California Dreaming: Travel Adventure from LA to Disneyland

The Hyatt Andaz West Hollywood is centrally located for easy access to tourist spots, the Hyatt Andaz West Hollywood provided us with spacious rooms and comfortable beds. The kids particularly enjoyed the complimentary snacks in the lobby. The only drawback was the valet only parking. Waiting for our car from the valet took some time. It would 

have been faster to retrieve our own vehicle. Due to the chilly weather, we didn't get a chance to explore the rooftop pool. Overall it was a nice hotel and a convenient location for sightseeing around Los Angeles. 

Disneyland was also our favorite part of this trip. Disneyland was also our favorite part of this trip. I tend to like the Residence Inn line of hotels from Marriott for a number of 

reasons, including the suite layouts, full kitchens, and free breakfast.  The Residence Inn in Anaheim, CA, was conveniently within walking distance of Disneyland. Featuring a comfortable setup with a separate bedroom and living room, the room's full kitchen helped us save on food expenses. While the pool area was enjoyable, most of our time was spent at the parks. The highlight for the kids was the delightful Mickey Mouse waffles during the free breakfast—a very pleasant and comfortable stay overall. For more about our Disneyland trip check out our post. This was our first time ever at Disneyland and we had a blast. It is on our list of repeat vacation spots. I have stayed at many Residence Inn hotels, several of which are dog friendly (we have 2 dogs, that we like to travel with when our vacations do not include air travel). 

Credit Cards: 

Having a Chase World of Hyatt credit card proved advantageous, providing an annual free night in a category 1-4 hotel and an additional free night for spending $15,000 annually. With a 65,000 sign-up bonus, we used the points for a 3-night stay at the Hyatt Andaz West Hollywood (total Hyatt points was 60,000 for our stay). A 3 night stay at the Andaz West Hollywood in the begning of November is around $977.

The Hilton American Express Surpass card is my primary credit card for groceries, gas, and restaurants, due to them being bonus categories. Hilton Honors offers the 5th night free on all stays booked with points. The total points for our stay in Anaheim was 240,000 (60,000 per night *4 nights). I always book Hilton stays in multiple of 5 nights if I am using points. If I am staying longer than 5 nights, I often book 5 nights on points and pay cash for the rest or use free night certificates. A 5 night stay at the Residence Inn Anaheim in November would be aproximately, $1,584.

The Hilton American Express Surpass card's free night certificate, earned by spending over $15,000 yearly, along with the Hilton American Express Aspire card's automatic free night certificate, provided two free nights used for our stay at the Hilton Santa Monica. The Hilton Santa Monica is 80,000 points per night.  Opting for free night certificates for shorter stays in higher points hotels, we saved 160,000 points for our 2-night stay at the Hilton Santa Monica.  A 2 night stay at the Hilton Santa Monica in November would be approximately $790.

We ended up spending less than $1,000 for an 11-night stay in California including airfare for 4 people. If we had paid cash for our hotels, it would have cost $3,351. Without our 2 free companion tickets, we would have paid $1,988 for the 4 plane tickets. Meaning if we had not travel hacked this trip, it would have cost $5,339 for our airfare and hotels. By strategically using travel rewards available to us, we saved $4,345 on our trip to California. Saving this money on hotels and airfare, meant we had some more money to spend on our experiences while on our trip. In fact, if we had not travel hacked the hotels and airfare, we likely would not have been able to afford to go to Disneyland. We had a

wonderful time and are in the mix of planning our travel hacked trip to Walt Disney World next. Subsequent to this trip, I have learned some tips and tricks to save money on Disney Land and Disney World Tickets. Next time, I plan on saving even more money for our Disneyland trip.