I recently stayed at the Hyatt Centric Waikiki and Hyatt Regency Waikiki on another awesome trip to Oahu, my favorite island, and want to share my assessments, which may help you choose on your next trip if the pricing for both is similar, as it was for us. The purpose of our trip was primarily to requalify for Hyatt Globalist under their double elite night promotion, and we were fortunate to hang out with family and friends who were after the same goal. We stayed at Hyatt Centric for 4 nights and Hyatt Regency for 7 nights, both on the Healthcare Friends & Family rate (which does earn elite nights and points), and I applied my Amex Offers and Chase Offers to them.
Author: e*
Trip Report/Suggestions: Ventana Big Sur and surrounding areas
Detailed review of Ventana Big Sur, pro tips for your stay, and suggestions for what to do around the area and along the beautiful Pacific coastline. Click the title to read more.
Trip Suggestions: Oahu, Hawaii
Last updated: 2/26/2023
There are only a handful of places in the world that I love so much that I’d want to visit at least once a year. Hawaii is one of them. I lived in Honolulu for 4 months in 2010 and fell in love with it to the point where it has become one of my favorite destinations in the world, and I’m lucky it’s only a 5 hour flight away.
Oahu has a lot of haters, but I think those people either don’t appreciate amazing food or haven’t been to the right places. I can’t deny that part of Oahu has a lot of tourists and traffic, but I love that Oahu has the best of both worlds (city + nature). Just head over to Kailua, Yokohama, or North Shore and it feels like one of the less-populated islands with the beautiful unspoiled nature and wondrous hikes (did you know Oahu has more hikes than any other island?). Then come back to Honolulu and its amazing food and fun things to do! For those of you who thought you hated Oahu, I hope you will give it another chance after checking out this post.
Trip Report: Miraval Arizona during COVID-19
e* here. I just returned from a brief stay at Miraval Arizona, where I went with my husband, a close friend, and fellow miles & points blogger Miles For Two. It’s been on my bucket list for a while as many in our miles & points community have been there in recent years. Thanks to the BOGO + credit card rebate promotion, we were able to book a trip to the recently reopened resort and get away from the polluted air that we’ve been dealing with in California for the past month or two. Since we haven’t been able to safely travel internationally for a long time, this was a great way to ease back into safely traveling with the new normal.
Weee! Asian Grocery Delivery Pro Tips
Updated 2/6/2021
A couple months ago, I wrote a post about Asian grocery/food delivery services. Since then, I’ve been using Weee! the most, though Yamibuy actually has a wider selection and greater coverage. Weee seems to promote their products more frequently with various discounts and has also been greatly expanding their daily bundles. You order multiple days’ worth of bundles in advance.
Review: Melio Payments
Melio Payments is very similar to Plastiq, which you’ve probably all heard of. It’s a way for you, as a business, to pay a vendor or another business using a debit or credit card (they can also do bank transfers) and by sending either a check or ACH to the vendor.
Debit cards and bank transfers are currently free, while credit card has a 2.5% fee, similar to Plastiq. The ACH transfers to the vendor appear to be faster (within 24 hours), whereas Plastiq may take a few business days. Check speeds are about the same for both, about 7-10 days.
Update: In Search of the Perfect Travel Shoe
It’s been 2 years since my original post and would you believe the search is still ongoing!? It appears that it’s a hot topic in the media too. However, I think I’m a lot closer to the ultimate shoe than before. As an update, I’ve still been traveling primarily with my sneakers (my favorite daily driver is the Adidas Ultraboost Parley) as the main shoe that I wear around the airport, onto the plane, etc, and in my luggage I have also packed my Tory Burch Minnie and sometimes also pair of flip-flops or water shoes, depending on the destination. Given that I travel with a 19″ carry-on spinner only, I try never to have more than 3 pairs of shoes with me, and ideally only 2, including the one I’m wearing.
Best Trip Planning Site: Wanderlog
This post is long overdue! I discovered Wanderlog (formerly TravelChime, from the creators of BookWithMatrix) about 6 months ago, and knew immediately that it was the ultimate travel planning tool that I’d been looking for. I’ve been traveling almost non-stop for the last 6 months, so I never had time to write a post about it, although I was using it on the regular. I will try to write a thorough review here, and you can decide if it fits your needs!