Various Hiltons across NA (Names don't fit here)

[nate89]

So across the 28th Dec '10 - 31st Jan '11 I have been travelling with my girlfriend, staying at Hilton's all, but two nights. Rather than create a thread for each and flood the board I thought I would just stick them all here. Unfortunately I didn't take very good pictures. I tended to either forget or at the time was too tired My apologies. I will do my best to describe the experience to try and make up for it.

The thread has me posting a number of replies to my own post. This is due to the image limit per post, not me trying to spam

28th-30th Dec. '10 - LAX Hilton

King Bed in Towers

To be honest, this stay was quite average with regards to the room itself. We were able to check in at 12 pm with no problem though which was nice. Having said that, it is an airport hotel so I think that is expected. I had another friend arrive at LAX at 6 am and was able to check into his room at 7 am at the same hotel so Kudos with respect to that.

The bath was not very deep, which seems to be a trend in America. I am not super tall (~5' 11" or 182 cm), but I could not actually 'bathe' my whole body which defeats the purpose in a way - for me anyway

There was also quite a bit of noise from the airport that could be heard, but it did stop at night.

The view was nothing special, although there was a very pretty horizon one of the afternoons (pic below).

 

[nate89]

30th Dec '10-4th Jan '11 - Millenium Hilton New York

King bed - City View

It did indeed have a city view. I don't have the pictures of the view yet, but here are some of the room. I have already spoken about this hotel in another thread, so I will just copy/paste what I wrote.

Comments about Millenium Hilton:
Excellent staff overall! Really, I have to commend them on it. When we first entered, there was a bell boy at the door who didn't hear us open the first door, but he heard us on the second door and jumped into action and picked up our bags immediately from us (politely) and directed us where to check-in.

We checked in fine, he took us up to our rooms and we were just peering around a bit. We were in room 3602 (36th level on the South West Corner so we were overlooking Ground Zero). He was able to show us all the sights, direct us to the nearest convenience store, took out our luggage racks and put up our luggage all without hassle. English wasn't his native language, but he spoke it well enough and understood our aussie accents so all was good. Tipped him 10 bucks and he was happily on his way after asking if there was anything else we wanted to know.

We ended up spending $400 on food/drinks for the duration of our stay so I would say we got a pretty good idea of the service. Generally, it was good. Food came quickly enough (~20 minutes for dinner for two), waiters brought the food in, I signed for it and they left. There is an 18% tip surcharge though that, as far as I could see, is not voluntary. I never added any extra for room service as I thought that was enough considering the only service the waiter did was bring the food to us.

We did go down to the main restaurant and bar on New Years Eve. Once again, excellent staff in both restaurant and bar. Our waiter was able to tell us the history of a building that we thought looked pretty (turned out to be the Woolworths building) and he also gave us an extra half bottle of wine 'just to finish it off' which was very nice. We ended up tipping him an extra 5% on top of normal 18%. Also, the bartender recommended for/against certain drinks and knew them well and he was very friendly too. He ended up with a 30% total tip (girlfriend did that – we had a bit too much to drink I think...), but he made us welcome so I guess he earned it.

I have to say the food prices are not the cheapest, but that is what you expect I guess. Prices generally were around $17-25 +18% tip. 50 metres down the road at Charly’s (sp?) you could get the same quality/amount of Caesar salad for $7.50.

I wish the hotel had a 24 hour menu. They only offer breakfast + lunch, then a gap from 2 to 5pm when they start offering dinner. We had a late start on New Years and it was a bit irritating to have to leave the warm hotel just to get some snacks while recovering from the celebrations. I thought that was a bit of an oversight.

The room was very nice. Two large (seemed like 40”) LCD tv’s, king bed, usual amenities (Evelyn and Crabtree condiments for the missus); windows spanning the entire room with great views. I will post pictures once I have uploaded them from the camera.

Only complaint about the rooms were the water pressure in the shower is a bit sad. The bath could be slightly larger, but it is deeper than the ones at LAX Hilton. The water pressure for the bath tap was much better though, so I am thinking it is the shower head restricting water flow.

I checked out the indoor pool – it is nice and clean as well as warm. Didn’t get to swim in it though

Check out went smoothly (didn’t give me the choice to zip checkout like they usually do though) – nothing much to comment there. Having said that, a 5 minute phone call to an Australian land line ended up costing me $60 USD – lesson learnt!

Images for Millenium Hilton

4th Jan-5th Jan '11 - Hilton Garden Inn JFK

King Room.

There is nothing special about this hotel; it is just your average Hilton airport hotel. It has a nice indoor heated pool and the staff were friendly. The airport bus driver (comes every half an hour on the hour) expects tips though which was sad as the guy (when picking us up) seemed a bit rude and threw our luggage - "Here, pay me to let me damage your suitcase for you.. We already get enough damage from the airports already, thank you...
We had a much more charismatic, friendly and not-expecting-tip driver from the LAX Hilton.

 

[nate89]

5th Jan-10th Jan '11 - Hilton Checkers Los Angeles

King Room.

We had very polite staff greet us. There is generally someone at the door to open it for you, but on the rare occasion they go inside if they see you coming they will race to your door to open it for you.

I had an embarassing moment when ANZ froze all my credit cards because they thought the charges were fraudulent. However, they did not judge me and were patient in sorting it out with ANZ.

The room was nice and cosy, although no view whatsoever unless you enjoy looking at blank walls.

The hotel itself was also nice. We didn't go to the main restaurant, but we did order room service. As usual, there was a 17 or 18% "gratuity" added, but that is the case for all the hotels in the US we stayed at. The food was nice and a lot of it.

There is a heated pool and spa on top of the building. The pool is hardly a pool (You couldn't use it to do laps or even play marco polo in), but I suppose is fine to cool down in in Summer. The spa is super hot (actually stung a tiny bit as you went in, but once you got used to the temperature it was great) and we went there each night despite it being the middle of Winter.

Despite this hotel being in Downtown LA, it was quite suited to holidayers and the nearest subway station was two blocks away so within easy walking distance.

10th Jan-12th Jan '11 - Best Western Pepper Tree Inn (Santa Barbara) + Cobblestone Inn (Carmel)

I rented a Mustang and drove from LA to San Francisco, but stayed two nights at the above locations. These aren't Hilton's so I won't go into too much detail.

Pepper Tree Inn = Great service and trustworthy! My girlfriend left her iphone 4 in the room after we checked out and the cleaner returned it to the reception where (once we had realised she didn't have it) we picked it up a couple of hours later. The room was clean, nice, had free parking and free wifi.

Cobblestone Inn = I was disappointed with this Inn. Carmel is very nice and I had assumed by the fact each room had a fireplace that it would be luxurious. It wasn't. No bath, basic shower, small bed (double). Having said that, the staff were polite and friendly so I suppose that did help.

12th Jan-17th Jan '11 - Fishermans Wharf Hilton San Francisco

King Room Extra Large

We had a great time in Fisherman's wharf. It was one of the highlights of our trip because of the atmosphere there. I'll perhaps write a trip review of this later on, but for now I will leave it as a highly recommended area to go to both during the day time (rent a bike and go to see the golden gate bridge) and at night (spray painters, cheesy arcades, street shows, harmless pranks on unsuspecting people).

The hotel room was nice. The extra room did make a difference and let us have our space a little more which is always nice when you're travelling with someone on a long trip. Nothing too special about the bathroom here, although there was the extendable clothes line you find frequently, but I don't recall seeing it in the other Hiltons. The room service was, as some may call it, 'hippy-friendly'. Garden burgers, salads organic meats. We quite enjoyed it the staff were friendly too as was the Asian bartender who served us when we went for a drink and to take advantage of the free wifi.

17th Jan-19th Jan '11 - Seattle Hilton

King Bed Executive Floor

There is nothing particularly exhilarating about this hotel. We walked from the train station to the hotel (about 7 blocks walk uphill). Check in was up a floor from the entrance.

Service was average - I felt like they were asking me if there was anything else because they had to, not wanted to. Also, the service in the restaurant/bar area on the Lobby level was average too. The guy didn't seem to impressed by me. I wanted a beer and he asked for ID. He refused my Aussie drivers license, so I had to go back up to the hotel room and get my passport which was a bit of nuisance - all other Hilton's up until then had accepted my drivers license or simply not asked for it. I know some of you will say it is his duty, but I am just comparing experiences. I was only buying a glass of wine by myself

He became more enthusiastic once my girlfriend came though... apparently I am not special enough haha.


I will be writing reviews on the Metrotown Hilton in Vancouver and Hilton Whistler shortly. I don't have photo's for these, but they both receive very good reviews from me.

I am currently headed back to Seattle on the train (Amtrack) and then flying to LAX tomorrow for one more night. Let's see if they can both redeem themselves!

 

[moa999]

nate89 - great trip report, love the room shots.

 

[docjames]

Great TR and room pics are great.