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The Selfish Years

~ Over 200 cities, 42 countries, 6 continents and counting.

The Selfish Years

Tag Archives: Hilton

2.5 Nights at the Fabulous Conrad Tokyo

24 Wednesday Jun 2015

Posted by misterselfish in Accommodations, Asia, Hilton, Japan, Tokyo

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Conrad, Conrad Tokyo, HHonors, Hilton, Selfish Year, Selfish Years

Let me start this review by saying that I am torn. Mrs. Selfish and I are, by nature, Hyatt loyalists. There are numerous reasons: better perks, more consistent quality, low cost awards, etc. etc.

Yet every now and then, we stay at a Hilton property or, (dare I say) Intercontinental that is not only good, but is excellent.

The Conrad Hilton is definitely one of these properties and if you’re looking to burn some Hilton free nights, I would consider this an excellent use of points.

This was our fourth Conrad property, and while the Conrad Koh Samui and the Conrad Rangali wowed, the Conrad Singapore was a bit meh. Whereas that hotel fell flat on its face (other than the excellent breakfast), the Conrad Tokyo more than rose to the challenge.

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Relaxing in Paradise: Activities at the Conrad Rangali

07 Tuesday Jan 2014

Posted by mrsselfish in Accommodations, Hilton, The Maldives

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Tags

Conrad Rangali, Hilton, Maldives, Selfish Year, Selfish Years, The Maldives

This is the third of six posts on the Maldives. Check out our other posts here:

  • Getting to the Conrad Rangali
  • 3 Nights of Paradise at the Conrad Rangali
  • Relaxing in Paradise: Activities at the Conrad Rangali
  • You Can Swim with Whale Sharks in the Maldives!
  • Trying to Eat Cheaply at the Conrad Rangali
  • Our Brief Time in Malé, Maldives

What’s there to do in paradise? Surprisingly lots at the Conrad Rangali in the Maldives.

Snorkeling Around the House Reef

First of all, the house reef is awesome. While Mr. Selfish and I haven’t mastered our GoPro camera yet, take our word for it – the house reef is full of fish and colorful coral.

Activities 01Activities 02Activities 03Activities 04Activities 05Activities 06

To get to the house reef, you should walk to Beach Villa #220 and start swimming straight out into the ocean. At that point, you’ll be swimming in between an opening in the reef. After a little while, there is a huge 60 feet drop, and you can see lots of marine life.

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Fun in Paradise at the Hilton Bora Bora

18 Thursday Jul 2013

Posted by misterselfish in Accommodations, French Polynesia, Hilton, Oceania, Travel Hacking

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

AXON award, Bora Bora, Hilton, Hilton Bora Bora, Oceania, Selfish Year, Selfish Years, Tahiti, Travel Hacking

Editor’s note: This is the second of three posts on the Hilton Bora Bora. Check out our other posts here:

  • 5 Nights at the Insanely Beautiful Hilton Bora Bora
  • The Good and Bad Eats of Bora Bora

Today is a continuation of yesterday’s post on the Hilton Bora Bora. Whereas yesterday I was talking about how to get to this amazing resort, and how beautiful Bora Bora is, today I’ll be discussing what you can actually do there – other than the usual relaxing, eating, and napping, and taking long walks on the beach.

I jest of course, though there are plenty of beaches for strolling if you like that kind of thing. Not those shelly beaches either – these are powdery sandy white beaches!

Diving in Bora Bora

Since Mrs. Selfish and I are both certified divers, we decided a dive in the crystal blue-green waters of Bora Bora was a no-brainer. Unfortunately, options in Bora Bora are pretty limited, with only 4 companies. The 2 larger ones felt a little crowded and impersonal to us, so we ended up going with Dive N’ Smile, which was a one man operation run by Patrick.

Bora Bora - Activities 004

Patrick picked us up promptly from the Hilton and suited us up. Not only was his equipment brand new (and very nice!), but he also had steel tanks, which is not something we’ve never seen before.

Although the reefs around Bora Bora are dead, thanks to a hurricane that ripped it up a few years, there is a ton of wild life! We ended up spotting half a dozen lemon sharks, a giant school of blue-spotted eagle rays, and a couple of very active eels.

DCIM\100GOPROBora Bora - Activities 008Bora Bora - Activities 009DCIM\100GOPRODCIM\100GOPRO

Visibility was great, the animals were amazing, and the equipment and instruction were on point. Overall this was definitely one of our better dive experiences and I would highly recommend Dive N’ Smile. If anyone is thinking of going, shoot Patrick an email at: diveNsmile@mail.pf.

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5 Nights at the Insanely Beautiful Hilton Bora Bora

17 Wednesday Jul 2013

Posted by misterselfish in Accommodations, French Polynesia, Hilton, Oceania, Travel Hacking

≈ 16 Comments

Tags

AXON award, Bora Bora, Hilton, Hilton Bora Bora, Oceania, Selfish Year, Selfish Years, Tahiti, Travel Hacking

Editor’s note: This is the first of three posts on the Hilton Bora Bora. Check out our other posts here:

  • Fun in Paradise at the Hilton Bora Bora
  • The Good and Bad Eats of Bora Bora

After our evening of cold croque monsieurs in Tahiti, Mrs. Selfish and I awoke early the next day and boarded a plane for Bora Bora, one of the most beautiful (and expensive) places on Earth.

Having read good things about the Hilton Bora Bora, I was anxious to check out our new home for 5 nights – an overwater bungalow in some of the most magnificent waters I’d ever seen. I booked the stay before the Hilton Honors great devaluation using an AXON award and an extra night, so the total came to 195,000 HHonors points.

Getting there and check-in

Getting to Tahiti itself can be quite difficult on miles and points, though flyertalk has several threads devoted to the topic as I mentioned yesterday.

Once you’ve reached Tahiti the intra-island flight from to Bora Bora is costly at roughly ~$450 round trip. Air Tahiti Nui has multiple flights a day starting in the early morning and ending mid-evening, but unfortunately none of these accept points or miles, just cold hard cash.

Pro-tip: Sit on the left side of the plane for stellar views of Bora Bora

After landing, you have two options for getting to the Hilton Bora Bora: a) take Hilton’s fancy speedboat to the property for roughly $125 per person round trip, b) take the boat into Viatape (the main town) and then catch Hilton’s boat from there for roughly $8 round trip. While we chose option B, we ended up giving our bags to crew of Hilton’s speedboat, which they brought to the hotel for us. I highly recommend this option.

Getting to Bora Bora proved more difficult than most destinations: with 2 flights to Tahiti, a plane to Bora Bora, a shuttle boat to Viatape, and a boat to the Hilton Bora Bora, but man is it worth it.

Bora Bora is easily the most beautiful beach destination we’ve ever been to, beating out Koh Samui, Bali, Danang, and Cancun. Since Mrs. Selfish and I wanted to maximize our time at the resort, we took a late-morning flight in, and an early evening flight out and boy was I glad we did, the Hilton Bora Bora is gorgeous.

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The Delicious but Expensive Food at the Conrad Koh Samui

21 Thursday Mar 2013

Posted by mrsselfish in Accommodations, Asia, Food & Drinks, Thailand

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Tags

Asia, Conrad, Conrad Koh Samui, Food & Drinks, Hilton, Koh Samui, Selfish Years, Thailand

Mr. Selfish and I truly enjoyed our stay at the beautiful Conrad Koh Samui. The only downsides were: (1) the location and (2) the food.

As to location, the Conrad Koh Samui is quite far from the airport and pretty much everything else on the island. Mr. Selfish already went over how we hired Mr. Samui Samui to solve the issue of transportation. However, the location also made it very expensive and inconvenient to leave the property. As a result, other than a diving trip that we took, we stayed on property, which meant that we had to eat on property.

The food was tasty but man, was it expensive! Luckily, I am a Gold Hilton Honors member so we had free breakfast at Zest. We typically ate breakfast as late as possible to make it into a brunch and then had an early dinner. The breakfast spread was quite impressive. You could order an egg selection from the menu, including eggs benedict, English breakfast, etc., and then still eat from the buffet.

Koh Samui 263Koh Samui 269Koh Samui 271Koh Samui 267

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Beyond the Infinity Pools of the Conrad Koh Samui

20 Wednesday Mar 2013

Posted by misterselfish in Accommodations, Asia, Thailand, Travel Hacking

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Conrad, Conrad Koh Samui, Hilton, Infinity Pool, Koh Samui, Mr. Samui Samui, Selfish Years, Thailand, Travel Hacking

After a week of roughing it at the Sanctuary, Mrs. Selfish and I packed our bags and left Koh Phangan, heading for its sister island, Koh Samui. While planning the Thailand portion of our trip, I scheduled us for 4 nights at the Conrad Koh Samui.

Why?

Three words: Private infinity pool.

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Who’s Selfish?

Mr. and Mrs. Selfish are an obsessively organized couple who sold all their junk to travel abroad for a year. Now settled in San Francisco, they have since visited over 200 cities in 44 countries over 6 continents. This site chronicles their travels.

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