Kaleb and I flip-flop holidays between our families each year; we spent Thanksgiving with my family, so Christmas would be in Pennsylvania. Since we were already on the East Coast, I decided to plan a stay in South Beach for New Year's. While we're at it...why not throw in a cruise or two or three? Revenge travel at its finest! We'll cover the cruises in future posts.
FLIGHTS
Air travel was covered by Southwest Rapid Rewards points and Companion Pass. Our flight from Baltimore to Miami was the last time we could fly 2-for-1 as Kaleb's companion pass expired December 31, 2021. Despite the bad timing in qualifying for the pass in April of 2020, we made use of it 11 times, saving close to $1500 for my flights. Since we redeemed Southwest points to pay for Kaleb's tickets to begin with, we saved another $1500. Applying for two Southwest credit cards to quickly qualify for the Companion Pass is a great value if you fly Southwest often. At this point in time, I had already been approved for both a Southwest personal and business credit card and timed completion of the spending requirement to secure a Companion Pass in early 2022.
LODGING
I needed to redeem an expiring 2020 Hilton Free Night Certificate, so I paired it with a 2021 certificate plus 90,000 Hilton Honors points for 3 nights at the Hilton Bentley Miami South Beach. The cash rate for this holiday stay would have been $3,000. The certificates came from having the Hilton Honors Aspire credit card. Credit card benefits also included Hilton Diamond status plus a $250 resort credit, so we would receive free breakfast plus whatever we charged to our room up to $250.
Now back to the trip...
If you read my previous blog post, you would recall that I just got back from a girls' cruise on Navigator of the Seas on December 20. So yes, the very next day, I was traveling again. The addition of back-to-back-to-back cruises to our holiday trip meant being away for almost 5 weeks, so I had rented a car from the airport, went home, then returned it the day after, as it would cost less than parking our own car.
We had time to spare before our flight, so Kaleb and I went to the Escape Lounge for some breakfast, thanks to the American Express Platinum Card.
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Masks were still required in the airport and on the flights. After landing in Baltimore, we got our rental car and drove to Kaleb's hometown. There, we visited with family and friends over the course of 10 days and mostly stayed in due to Covid concerns. We did dine out at Horse Inn with Kaleb's friend Emily and her husband Carl. The horse stable-themed decor provided a cozy, rustic atmosphere. Live music was playing tonight - great place to get drinks.
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As always when I am in Lancaster County, I load up on scrumptious chocolates from Evan's Candy and Pennsylvania Dutch-style potato chips at the local supermarket, with the best ones fried in lard.
I was excited when fresh snow fell during our stay; we don't get any at our home in California.
On December 31, we flew down to Miami and took an Uber to the Hilton Bentley. Rooms were in a separate building apart from the lobby and pool area. We had a King Deluxe Studio City View with Balcony, with no complimentary upgrade available as the hotel was sold out.
58-second walk-through of our room:
The complimentary bottle of prosecco was a nice New Year's Eve touch. The kitchenette came in handy for reheating take-out food. Our balcony was shared with the two studios to the left and right of us, but we never saw anyone. The bad part about our location was that it was right above the hotel ballroom and outdoor terrace, where a hosted New Year's Eve party was happening. The festivities didn't end until around 2am, but fortunately we always carry ear plugs.
That evening, we walked down Ocean Drive, but it was so packed full of people, we decided to stay in. We ordered pick-up from Primo Pizza near the hotel using DoorDash credits. It was pretty crazy inside; no one wore masks in South Beach. Many folks were waiting for their food and the kitchen didn't prepare our order until I asked about it.
With the party going on beneath our room, we had no problems staying up until midnight.
2:24 clip on our balcony, ringing in the New Year (don't think anyone down there was paying attention to the time):
Every morning of our stay, we enjoyed a nice breakfast buffet in the hotel's restaurant, Santorini. The airy interior was decorated in a refreshing blue and white, in keeping with the Greek island's theme. Somehow I forgot to take pictures! (it seems nowadays, Hilton gives $15/pp per day food credit instead of the free breakfast buffet)
Afterward, we walked down Ocean Drive and Collins Avenue, checking out the beach and all the art deco architecture.
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| view from our balcony |
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| South Beach |
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| Ocean Drive |
We had dinner reservations at INTIMO, a Peruvian-Japanese fusion restaurant. We chose to sit at an outside table on the sidewalk; it was on a busy street with many pedestrians walking by and cars blazing past. The food was delicious; we ordered seconds of the inti.mo and hamachi sushi bomb.
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| ceviche |
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| sushi bombs and nigiri |
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| Inti maki roll |
The following day, we spent time at the hotel's private beach area; umbrellas and chairs were included with the resort fee. (resort fee waived when staying on award nights) You'd need to get here early to get the chairs facing the water. There was beach service, so we charged food and drinks to the room to use some of the Aspire credit card resort credits.
That night, we reheated Primo Pizza leftovers for dinner and did the proctored BinaxNOW AG test for tomorrow's cruise, with negative results. After watching Sandy do the test before the girls' cruise, I learned to tilt my Surface Pro tablet on its side during the video call so the camera could stand on its own during the 15-minute wait time.
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| taking the BinaxNOW AG test |
And that concludes our stay in South Beach! We aren't party-all-night folks, so we didn't take full advantage of the South Beach experience, but we did find the food quite delicious. If we had more time to explore, I would seek out Cuban and other fusion cuisines.
Now onto our back-to-back-to-back cruises...the first is a 4-night Bahamas cruise on Freedom of the Seas, staying in the Ben and Jerry's "Sweet Suite"...stay tuned!
(Missed reading about the girls' cruise to Baja Mexico? Click here! Don't miss a single update! Click here to subscribe and have the latest delivered straight into your inbox...opt out anytime.)
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Getting excited reading about these trips and want to go? Contact me at kat (at) yellowdogtravel (d0t) com with your ideas and I can help you plan it! Or if you've already put a deposit on a cruise through the cruise line, contact me to get more information on transferring the reservation to me to get bonuses like extra onboard credit or gifts. I have lots of happy repeat clients - references always available.
Another disclaimer: The intention of this blog was to remind Future Me in full detail about where I went and what I did. I could have made it private, but I frequently get questions from family, friends and internet folks about how I planned things, got deals, etc., so instead of repeating the story over and over, I direct them here. If you are offended by anything I say or do, save yourself the discomfort and kindly click away from my blog. Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day!
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