just paid it andwhatever.
Um, and yeah, we paid for mysisters too, because the buffet
(11:16):
was okay it was okay.
It was not my favorite.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
They didn't change it up.
We ate it.
What?
Speaker 1 (11:21):
three times yes, it was the same exact thing every
day every time they have tresleches french toast, which
sounds good but was not thatgood.
They had silver dollar pancakesbacon sausage watery scrambled
eggs green chili pork they did,yes, that was very good yes and
then they also had burrito yeahbut the green chili pork.
(11:44):
It was very good, but it's notsomething I want to eat for
breakfast.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Yeah, it's very, very heavy it was really good and
you know they have the cerealbagels, yogurt.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
They do.
Yeah, they do have a littlelike.
They have a Starbucks basicallyin the lobby as well that has
grab-and-go items.
So if you wanted to do more oflike a grab-and-go option versus
the full buffet, that would bean option for you.
We got Starbucks there everyday.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
I mean, was it really Starbucks?
I mean it was.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
They had all the Starbucks breakfast sandwiches.
The sizes were venti grandeball ball.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
My mocha wasn't very good.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Yeah, I will say, my cold brew lacked the
deliciousness of our usualStarbucks, and our usual
Starbucks isn't even that good.
So, but anyways, that's anoption if you.
If you just want like grab andgo.
And then the other place we atewas the pool bar, so they have
like, obviously, regular poolbar serves drinks, snacks,
(12:42):
whatever.
We had Uncrustables for thekids for two of our three
lunches, but we did get themlunch from the pool one day to
kind of break it up a little bit.
It was fine, your basic poolfood, nothing fancy, expensive.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Drinks are ridiculously expensive.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
So we overspent on our trip to Lake Tahoe and
Yosemite.
We went over our budget, so wewere really trying to come in
below budget this time, and sowe brought our own tequila and
like mixers.
Why don't you tell them aboutthe drink that we've been making
?
Because it's really quite good,and so I don't like drinks that
(13:22):
taste too alcoholy.
I don't like them very strong.
This is very good.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Yeah, so it's just coconut tequila um grapefruit
fresca and a little splash oflime, and it's refreshing and
tasty it's the perfect pooldrink perfect summer pool drink
saves you a bunch of money.
I mean drinks.
You're paying 18 dollars adrink, you know?
Speaker 1 (13:47):
I mean like we paid 19 for the whole bottle of
tequila yeah, you know, I meanlike 1800 coconut tequila and we
made probably 10 drinks maybe Ithink more than 10 oh
maybe definitely more than 10,because I had like two or three.
Most days I had one to two.
(14:08):
There was one day I had threeand you had at least three.
Yes, so we probably made a good15 to 20 drinks, I would say
but totally worth it to bringyour own, just don't get caught
yeah, we had a little coolerbackpack that we brought in.
No one said a word and we justmade sure to order, like, first
of all, we use the same cupsthat they have there, and then
(14:32):
we made sure to order some foodfrom the server throughout the
day.
You know to, yeah, avoidsuspicion.
You know, sometimes the servers.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
They get it, they.
They understand the drinks areexpensive, but they're also
trying to make money.
So yes, if you order some foodfor them and one guy asked you
if you needed ice.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
He was like do you need anything else?
Do you need some ice?
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Yeah, so you know, sometimes people are cool.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Yeah, so, okay, a few things to note.
So it is middle of summer andthis property is in the desert.
So, before we get into the restof the amenities and stuff,
this is very similar weather towhat we experience in phoenix
during the summer so 110,sometimes more super dry, very,
very hot days.
(15:15):
So the hotel is like this isoff peak for this hotel and when
we talked to one of therestaurant servers she mentioned
that they were pretty busy thisweekend or that week that we
were there and and they were atabout 50 occupancy and you know,
for being summer and off season, that was fairly busy, I guess
(15:37):
I mean it was.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
I mean everyone goes there for the pool.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
The pool there is, it's fantastic yeah, I just so
before we talk about the like,if you're planning a trip here,
a better time might be likeMarch, april or May or maybe
like October Starting likeDecember.
January are going to be thecoldest months.
(16:00):
I think people think that youcan.
Oh, it's warm and I can gothere, you know, in December and
it'll be sunny and I can gothere, you know, in December and
it'll be sunny.
The highs during the day mightbe like 70 in December, january,
but the overnight temps aregoing to be in the 30s or 40s.
It's a big difference andthat's going to be.
The temperature of the pool iswhatever the low is for the most
(16:22):
part.
I don't know if the pools areheated, so just keep that in
mind if you're planning a tripand if you are going to go in
the summer, just electrolytesfor sure for you and your kids.
Drink a lot of water and Iwould plan to spend most of your
time at the pool.
That's the only thing thatmakes the temperature bearable,
I think.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Again, I mean we talked about this earlier.
I disagree.
I would think that summertimeis a great time for this hotel,
because I mean, we talked aboutthis earlier.
I disagree.
I would think that summertimeis a great time for this hotel
because I mean, like I said, theamenities are great.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
They are great, but I just want people to be aware
that if you're planning to go inthe summer, I wouldn't go
hiking.
There are some things to do inPalm Springs.
There's like the Living Desertand there's some kind of tram
you can take.
We didn't do any of thatbecause it's hot AF.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Yeah, I mean, we spent all day, every day, at the
pool, at the pool, yeah, and Ihad not one problem.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
No, not at all.
But I'm just like, if you'replanning a trip there and you
want to do other things, summeris probably not the time.
No, and I mean like we onlyleft the hotel once to go to
dinner because it was so hot.
So like we ate at the hotelbecause we didn't want to leave,
because it was so hot, soanyways.
Okay, let's talk about thepools.
(17:44):
So there is like a main pool.
It's actually two pools thatare.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
I mean, there's sections.
There's like the first sectionsfor families.
It consists of like four, threepools, a splash pad, a little
water slide for toddlers Well,not toddlers, but little kids
Plenty of seats, yep.
They also have a lazy riverwith two pretty good water
(18:15):
slides.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
The water slides don't go into the lazy river,
but they're right above it.
No, yes.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
And you can swim in the pool where the slides take
you.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Yes, and the lazy river was the hit.
Take you, yeah, yes, and theLazy River was the hit.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
The Lazy River was money.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
We spent so much time just floating around in that.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Floating around, I had my speaker.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Dwayne.
Dwayne is one of those peoplethat brings his own music
wherever he goes.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
I am no shame, no shame.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
And my sister is all about it.
Yep Good music.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
You know what I mean.
And they also have an adultpoll 18 and over.
Oh my God, did you not?
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Yeah, it's 18 and over what was that On the other
side of the.
Oh well, sorry, we couldn't gothere, so I guess I blocked that
out.
They have an 18 and over.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Matter of fact, there's one review right there
that says the Oasis adult poolhad servers that kept the drinks
coming.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Oh yeah, it does say that, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
So yeah, if you don't come here with kids, there's a
pool for you where you don'thave to listen to all the racket
from all the freaking kidsrunning around and the splashing
, oh the splashing.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
We're constantly trying to get our kids to be
aware of who they're splashing,Other people not so much.
Yeah, other people don't dothat, but we try.
The Lazy River was my favoritepart of the pool.
It's pretty fast moving and,yeah, it was just like in the
morning I was literally on atube with my coffee, like my
iced coffee, and then later inthe day a little coconut tequila
(19:57):
drink.
It was great, super relaxing.
It was a super, super fun time.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Again, we didn't leave the pool.
First of all, I would go downat like 7.30, reserve some seats
, yes, and then we'd go tobreakfast, then we'd go to the
pool, and then we were thereuntil at least 3, 4 pm.
Yeah, every day.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
And I mean.
Something to note about ourkids is they can go pretty hard
Like.
Other people will be like, oh,like, little Johnny swam for two
hours and he's going to sleepso good.
Not our kids, no, no, they cango for eight hours, sometimes
more, and they will still be upuntil 9 or 10 pm if we let them.
Yeah, so like.
(20:47):
And our kids are used to thisheat also.
So I think, something to noteif you're not used to the heat,
you'd probably want to take abreak in the middle of the day.
Um, also, one of our kids wasnot feeling super.
Actually, she was feeling fine,but she had a little fever, and
so I was giving her medicineand trying to let her not steal
a trooper and oh yeah, I waslike do you?
(21:08):
want to go back to the room andlay down nope, nope, nope, nope.
So I just gave her someibuprofen and made sure she
wasn't, didn't have a fever andshe was literally fine by the
next day.
So it's just a weird little bug, I guess.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
So a tip from me.
So the lazy river in the slidezone opened up until 10.
The regular pool opens up at 7.
So again, what we did wasreserved some seats by the main
pool at like 7.30.
, went and got breakfast, gotback to the pool around you know
930, and then waited in linefor them to open up the lazy
(21:50):
river and the water slides andthen reserve some seats in that
little area.
So we basically had twosections of seats reserved,
which was key.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
It was really helpful because our kids kept bouncing
back and forth between all thedifferent areas and our two boys
I don't worry so much about ifI don't see them every second,
as long as I can lay eyes onthem, like every 1520 minutes,
like they're pretty strongswimmers and I feel okay about
it.
But our daughter is this is herfirst summer where she's like
(22:20):
fully swimming and so it waslike wherever she wanted to be,
we one of us had to be, so itwas nice to be able to have a
spot kind of in both areas to goback and forth between and like
the.
The hotel wasn't, there was agood amount of people there, but
it wasn't so busy that therewere no chairs, so that worked
(22:42):
out really well well, there's acouple of days there were there
were no chairs in the lazy riverarea.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Oh really, because I mean people, that's spot to be
yeah I guess.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
well, I mean also we, we only had a couple chairs and
there's six of us, so I feel Ithink in total we had six chairs
saved, just in two differentareas.
Yes, so, but yes, that is, Ithink, a good tip if you're
going to go, because you can'tsee the lazy river from the
other pool and vice versa.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
No, you cannot, and wear shoes because it's hot.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Oh my God, and wear shoes because it's hot.
Oh my God, the floor, the floorwas hot, Like why they put this
floor, whatever tile orwhatever it is in the desert
Like I will never understand.
It is 2025, and I feel like wehave the technology where it
cannot be so hot, but like youhad to wear your shoes because
(23:40):
you couldn't walk on it, it wasnot good.
I will say the water slideshere were really fun yeah, they,
they were legit we all wentdown them multiple times.
They were not too crazy to whereyou don't want to go down it
again, but they were fun enoughto where it was like whoa.
Even I went down it like fivetimes and normally like I'll try
(24:05):
it, but then I'm usually likenah.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Did you go down the slide at the Grand?
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Absolutely not.
No, those were like, no, like Iprobably would have died.
I would have had like some kindof water burn.
Those were way too crazy for me.
Anywho, these were fun, fun,yeah.
Um, okay, let's see, weventured out of the hotel one
night for dinner.
The concierge recommended thisshopping area called el paseo.
(24:35):
Right, yeah, and he was like,yeah, they have all kinds of
food there, like italian,mexican, like whatever you want.
So we go there and we'redriving around and it's the kind
of place where you gotta parkand get out and kind of walk
through it all.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Yeah, it was like a outside mall yeah, but again
it's 110 degrees.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
So we were like we were looking stuff up on our
phones and all the restaurantswere like three to four dollar
signs on google and yelp soexpensive.
And again we were trying toleave the hotel to save money,
not to spend as much money as wecould have spent at the hotel.
So we eventually decided onthis Peruvian restaurant.
(25:12):
What was the name of it?
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Mi Cotora.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
It was really really good, Super low key, but they
had like four and a half plusstars on Google and Yelp and it
was delicious and driving thereit was like a ghost town.
There was not a single personinside.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
We didn't see a single person driving Like we
were, literally like what ishappening, but when we get to
this restaurant, there was, youknow, not a lot of people, but
there was like eight people inthis restaurant which you know,
a lot of people, but there waslike eight people in this
restaurant which you know,that's eight more people than we
we saw on the whole drive and Ithought, well, this is the
place.
To be sure enough, we sat downand more people started showing
(25:52):
up.
So it was very good.
We knew we picked the rightspot, yeah, and the food was
really good would absolutelyrecommend yes empanadas were
great.
I had had the pork belly, whichwas fire, or, as the kids would
say, slaps.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Gas Gas.
I had the lomo saltado, whichis like steak basically, and
fries and rice, and our kids allhad that too and it was very
good.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Oh, and the plantains were good.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
Oh, sweet plantainsains.
No, can't go wrong with thoseyeah, definitely recommend that
spot yeah, it was really good.
Um what else gosh?
oh really, we just stay at thehotel the whole time which I
feel like very well, thatqualifies us to give this review
right like we fully enjoyed allthe activities the hotel had
(26:44):
available.
Oh, they also had, like theyhad a little calendar of events
of what was going on, and one ofthe things that they have on
there is they do water slideraces and it's at different
times throughout the day, butbasically you, whatever the time
is, you go up and you racesomeone down because there's two
slides so I thought it wasgoing to be like racing.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Racing where like, okay, you won this one, you're
going to go up against you know,this guy next.
But no, it's just, you just won, race against whoever you want,
which in my case was my kid andI won, thinking that I was
gonna you know, move on, move onup.
But no, they're like, oh, youwant, okay, here's, take this to
(27:28):
the.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
You know the little they give you a little paper and
you take it to the towel barand you get your little prize.
And the kids were like theseprizes are cheap.
And I'm like, what did youexpect?
Of course they're cheap, yes,so uh, but they had other like
fun little things too, like Ithink there was a kid's craft
and it was different every dayyeah, there was a movie night.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
We didn't make, yes, movie night, yeah so.
And then, for some reason, thepool was open till 10 on
thursday.
So every night the lazy riverand the water slides, that
little section of the poolclosed at seven every day,
except for thursday it was opentill 10.
Maybe that was a moving night.
That was the glow party.
(28:09):
Well it, it said every thursday, oh everything, I mean, it just
said thursday.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
oh well, they must have do some kind of event there
every every time then.
Um, okay, let's talk aboutquickly how we booked this.
So this is a currently acategory six hotel.
When I booked it it was acategory five, so in March,
every March, hyatt does awardcategory changes for some of
their properties, and this wentfrom a five to a six.
(28:35):
Not really a surprise, becausethis used to be the Hyatt
Regency Indian Wells and theyrecently underwent a pretty big
remodel and now it has rebrandedas the Grand Hyatt Indian Wells
.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
And I mean the hotel was beautiful.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
It was beautiful.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
The grounds, the actual, you know, the lobby.
Yeah everything was reallyreally nice.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
Yeah, and so now it's a category six.
So we paid 17,000 points anight when we booked it and we
stayed three nights, but again,it is now a category six.
So that puts it at what is that?
21 to 25, 21 to 29,000 points anight.
(29:19):
Now if, again, if you, if youwant to go in the summer, that's
definitely going to be off peak, so you could stay two or three
nights for around 63,000 pointsand I think that is worth it.
So again, we got upgraded to asuite because of my globalist
status.
If you don't have globaliststatus and you want to try to
(29:40):
get an upgrade, you basicallyhave two options.
The way that I see it.
Number one is you can.
There are Facebook groups wherepeople gift Hyatt awards and
you can go in there and maybetry to trade something you have,
like a club access award orsomething for a sweet upgrade
award.
Just depends what other peopleare looking for award.
(30:04):
Just depends what other peopleare looking for as to kind of
what kind of trade they'll take.
Or they also sell like guest ofhonor and suite upgrade awards
on ebay.
I've never bought onepersonally, um, and I I think
there's maybe a little bit ofrisk involved in it, but I would
buy one I had no idea that.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Who sells them on ebay?
Just people.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
Like other globalists who aren't going to be able to
use it, so they'll just try toget some money out of it, yeah.
So again, I've never done thatand proceed with caution, but I
am not opposed to doing that ifit made sense.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
I mean, how many points was the suite we had?
Speaker 1 (30:40):
I think you can book a suite for 40,000 points a
night currently.
Let me see, I'll tell you rightnow, which is a lot more than
it is a lot more.
Yeah, I mean, I guess, yeah, soI guess really, you have three
options if you want the suite.
One, book it with points.
Two, try to trade for a suiteupgrade award and apply it.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Or three, buy one on ebay oh 36 000 uh, oh, yeah,
well, okay, yes, off peak, so 36to 40 000 ish points yeah so I
mean if you have some pointsyou're trying to blow off yeah,
(31:21):
if you were gonna fly in, youwould fly into Palm Springs.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
My sister actually flew from Florida into the Palm
Springs airport and we pickedher up in downtown Palm Springs
Um, so that's like the closestairport Um Palm Springs is.
It was about a four hour drivefrom Phoenix.
So if you are planning to dothe drive, just keep in mind
it's about four hours fromPhoenix and it was about two ish
(31:47):
hours from, like, san DiegoOceanside area.
Carl's bad, um, what else?
Anything else about theproperty?
Speaker 2 (31:57):
I think we covered pretty much everything.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Yeah, again, um, if you want to kind of see any of
the stuff that we're talkingabout, I have a whole highlight
on Instagram.
You can go and check it out attravel party of five.
If you have questions, send mea DM.
I answer every single one.
Um, and if you ever get anyvalue out of our podcast, please
leave us a rating or reviewwherever you listen, cause we
would greatly appreciate it, aswe record this at 9 30 pm now.
(32:23):
Yes, we appreciate you thank youthank you for listening so much
and we will catch you next week.
Where?
Next week?
I just am so excited to tellyou that I had like my first
real pinch me moment in pointsand miles because we got this
incredible, sweet upgrade at thehotel in Oceanside that I like
(32:46):
was in.
I'm still in awe thinking aboutit.
It was incredible and I cannotwait to tell you about it next
week.
So make sure you listen intothat one.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Yes, have a good one.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
Okay.
If you're looking for a family-friendly getaway in
the Palm Springs area, we aresharing a resort today that did
not disappoint, so listen in forour recap of our stay at the
Grand Hyatt Indian Wells.
Hi, I'm Raya.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
And.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
I'm Dwayne, and we are your hosts of the Travel
Party of Five podcast, where weshare how we travel as a family
of five around the world.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
We will also share how we use points and miles to
travel as affordably as possibleand sometimes even completely
free.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
So if you're wanting to travel more with your family
but you're not sure how, we'dlove for you to listen in.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
So welcome to our podcast, where we hope you learn
a thing or two to get youcloser to your next trip.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Hello friends.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Welcome back, hi.
Thanks for tuning in.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
We are fresh off of a full week in California and, in
full transparency, we returnedhome approximately three, four
hours ago.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Yeah, and it is 9pm.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Yes, it's been a long day Six hour drive for Dune,
not for me.
I was co-piloting and doing allthe things placing the grocery
order, like planning the meals,you know.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Posting on.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Posting on Instagram all the things Dealing with the
kids Mom, mom, mom, mom, mom.
But we stayed in two amazinghotels over the last week, and
one we've stayed in before, butthe one we're going to talk
about today was brand new to us,and so that is the grand hyatt
indian wells.
(01:58):
So we're going to share kind ofall the details and all the all
the fun stuff.
So, if this hotel has been onyour radar, we very, very much
recommend it.
Yes, we had a really good time.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
And if you're not familiar with Indian Wells, it's
basically Palm Springs, well,kind of.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
It's like 30 minutes from downtown Palm Springs.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
It's right next door.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Well, I think, like if you want to be like in the
mix in downtown Palm Springs,this is not the property for you
, but I think there is aThompson.
Let me check.
Hold on, yes, it is a Thompson,and the Thompson is smack dab
downtown, according to the map.
So I think if you're going forthat kind of vibe, then stay at
the Thompson.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
But if you have a family and If you want to stay
in the heart of Greater PalmSprings, then you choose Indian
Wells.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
It is.
Indian Wells is literally aseparate town than Palm.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Springs Reading.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
And there's also Palm Desert, which is right there it
says nestled in the heart ofGreater Palm Springs.
That's from the hotel websiteand that's probably to make it
appear as if it's closer to PalmSprings than it is.
It's 30 minutes, guys, 30minutes.
Okay, that's what I need you toknow.
Anyways, okay, this trip weplanned almost a year ago, so I
think like in the fall of lastyear, and then a couple of
(03:20):
months ago my sister had textedand was like, what are you guys
doing for the fourth of July?
And I'm like, well, we're goingto Palm Springs and then
Oceanside, california.
And she was like, well, can Itag along?
And I'm like sure so.
And my parents were alsosupposed to come and they have a
little RV that not RV, but likea camper van that my dad has
(03:42):
fully renovated and put in likea bed and a shower and a kitchen
and all that.
What is?
What kind of van is it?
Speaker 2 (03:47):
he didn't renovate it .
He built it from the groundwell, yeah, okay, yeah, they
bought a van, an empty van, andyour dad.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Yes, that's true yes, he did, and it's nice, af, it
is nice.
Yes, it's perfect for the twoof them.
They tool around the country init.
They are currently in new york.
They have driven that thing toto new york and back the country
and they're currently in NewYork.
They have driven that thing toNew York and back multiple times
and they were supposed to comeand camp kind of both in Palm
Springs and in Oceanside, butthat part didn't end up
happening.
But my sister did come and sowhen I knew that she was coming
(04:19):
she was like I'll, you know, getanother room or whatever.
But I was like that's going tobe really expensive because she
doesn't have the points that wehave, she's 31.
She doesn't have a ton of spendand so she does have a Chase
Sapphire preferred card, butthat's her only credit card
because she can't meet theminimum spend for most cards.
So I knew we needed more roomwithout getting another room,
(04:44):
because I wasn't going to givemore points, because we also
don't have very many points, butfor a different reason.
And so I kind of gambled alittle bit with the Palm Springs
and kind of hoped for anupgrade, and I used a suite
upgrade award for our stay inOceanside and we'll talk about
that next week because we won'thave time to do both today.
(05:05):
But we ended up getting a suiteat the Grand Hyatt, which was
fan.
It was amazing.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Amazing, it was the penthouse suite.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Well, it was a penthouse suite, a penthouse
suite, but still penthouse suiteTop flow.
Yeah, so I get the feeling theyhave quite a few of these suites
because they definitely didthat whole floor, I think yeah,
when we were on our very largebalcony, there were quite a few
other very large balconies, so Ihad been checking in the app,
(05:38):
like leading up to the day wechecked in, and they have both
what's called a penthouse suiteand a champions suite and both
of those were showingavailability and so what's a
champion suite look like okay,let's talk about that one first.
So the champion suite isactually bigger than the
penthouse suite, so it's 1100square feet.
(06:01):
Bed, separate living space witha sleeper sofa, two full
bathrooms and dual privatebalconies.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
A full-size refrigerator.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Oh yeah, it does say that Full-size fridge and
microwave.
Yeah, this is definitely alittle bigger than what we had.
Oh yeah, look, there's like aseating area.
So that was one of the suitesavailable.
And then they also had apenthouse suite, so the
penthouse suite is 875 squarefeet.
Again, king bed, separateliving and dining rooms.
(06:32):
They had a half bath plus afull bath, so that's one of the
big differences.
And, again, a huge balcony, andso that's the one that we got.
It was plenty of space for sixof us.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
It was a beautiful, beautiful room.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
We had a pool view so we could see, like the whole
resort pool, the mountains.
It was stunning.
I was super impressed.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Was highly impressed.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
We did request a rollaway for my sister and she
slept on that and the kids slepton the pull-out sofa bed and we
obviously slept in the king bed.
Yeah, it was.
Yes, it was incredible.
I um have a video of it oninstagram.
I have a highlight that sayspalm springs, indian.
Well, so if you want to seewhat the room looked like, you
can go and check that out.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yes, so this is top three rooms we've stayed in.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
One being the Oceanside, which we'll get into
next week.
Yes, this is number two on mylist, and number three would be
the room in.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Barcelona, the Grand High of Barcelona.
Yeah, because this one wasreally nice and had the view and
Grand High of Barcelona.
We didn't have like.
I mean, we had a view but itwas like not a yeah, it wasn't a
very good view and Grand Highat Barcelona.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
we didn't have like, I mean we had a view, but it was
like not a yeah, it wasn't avery good view.
I mean the room itself was, Imean the bathroom was.
It was incredible, yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
So, anyways, plenty of room.
The room that I had booked wasjust a regular king bed plus
sofa bed room, and we wereupgraded.
Because of my globalist status,I did email the hotel
beforehand and let them know wewere celebrating Dwayne's
birthday, um, and so they didalso have a little um amenity
(08:12):
kit in the room a littlechocolate cake, some champagne
and a little card, which wasvery nice, very nice.
And they, they did upgrade us,obviously, so that was also
fantastic.
Um, so that was also fantastic.
Let's talk about you.
Want to talk about the foodfirst?
Sure, so we ate on property afew times, yes, we ate at the
(08:33):
restaurant.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Well, what was the restaurant called Carmoca?
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Carmoca.
Yeah, we had dinner there twice, yes, I thought the food was
great.
It was pretty good.
Yes, the appetizers wereexcellent and I thought the main
well, some of the main entreeswere okay and some were really
good.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Yes, entrees I mean appetizers were definitely yes.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
The ceviche, which I did not expect in the desert.
The ceviche was very good.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Very good.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
You are going to pay regular resort pricing full
disclosure.
Yes, it was expensive.
Exp going to pay regular resortpricing full disclosure.
Yes, it was expensive,expensive, um, but again the
food was good.
The other restaurant they havefor dinner is called tia carmen.
That's like a fancy.
So car mocha is more like a barkind of casual vibe and tia
carmen is more upscale, kind offancy.
We did not go there for dinner,uh, number one we didn't want
(09:23):
to spend the money and numbertwo, we didn't have nice clothes
.
Yeah, we weren't really therefor like a fancy vacation, so
but for breakfast we did eat atTia Carmen.
So the breakfast is also servedat Tia Carmen.
They have a buffet.
They really don't have a menuyou can order off of, it's just
(09:44):
the buffet Buffet.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
They really don't have a menu you can order off of
, it's just the buffet.
Well, I think, because theywere offering the buffet, they
didn't offer the, the menu.
The menu, oh well, because whenwe checked in, the guy was like
um no, I don't think they havea buffet, it's, you know, a la
carte, you know.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
You don't remember that?
I guess kind of I do.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Which I thought was weird, Like them not having a
regular menu even though theyhad the buffet.
It was kind of weird.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
It was kind of weird and the buffet was expensive, so
it was $39 for adults.
I don't remember the kid price,but they, so some hotels.
Obviously we have six people,so like I wasn't expecting them
to cover all of it, but I wasmaybe hoping they were sticklers
for the two adults, two kidsbeing covered with my status and
(10:32):
not a penny more, which is fine, like those are the rules and I
get it.
There was one day where theydid not charge us for our five
year olds buffet and there was,but the other two days they did.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
So whatever they said , I think the first day we had
that really cool oldergentleman's server.
Yeah, that's why he wasprobably like you know.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Or he was like I don't know how old that kid is,
I think it was, but it was underfour, so four and above you
paid, and under four, so threeand below was free.
She could pass for four, butshe definitely can't pass for
three, so we just paid it andwhatever.
Um, and yeah, we paid for mysisters too, because the buffet
(11:16):
was okay it was okay.
It was not my favorite.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
They didn't change it up.
We ate it.
What?
Speaker 1 (11:21):
three times yes, it was the same exact thing every
day every time they have tresleches french toast, which
sounds good but was not thatgood.
They had silver dollar pancakesbacon sausage watery scrambled
eggs green chili pork they did,yes, that was very good yes and
then they also had burrito yeahbut the green chili pork.
(11:44):
It was very good, but it's notsomething I want to eat for
breakfast.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Yeah, it's very, very heavy it was really good and
you know they have the cerealbagels, yogurt.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
They do.
Yeah, they do have a littlelike.
They have a Starbucks basicallyin the lobby as well that has
grab-and-go items.
So if you wanted to do more oflike a grab-and-go option versus
the full buffet, that would bean option for you.
We got Starbucks there everyday.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
I mean, was it really Starbucks?
I mean it was.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
They had all the Starbucks breakfast sandwiches.
The sizes were venti grandeball ball.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
My mocha wasn't very good.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Yeah, I will say, my cold brew lacked the
deliciousness of our usualStarbucks, and our usual
Starbucks isn't even that good.
So, but anyways, that's anoption if you.
If you just want like grab andgo.
And then the other place we atewas the pool bar, so they have
like, obviously, regular poolbar serves drinks, snacks,
(12:42):
whatever.
We had Uncrustables for thekids for two of our three
lunches, but we did get themlunch from the pool one day to
kind of break it up a little bit.
It was fine, your basic poolfood, nothing fancy, expensive.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Drinks are ridiculously expensive.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
So we overspent on our trip to Lake Tahoe and
Yosemite.
We went over our budget, so wewere really trying to come in
below budget this time, and sowe brought our own tequila and
like mixers.
Why don't you tell them aboutthe drink that we've been making
?
Because it's really quite good,and so I don't like drinks that
(13:22):
taste too alcoholy.
I don't like them very strong.
This is very good.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Yeah, so it's just coconut tequila um grapefruit
fresca and a little splash oflime, and it's refreshing and
tasty it's the perfect pooldrink perfect summer pool drink
saves you a bunch of money.
I mean drinks.
You're paying 18 dollars adrink, you know?
Speaker 1 (13:47):
I mean like we paid 19 for the whole bottle of
tequila yeah, you know, I meanlike 1800 coconut tequila and we
made probably 10 drinks maybe Ithink more than 10 oh
maybe definitely more than 10,because I had like two or three.
Most days I had one to two.
(14:08):
There was one day I had threeand you had at least three.
Yes, so we probably made a good15 to 20 drinks, I would say
but totally worth it to bringyour own, just don't get caught
yeah, we had a little coolerbackpack that we brought in.
No one said a word and we justmade sure to order, like, first
of all, we use the same cupsthat they have there, and then
(14:32):
we made sure to order some foodfrom the server throughout the
day.
You know to, yeah, avoidsuspicion.
You know, sometimes the servers.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
They get it, they.
They understand the drinks areexpensive, but they're also
trying to make money.
So yes, if you order some foodfor them and one guy asked you
if you needed ice.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
He was like do you need anything else?
Do you need some ice?
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Yeah, so you know, sometimes people are cool.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Yeah, so, okay, a few things to note.
So it is middle of summer andthis property is in the desert.
So, before we get into the restof the amenities and stuff,
this is very similar weather towhat we experience in phoenix
during the summer so 110,sometimes more super dry, very,
very hot days.
(15:15):
So the hotel is like this isoff peak for this hotel and when
we talked to one of therestaurant servers she mentioned
that they were pretty busy thisweekend or that week that we
were there and and they were atabout 50 occupancy and you know,
for being summer and off season, that was fairly busy, I guess
(15:37):
I mean it was.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
I mean everyone goes there for the pool.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
The pool there is, it's fantastic yeah, I just so
before we talk about the like,if you're planning a trip here,
a better time might be likeMarch, april or May or maybe
like October Starting likeDecember.
January are going to be thecoldest months.
(16:00):
I think people think that youcan.
Oh, it's warm and I can gothere, you know, in December and
it'll be sunny and I can gothere, you know, in December and
it'll be sunny.
The highs during the day mightbe like 70 in December, january,
but the overnight temps aregoing to be in the 30s or 40s.
It's a big difference andthat's going to be.
The temperature of the pool iswhatever the low is for the most
(16:22):
part.
I don't know if the pools areheated, so just keep that in
mind if you're planning a tripand if you are going to go in
the summer, just electrolytesfor sure for you and your kids.
Drink a lot of water and Iwould plan to spend most of your
time at the pool.
That's the only thing thatmakes the temperature bearable,
I think.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Again, I mean we talked about this earlier.
I disagree.
I would think that summertimeis a great time for this hotel,
because I mean, we talked aboutthis earlier.
I disagree.
I would think that summertimeis a great time for this hotel
because I mean, like I said, theamenities are great.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
They are great, but I just want people to be aware
that if you're planning to go inthe summer, I wouldn't go
hiking.
There are some things to do inPalm Springs.
There's like the Living Desertand there's some kind of tram
you can take.
We didn't do any of thatbecause it's hot AF.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Yeah, I mean, we spent all day, every day, at the
pool, at the pool, yeah, and Ihad not one problem.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
No, not at all.
But I'm just like, if you'replanning a trip there and you
want to do other things, summeris probably not the time.
No, and I mean like we onlyleft the hotel once to go to
dinner because it was so hot.
So like we ate at the hotelbecause we didn't want to leave,
because it was so hot, soanyways.
Okay, let's talk about thepools.
(17:44):
So there is like a main pool.
It's actually two pools thatare.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
I mean, there's sections.
There's like the first sectionsfor families.
It consists of like four, threepools, a splash pad, a little
water slide for toddlers Well,not toddlers, but little kids
Plenty of seats, yep.
They also have a lazy riverwith two pretty good water
(18:15):
slides.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
The water slides don't go into the lazy river,
but they're right above it.
No, yes.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
And you can swim in the pool where the slides take
you.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Yes, and the lazy river was the hit.
Take you, yeah, yes, and theLazy River was the hit.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
The Lazy River was money.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
We spent so much time just floating around in that.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Floating around, I had my speaker.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Dwayne.
Dwayne is one of those peoplethat brings his own music
wherever he goes.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
I am no shame, no shame.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
And my sister is all about it.
Yep Good music.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
You know what I mean.
And they also have an adultpoll 18 and over.
Oh my God, did you not?
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Yeah, it's 18 and over what was that On the other
side of the.
Oh well, sorry, we couldn't gothere, so I guess I blocked that
out.
They have an 18 and over.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Matter of fact, there's one review right there
that says the Oasis adult poolhad servers that kept the drinks
coming.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Oh yeah, it does say that, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
So yeah, if you don't come here with kids, there's a
pool for you where you don'thave to listen to all the racket
from all the freaking kidsrunning around and the splashing
, oh the splashing.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
We're constantly trying to get our kids to be
aware of who they're splashing,Other people not so much.
Yeah, other people don't dothat, but we try.
The Lazy River was my favoritepart of the pool.
It's pretty fast moving and,yeah, it was just like in the
morning I was literally on atube with my coffee, like my
iced coffee, and then later inthe day a little coconut tequila
(19:57):
drink.
It was great, super relaxing.
It was a super, super fun time.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Again, we didn't leave the pool.
First of all, I would go downat like 7.30, reserve some seats
, yes, and then we'd go tobreakfast, then we'd go to the
pool, and then we were thereuntil at least 3, 4 pm.
Yeah, every day.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
And I mean.
Something to note about ourkids is they can go pretty hard
Like.
Other people will be like, oh,like, little Johnny swam for two
hours and he's going to sleepso good.
Not our kids, no, no, they cango for eight hours, sometimes
more, and they will still be upuntil 9 or 10 pm if we let them.
Yeah, so like.
(20:47):
And our kids are used to thisheat also.
So I think, something to noteif you're not used to the heat,
you'd probably want to take abreak in the middle of the day.
Um, also, one of our kids wasnot feeling super.
Actually, she was feeling fine,but she had a little fever, and
so I was giving her medicineand trying to let her not steal
a trooper and oh yeah, I waslike do you?
(21:08):
want to go back to the room andlay down nope, nope, nope, nope.
So I just gave her someibuprofen and made sure she
wasn't, didn't have a fever andshe was literally fine by the
next day.
So it's just a weird little bug, I guess.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
So a tip from me.
So the lazy river in the slidezone opened up until 10.
The regular pool opens up at 7.
So again, what we did wasreserved some seats by the main
pool at like 7.30.
, went and got breakfast, gotback to the pool around you know
930, and then waited in linefor them to open up the lazy
(21:50):
river and the water slides andthen reserve some seats in that
little area.
So we basically had twosections of seats reserved,
which was key.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
It was really helpful because our kids kept bouncing
back and forth between all thedifferent areas and our two boys
I don't worry so much about ifI don't see them every second,
as long as I can lay eyes onthem, like every 1520 minutes,
like they're pretty strongswimmers and I feel okay about
it.
But our daughter is this is herfirst summer where she's like
(22:20):
fully swimming and so it waslike wherever she wanted to be,
we one of us had to be, so itwas nice to be able to have a
spot kind of in both areas to goback and forth between and like
the.
The hotel wasn't, there was agood amount of people there, but
it wasn't so busy that therewere no chairs, so that worked
(22:42):
out really well well, there's acouple of days there were there
were no chairs in the lazy riverarea.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Oh really, because I mean people, that's spot to be
yeah I guess.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
well, I mean also we, we only had a couple chairs and
there's six of us, so I feel Ithink in total we had six chairs
saved, just in two differentareas.
Yes, so, but yes, that is, Ithink, a good tip if you're
going to go, because you can'tsee the lazy river from the
other pool and vice versa.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
No, you cannot, and wear shoes because it's hot.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Oh my God, and wear shoes because it's hot.
Oh my God, the floor, the floorwas hot, Like why they put this
floor, whatever tile orwhatever it is in the desert
Like I will never understand.
It is 2025, and I feel like wehave the technology where it
cannot be so hot, but like youhad to wear your shoes because
(23:40):
you couldn't walk on it, it wasnot good.
I will say the water slideshere were really fun yeah, they,
they were legit we all wentdown them multiple times.
They were not too crazy to whereyou don't want to go down it
again, but they were fun enoughto where it was like whoa.
Even I went down it like fivetimes and normally like I'll try
(24:05):
it, but then I'm usually likenah.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Did you go down the slide at the Grand?
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Absolutely not.
No, those were like, no, like Iprobably would have died.
I would have had like some kindof water burn.
Those were way too crazy for me.
Anywho, these were fun, fun,yeah.
Um, okay, let's see, weventured out of the hotel one
night for dinner.
The concierge recommended thisshopping area called el paseo.
(24:35):
Right, yeah, and he was like,yeah, they have all kinds of
food there, like italian,mexican, like whatever you want.
So we go there and we'redriving around and it's the kind
of place where you gotta parkand get out and kind of walk
through it all.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Yeah, it was like a outside mall yeah, but again
it's 110 degrees.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
So we were like we were looking stuff up on our
phones and all the restaurantswere like three to four dollar
signs on google and yelp soexpensive.
And again we were trying toleave the hotel to save money,
not to spend as much money as wecould have spent at the hotel.
So we eventually decided onthis Peruvian restaurant.
(25:12):
What was the name of it?
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Mi Cotora.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
It was really really good, Super low key, but they
had like four and a half plusstars on Google and Yelp and it
was delicious and driving thereit was like a ghost town.
There was not a single personinside.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
We didn't see a single person driving Like we
were, literally like what ishappening, but when we get to
this restaurant, there was, youknow, not a lot of people, but
there was like eight people inthis restaurant which you know,
a lot of people, but there waslike eight people in this
restaurant which you know,that's eight more people than we
we saw on the whole drive and Ithought, well, this is the
place.
To be sure enough, we sat downand more people started showing
(25:52):
up.
So it was very good.
We knew we picked the rightspot, yeah, and the food was
really good would absolutelyrecommend yes empanadas were
great.
I had had the pork belly, whichwas fire, or, as the kids would
say, slaps.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Gas Gas.
I had the lomo saltado, whichis like steak basically, and
fries and rice, and our kids allhad that too and it was very
good.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Oh, and the plantains were good.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
Oh, sweet plantainsains.
No, can't go wrong with thoseyeah, definitely recommend that
spot yeah, it was really good.
Um what else gosh?
oh really, we just stay at thehotel the whole time which I
feel like very well, thatqualifies us to give this review
right like we fully enjoyed allthe activities the hotel had
(26:44):
available.
Oh, they also had, like theyhad a little calendar of events
of what was going on, and one ofthe things that they have on
there is they do water slideraces and it's at different
times throughout the day, butbasically you, whatever the time
is, you go up and you racesomeone down because there's two
slides so I thought it wasgoing to be like racing.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Racing where like, okay, you won this one, you're
going to go up against you know,this guy next.
But no, it's just, you just won, race against whoever you want,
which in my case was my kid andI won, thinking that I was
gonna you know, move on, move onup.
But no, they're like, oh, youwant, okay, here's, take this to
(27:28):
the.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
You know the little they give you a little paper and
you take it to the towel barand you get your little prize.
And the kids were like theseprizes are cheap.
And I'm like, what did youexpect?
Of course they're cheap, yes,so uh, but they had other like
fun little things too, like Ithink there was a kid's craft
and it was different every dayyeah, there was a movie night.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
We didn't make, yes, movie night, yeah so.
And then, for some reason, thepool was open till 10 on
thursday.
So every night the lazy riverand the water slides, that
little section of the poolclosed at seven every day,
except for thursday it was opentill 10.
Maybe that was a moving night.
That was the glow party.
(28:09):
Well it, it said every thursday, oh everything, I mean, it just
said thursday.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
oh well, they must have do some kind of event there
every every time then.
Um, okay, let's talk aboutquickly how we booked this.
So this is a currently acategory six hotel.
When I booked it it was acategory five, so in March,
every March, hyatt does awardcategory changes for some of
their properties, and this wentfrom a five to a six.
(28:35):
Not really a surprise, becausethis used to be the Hyatt
Regency Indian Wells and theyrecently underwent a pretty big
remodel and now it has rebrandedas the Grand Hyatt Indian Wells
.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
And I mean the hotel was beautiful.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
It was beautiful.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
The grounds, the actual, you know, the lobby.
Yeah everything was reallyreally nice.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
Yeah, and so now it's a category six.
So we paid 17,000 points anight when we booked it and we
stayed three nights, but again,it is now a category six.
So that puts it at what is that?
21 to 25, 21 to 29,000 points anight.
(29:19):
Now if, again, if you, if youwant to go in the summer, that's
definitely going to be off peak, so you could stay two or three
nights for around 63,000 pointsand I think that is worth it.
So again, we got upgraded to asuite because of my globalist
status.
If you don't have globaliststatus and you want to try to
(29:40):
get an upgrade, you basicallyhave two options.
The way that I see it.
Number one is you can.
There are Facebook groups wherepeople gift Hyatt awards and
you can go in there and maybetry to trade something you have,
like a club access award orsomething for a sweet upgrade
award.
Just depends what other peopleare looking for award.
(30:04):
Just depends what other peopleare looking for as to kind of
what kind of trade they'll take.
Or they also sell like guest ofhonor and suite upgrade awards
on ebay.
I've never bought onepersonally, um, and I I think
there's maybe a little bit ofrisk involved in it, but I would
buy one I had no idea that.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Who sells them on ebay?
Just people.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
Like other globalists who aren't going to be able to
use it, so they'll just try toget some money out of it, yeah.
So again, I've never done thatand proceed with caution, but I
am not opposed to doing that ifit made sense.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
I mean, how many points was the suite we had?
Speaker 1 (30:40):
I think you can book a suite for 40,000 points a
night currently.
Let me see, I'll tell you rightnow, which is a lot more than
it is a lot more.
Yeah, I mean, I guess, yeah, soI guess really, you have three
options if you want the suite.
One, book it with points.
Two, try to trade for a suiteupgrade award and apply it.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Or three, buy one on ebay oh 36 000 uh, oh, yeah,
well, okay, yes, off peak, so 36to 40 000 ish points yeah so I
mean if you have some pointsyou're trying to blow off yeah,
(31:21):
if you were gonna fly in, youwould fly into Palm Springs.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
My sister actually flew from Florida into the Palm
Springs airport and we pickedher up in downtown Palm Springs
Um, so that's like the closestairport Um Palm Springs is.
It was about a four hour drivefrom Phoenix.
So if you are planning to dothe drive, just keep in mind
it's about four hours fromPhoenix and it was about two ish
(31:47):
hours from, like, san DiegoOceanside area.
Carl's bad, um, what else?
Anything else about theproperty?
Speaker 2 (31:57):
I think we covered pretty much everything.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Yeah, again, um, if you want to kind of see any of
the stuff that we're talkingabout, I have a whole highlight
on Instagram.
You can go and check it out attravel party of five.
If you have questions, send mea DM.
I answer every single one.
Um, and if you ever get anyvalue out of our podcast, please
leave us a rating or reviewwherever you listen, cause we
would greatly appreciate it, aswe record this at 9 30 pm now.
(32:23):
Yes, we appreciate you thank youthank you for listening so much
and we will catch you next week.
Where?
Next week?
I just am so excited to tellyou that I had like my first
real pinch me moment in pointsand miles because we got this
incredible, sweet upgrade at thehotel in Oceanside that I like
(32:46):
was in.
I'm still in awe thinking aboutit.
It was incredible and I cannotwait to tell you about it next
week.
So make sure you listen intothat one.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Yes, have a good one.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
Okay.
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