Coronavirus Best and Worst of Road Trip

A road trip during coronavirus?! It was awesome. Here are the best and worst situations we experienced on our two-week roadtrip from Los Angeles to Olympic National Park. Let me say, that we felt safe at every hotel we stayed in as they all had coronavirus measures in place. 

Seattle

Stringent coronavirus checks

Most - Hyatt Place in Emeryville - asked us 3 coronavirus questions before they let us check in and gave us a handout on covid measures at hotel

Least - Bars - once you had a beer in your hand masks came off

Covid breakfast (every place except 1, staff handed you your breakfast items)

Best - Seattle - only place on entire trip with hot breakfast - scrambled eggs and bacon or sausage.

Worst - Redding - lots of cold choices, but we were allowed to grab our own food

People wearing masks

Most - Olympic National Park

Least - Stockton and small towns in Washington

Reliable bathroom opportunities

Most - rest areas along interstate 5

Least - California gas stations (many were "out of order")

Park experience

Best - Mt. St. Helens - very few people there due to coronavirus - I saw pictures from last year and observation decks were packed with people.

Mt. St. Helens

Worst - Cape Flattery - it is located on Indian Reservation and the reservation was still in Phase 1. We were turned back after an hour drive by police since we were not locals.

Dining

Best - Pastini - first sit down meal in 4 months! Seating was outside. All servers wearing masks, tables were wiped down between guests.

Worst - Oyster restaurant in small town - owner not wearing mask

Coronavirus precaution Items I brought

Best - hand sanitizer I placed in doors of car

Worst - wipes - never used them. We were very good about hand sanitizer and never saw a necessity for these.

Other coronavirus observations: many elevators had spots on floor where you were supposed to stand for social distancing purposes; one hotel said most were operating at 40% capacity or less; one gas station in WA gave out gloves so you could pump your gas; traffic was great- everywhere - even going into and out of San Francisco at rush hour on a Monday; and everywhere we went most people wore masks similar to what we see in Southern California - most people do, but there is that tiny minority that refuse.  Only in a couple of  businesses we found mask wearing lax and we abruptly left.

Being on the road filled us with a sense of freedom that we had not experienced in the last four months. I am ready for another one.

Take care and be safe.

Me at Hurricane Ridge, Olympic National Park

Hotel Review: Hyatt Ziva Cancun - Gorgeous location and layout – service mixed

5 stars for the designer of the Hyatt Ziva Cancun. The two beaches, gorgeous blue waters of the Caribbean Sea, beautiful layout of the pools, fire pits and buildings pleased the eye wherever a visitor looked. Having kayaks, paddle boards, bike rides and different classes, food and drinks, and shows included in the room price was also great.

Resort View

We upgraded to an oceanfront room in the club tower and that was a great decision. Amazing view of Cancun's hotel zone to the south with great snacks available in the lobby all day – from duck to octopus to steak to salmon to veggies and drinks, I can go on and on.  Those little appetizers were better than some of the meals we had. Just grab and go.

View from Room 302

Some shows were very entertaining, some not so much. The star show and Mexican shows were my favorites.

The spa services while pricey were very good. The specials change everyday. The best I saw was the two-for-one massage deal.

Performance During Mexican Show

It was disappointing that many activities/shows on the activity board changed or were cancelled. For example, the fire show became the break dance show, the ice show the circus show and spa theater was cancelled.

While I primarily had good staff interactions (staff at spa and restaurants), I also had many lukewarm ones and one bad one. The bad one I brought up to the Hyatt food and service manager but never heard anything more.

Overall, I had a great time.

Note: My wife and I used the 4 free hotel night certificate’s to book and pay for the Hyatt Ziva rooms that we earned through the Hyatt Visa Card by Chase. We paid an additional $40 a night for the room/tower upgrade ($10 per person per night).

Cancun Part 2 - Using the Hotel Certificates

Now that we were armed with our points and certificates we booked the hotels first.  The reason being hotel nights can be canceled with no penalties up to 24 hours to a week before hand.  Airlines however tend to have "no cancellation" policies, so if the flights did not work we could always move the hotel days or even the vacation destination. 

First we booked, the Hyatt_Ziva for four nights.  This hotel looks amazing on the web site, has great reviews, and more importantly is all-inclusive so I do not have to worry about a massive food bill from feeding two teenage boys. Looking at the Hyatt website, the prices in June run $906 per night!

Hyatt Ziva from cancun.ziva.hyatt.com

Being so amazing, we were fortunate that we were able to book four nights that fit into our vacation plans.

The Hilton's reward_program is a little trickier.  As mentioned in last week's post, the certificate's have to be used with a category one 1-to-4 hotel and used on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday night.

In January 2017, when I first looked Hilton had no hotels in Cancun. Amazing, I know.

But on April 1, a Hampton_Inn opened in downtown Cancun.  Not only was it part of the Hilton family of hotels, it was a category 2 hotel.

Hampton Inn Cancun from hamptoninn3.hilton.com

I immediately called and booked three nights (Friday, Saturday and Sunday). I also used 23,000 points I already earned to book the fourth night - Monday night.

I could have booked the Ziva Monday through Thursday night and then the Hampton Inn the Friday night before we left if I wanted to only use certificates to book our stays, but for me, it was not worth the hassle to switch hotels. Even if I didn't have enough points, the Hampton Inn as of this writing was relatively inexpensive at $104.00 per night and I would have paid for the one night versus lugging our stuff between hotels on our last day.

So, while the Hampton Inn was not as an amazing deal as the Hyatt Ziva, I feel paying $200 for four nights in Cancun is still a deal. It even includes free breakfast.  Our plan is to do most of our traveling while we're at the Hampton Inn and laze around when we're at the Ziva.

Next week: booking the flights - patience