Hyatt Regency Indian Wells Resort & Spa – Review
I’ve been on the travel hacking tip lately, using credit cards to gain points for free first class travel. I am attempting to hack a first or business class flight to Thailand on Cathay Pacific or Singapore Airlines with hotels included. I’ve currently earned enough points for one flight, but still need to earn enough points for the second flight for The Director. After I have finished hacking the trip I will give a full recap of how I did it all! For the purposes of travel hacking, I have read that it is important to choose a hotel loyalty program to stick to. I was deciding between Starwoods, Hilton and Hyatt and I decided to invest my time in Hyatt.
I plan on signing up for the Hyatt Credit Card. For new users, as long as you spend $1000 in the first three months of account opening, you will earn two free nights at any Hyatt Property. You will also earn 5000 points if you sign add an authorized user who makes a purchase within the same time frame. There is a yearly fee of $75 for the card which is easily justifiable, especially if you redeem your two hotel nights at a category 6 hotel, which starts at $700 a night. Click here for more about what is offered with the Hyatt Credit Card
I chose the Hyatt Regency Indian Wells Resort and Spa because The Director loves to watch golf. I thought that a great birthday getaway would be one that included access to a beautiful golf course and upon searching on Google, the Hyatt Indian Wells was highly recommended. Unfortunately, I didn’t take into account the blistering hot weather of the desert, hitting 110 degrees daily, so unless you wanted to wake up at 5am to golf in 80 degree weather, actually golfing was out of the question. Luckily, the ample pools on the property made up for the missed golfing opportunity.
I booked the hotels for Friday and Saturday night. Originally at booking, I figured we would only want to golf for one day, on Saturday. Therefore I booked Friday night on the Big Break Golf Package at $297 and $239 for the second night Breakfast Package. I selected the Deluxe Golf View Room with a King Sized Bed.
It takes about 3 hours to make it to Indian Wells from West Hollywood, but we mistakenly left LA around 3PM, so we didn’t arrive at Indian Wells until almost 8PM. Big mistake!
It was still light out and still very hot!
Hyatt Regency Indian Wells Resort & Spa Entrance
Valet Service is available but free parking is available for $27 but there is free self parking for guests.
Hyatt Regency Indian Wells Resort & Spa Lobby
There was a bit of a line at check-in, but I had checked in earlier online via the Hyatt website, so once we made it to the counter, check-in just took a couple minutes
Hyatt Regency Indian Wells Resort & Spa – Check-in Counter
Hyatt Regency Indian Wells Resort & Spa – Bathroom Entrance
Hyatt Regency Indian Wells Resort & Spa – Toiletries
Hyatt Regency Indian Wells Resort & Spa – Bathtub
Hyatt Regency Indian Wells Resort & Spa – Shower
The Agua Serena Spa at Hyatt Regency Indian Wells Resort & Spa was highly recommended but not within my budget. There was an interesting Spa Tapas special running at the time of our visit which allowed you to choose two 25-minute services for $99. There is an extensive 9 page spa menu of various treatments and activities available at Agua Serena
Hyatt Regency Indian Wells Resort & Spa – Towels
Hyatt Regency Indian Wells Resort & Spa – Bedroom
The bed was ample and nice and soft with plenty of soft pillows also.
Hyatt Regency Indian Wells Resort & Spa – Bed
Hyatt Regency Indian Wells Resort & Spa – Bedroom
Hyatt Regency Indian Wells Resort & Spa – Golf View
Hyatt Regency Indian Wells Resort & Spa – Water
Oops already ripped the label off this water bottle but put it back on for the purposes for this photo. The water is necessary for your stay because of the dry heat! There was not a mini-bar inside the hotel room, which was interesting
Free wifi is included with the hotel room and I especially appreciated the ample charging stations available. There was one located under the television and two stations located on either side of the bed
Hyatt Regency Indian Wells Resort & Spa – Charging Stations
Hyatt Regency Indian Wells Resort & Spa
We were starved after our long drive and too tired to go to the restaurant for dinner so we opted for room service. The menu was pretty basic but I appreciated the section that allowed you to mix and match proteins and sides. I ordered the salmon spinach salad. The spinach salad wasn’t memorable but the salmon was one of the best that I have ever tasted! I was leery of ordering the salmon at all because it is so often overcooked but this salmon was tender, flaky and just a touch rare in the center. It was perfectly seasoned simply with salt and pepper. I’m salivating just recalling the taste of that salmon!
The main restaurant at the hotel is The Lantana, which serves upscale American style dishes. The room service offers a partial selection of the menu from The Lantana.
We stopped by for a quick dip at the pool, which is open until 10PM. The kids pool was busy with kids playing and a small movie screen was erected, strangely showing a Christmas movie. I counted at least three other pools in addition to the kids pool. There is an adults only pool also, and the other pools were completely open. We jumped into one of the side pools and had it to ourselves for about thirty minutes.
Our hotel room was nice enough, it had been recently renovated but it didn’t seem like a $300 hotel room. There were earplugs offered on our tableside. We were in room 1300 right next to the elevators, which proved to be an issue later on. Until about 1am, guests would loudly say their goodbyes, as if they were right outside our hotel room. I would definitely recommend getting a room deeper in the hotel, in another wing, or on another floor to avoid this.
For the Breakfast Package, you are allowed to order up to $60 for your meal without charge. This is not including taxes and tip of course. If you choose to use your breakfast package on room service, the service charge it also not included in the $60 comp. I ordered about $55 worth of food, the total bill came out to $78.35 so there were considerable fees on top of the food.
Hyatt Regency Indian Wells Resort & Spa – Breakfast Room Service.
Hyatt Regency Indian Wells Resort & Spa – Eggs Benedict
The Director had the Eggs Benedict which were so rich and filling that he only ate one of the benedicts, despite being a big eater.
Hyatt Regency Indian Wells Resort & Spa – Breakfast Platter
I’m a sucker for the traditional two eggs, meat and potatoes breakfast. The sausages were plump and juicy and I loved the corn relish on the side. The potatoes were slightly on the dry side but still tasty.
On the night before, while touring the pool facilities, we had noticed some detached cabana style villas near the pool. We inquired about the Villas, expecting them to be exorbitantly expensive but the very awesome front desk clerk named Isa let us know that we could upgrade to the Villa for just $75! I had to ask him a couple of times if I heard him correctly and we definitely took him up on the offer.
I am going to save the Villa review for a separate post.
For those who love the heat, I would recommend staying at The Hyatt Indian Wells for the pool. For the best bang for your buck, I would definitely recommend reserving a Villa over one of the regular hotel rooms. More on that next week!
