Italian notes on World of Hyatt. (Amsterdam, too)
- The Opportunistic Traveler
- Jun 2, 2024
- 4 min read
I needed a hotel plan for an impromptu Italy trip (saying that casually, like it's normal). I’m Lifetime Platinum with Marriott, and have been riding that train for a long time. It’s done some pretty great things, but the last of my Bonvoy points from a previous life were tied up in a future UK redemption.
It was time for me to see what this whole World of Hyatt program was about. This was the first time I had redeemed Chase Ultimate Rewards points for Hyatt after hearing smarter people than me say that's what you should do. I didn’t mind spending what was needed since this was our first-anniversary trip, and after last year’s Covid-in-Paris Wedding Adventure, I was determined to show Player 2 I could do this right.
These prices were from October 2023. Hyatt reshuffles its property categories every year. Also, SLH (Small Luxury Hotels) is eloping with Hilton as of Spring 2024.
Anywhoo, let’s start with Milan. I booked the Hyatt Centric Milan Centrale. It was a very long travel day (TPA-ATL-AMS-MXP), and I didn’t know until after booking that Milan proper was an hour’s train ride from MXP. But I had a train to catch to the Cinque Terre early the next morning, and the Hyatt was within a 10-minute walk from Milan’s gorgeous Centrale Train Station. The hotel was cool and modern, with a friendly desk agent. The bathroom had a bidet, which I would come to realize was a thing in Italy. However, the AC was loud, and everything was controlled by finicky bedside switches that I never fully understood. Overall, it was more than necessary - 15,000 points for the night, and the cash rate was high, I think somewhere around $400.
I used the Capital One portal, earning 10x, to book a room at the Hotel Bar La Zorza in the seaside town of Riomaggiore in the Cinque Terre National Park. This was the only time I stayed at a non-Hyatt property on this trip. I'm really happy I stayed in one of the towns instead of trekking in for the day. At night, the streets empty out, and you can really get a feel for what the place was like a couple of decades, or centuries, ago. I booked this in cash for just under $307, all in, for two nights. Well, almost all in...
My original plan was to stay two nights in Riomaggiore, two nights in Venice, and then two nights in Amsterdam before flying back home. However, there were two problems: I couldn't find award availability for two consecutive nights in Venice (unless I wanted to stay on the nearby island of Murano, but I was worried I'd break something), and the train from the Cinque Terre to Venice ran through Florence and not stopping to poke around would be painful. So I pivoted to one night in Florence and one night in Venice, where I could snag rooms.
There were only premium redemptions left for Florence and Venice. Not something I'd regularly do, but I didn't really have a choice, and the locations were excellent. Don't quote me on this, but I think the rack rate was around $1K per night in both cities. In Florence, I stayed at the Il Tournabuoni, part of Hyatt's The Unbound Collection and was placed in the exact room, 213, pictured in the World of Hyatt app. It was huge, high ceilings too, with windows opening to the square below, with sounds of opera singers and violinists, and more of Italy's suffocatingly beautiful culture.
It certainly didn't suck for 44,000 points, but that's also more than a one-way business class flight on Iberia. And I got to wander around Florentine alleys, eat an awesome sandwich, and get caught in some rain.
I don't really believe in "bucket lists" since I change my mind way too frequently, but if I did, I guess Venice would be high on one of them. I booked the Palazzo Sant'Angelo sul Canal Grande for 35,000 World of Hyatt points. I'll let you guess which canal it was on. It's a Small Luxury Hotel, which now belongs to Hilton. The airport transfer from the hotel to Marco Polo was neat, too - it was a boat ride from the hotel entrance to the airport. I would have taken pictures, but the young mother across from me took the opportunity to breastfeed during the transfer, so you win some, you lose some.
For my two nights in Amsterdam, another new city for me, I was excited to try the Andaz Amsterdam Prinsengracht, which was 54,000 points total for the two nights. I really enjoyed my first Andaz. Check-in was one of the friendliest in recent memory, and the decor is, um, eclectic - playful & fun with a sense of place and history. The exterior is meant to mimic the "shopping display" windows of the Red Light District, and my room overlooked a courtyard garden staged with scultpures. The herring may turn some off, but I was hooked.
So yeah, some pretty awesome rooms for this trip. It's worth noting that I don't hold any status with Hyatt. I'm sure a Globalist would have had an upgrade or two along with whatever other benefits come with that tier. Even as a lowly Hyatt "Member", I appreciated having reasonable award charts, and was fortunate to get a taste of SLH before they moved to Hilton.