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The Selfish Years

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

The Selfish Years

Tag Archives: Hyatt

Bling Bling y’all! Upgraded at the Hyatt Regency Montreal

29 Monday Dec 2014

Posted by misterselfish in Accommodations, Hyatt, North America

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Hyatt, Hyatt Regency Montreal, Selfish Year, Selfish Years

This is post sixteen of sixteen of our summer trip to Greece. Check out our other posts in the series here:

  • Greece Lightning: Heading to Greece
  • Acropolis for Breakfast: Staying at the Hilton Athens
  • Starting at the Top: The Acropolis
  • Oompa! Eating Athens
  • Taking it Indoors: Athen’s Museums
  • Athen’s Other Sites
  • Room with a View: Staying in Santorini
  • Santorini’s Spectacular Sights: Part 1
  • Santorini’s Spectacular Sights: Part 2
  • Looking for Santorini’s Best Eats
  • It’s All Greek to Me: Heading to Naxos
  • There’s a Meat Town in Naxos!
  • Shots! Shots! ShotsShotsShots! Heading to Mykonos
  • A Delightful Day Trip to Delos
  • The Trashy Side of the Greek Islands
  • Bling Bling y’all! Upgraded at the Hyatt Regency Montreal

Finding decent award flights from Europe to the States is a pain. Finding decent award flights from Europe to the States during the Summer is a nightmare. As America’s go-to playground during the Summer, everyone and their mum seems to head to Europe during the June – August timeframe.

Ideally, Mrs. Selfish and I would have flown Athens to Frankfurt to San Francisco, but 5 months out I couldn’t find any availability. Instead, I settled for the best known award trick – flying through Canada.

Since we had 14 hours overnight to kill in Montreal, I was pleased to find the Hyatt Regency Montreal, a category 3 Hyatt (now Category 2 in 2015). I also discovered an old childhood friend lived in the area, so we decided to meet up for dinner.

map

Mrs. Selfish and I missed our ferry from Mykonos to Athens, but managed to catch the next one out.

Pro-tip: Mykonos has 2 ports, and which one you use is determined by the ferry company, NOT the ferry destination.

From there we stayed at the Athens Hilton one last time, before boarding a morning flight to London, where we grabbed some fish and chips, before jumping on an Air Canada flight bound for Montreal.

Like EVA airlines, Air Canada doesn’t really have much of a 1st class section in their fleet, but their Business Class was excellent and we arrived at 6pm.

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4 Nights at the Stylish Park Hyatt Seoul

02 Tuesday Dec 2014

Posted by misterselfish in Accommodations, Asia, Hyatt, Seoul, South Korea

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

deluxe, Hyatt, Park Hyatt, Selfish Year, Selfish Years, Seoul, standard, suite

This is post two of twelve on our autumn trip to South Korea. Check out the other posts in this series here:

  • Back for One Last Score: Intro to our Korean Babymoon
  • 4 Nights at the Stylish Park Hyatt Seoul
  • Checking Out Seoul’s Spirits
  • Eating Our Way Through Seoul
  • Seoul’s Other Palaces
  • Staying at the Hilton Gyeongju
  • Visiting the Silla Kingdom: 1 Day in Gyeongju
  • 4 Nights is Not Enough at the Park Hyatt Busan
  • Temple Time in Busan
  • Tricked out Again: The Busan Trick Eye Museum
  • Busan BBQ: A Mixed Bag
  • 14 Hours in Hong Kong: Protests, Dim Sum & Giant Buddhas

For our first stop in South Korea, Mrs. Selfish and I decided to head back to Seoul. Seoul is an easy city to get to from the States and is the hub for Korean Air, which has direct flights from several cities including San Francisco.

Seoul was also an ideal place to recover from our 16 hours of jetlag, since we already had an idea of where to go, what to do, and what to eat. To make things even less stressful, I booked us for 4 nights in the stylish Park Hyatt Seoul, set in the heart of Gangnam.

Yep, Gangnam style reference – except! – you can actually see the top of the Park Hyatt Seoul in the bottom right corner of this shot. It’s that close. Unfortunately, no Psy sightings this time around.

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Heading back to the Grand Hyatt Fukuoka

13 Monday Jan 2014

Posted by misterselfish in Accommodations, Fukuoka, Hyatt, Japan

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Fukuoka, Fukuoka Castle, Grand Hyatt Fukuoka, Hyatt, Japan, Ohori Park, Selfish Year, Selfish Years

During our selfish year abroad, Mrs. Selfish and I made a pit stop to Fukuoka, on our way to idyllic Kurokawa Onsen Town. As Japan’s 7th largest city, Fukuoka is often overlooked in favor of Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka. Most visitors I’ve talked to aren’t even aware it exists!

Fukuoka is a thriving city with a unique food scene, and the birth place of gyoza and tonkatsu style (pork broth) ramen. Having only spent one half day in Fukuoka on our previous go-around, Mrs. Selfish and I decided to stay two days this time, in order to better explore the city (and it’s ramen scene!).

We decided to stay at Grand Hyatt Fukuoka once again, since we had enjoyed it so much our previous time around. On the previous visit, Mrs. Selfish was a diamond member, thanks to a diamond challenge, but this time we were lowly platinum members. Since we had enjoyed the GHF’s lounge so much on the previous go, however, we decided to pay in cash and use one of Mrs. Selfish’s diamond suite certificates!

Check-in and Room

Checking in in pretty much any Japanese hotel usually goes smoothly, in my experience, and the Grand Hyatt Fukuoka was no exception. After arriving in the lobby, we were escorted to the lounge to complete the check-in process. A few minutes later, we were in our suite.

Grand Hyatt Fukuoka 001

Upon entering, I was immediately struck by the size of the living room. While our previous stay had been pleasant, the standard room was a bit cramped by Western standards. The suite, on the other hand, was large and modern.

There was a thermostat in each room for individual temperature control, motion detector lights in the closet that lit up upon entry, and a classy wall-mounted CD player playing welcoming jazz music.

The living room also had a welcome amenity: a small bottle of wine, some grapes, and green tea flavored cookies.

Grand Hyatt Fukuoka 004Grand Hyatt Fukuoka 005

The room itself was modern and clean though a bit sparse, which I find to be quite typical in Japanese hotels.

Grand Hyatt Fukuoka 002

The bathroom came with a bathtub and separate shower and a glass sink – a feature I’m still obsessed with.

Grand Hyatt Fukuoka 003

Only a wide angle camera could capture the majesty of the glass sink.

While we didn’t snap any pictures of them, I should mention that the amenities kits in Japan tend to be pretty slick. Especially the shaving cream, which comes in a miniature can and foams up. Probably not that impressive to some of y’all out there, but typically hotel shaving creams come out of a little tube more like a lotion or cream – it’s always these little differences that I enjoy about traveling.

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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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