Marriott Rewards (including Ritz-Carlton) - Reward Travel Itineraries

Wondering whether any others plan vacation itineraries with an eye toward where Marriott properties are located? For the last three years, we've done this; first deciding on a part of the world we want to see and then plotting out a course fro travel, using the Marriotts as waypoints.

For example, we recently completed a 16-day trip to Asia, starting out in Tokyo (Courtyard Tokyo Ginza), then moving to Beijing (Marriott City Wall), overnight train to Xi'an (and a non-Marriott night there), overnight train to Chengdu (and a non-Marriott night there), Chongqing (JW Marriott), overnight train to Guiyang (Renaissance Guiyang), overnight train to Kunming (and a non-Marriott night there), flight to Hong Kong (Renaissance Harbor View). The Marriott properties are a terrific "home base", and everyone looked forward to the beacons of luxury (8 total Marriott nights) separated by the little bits of roughing it.

We're already making plans for next year. Initial thoughts are to include, Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and Poland (ambitious and maybe impossible, but it's a work in progress).

So, share some of your itineraries, and, if you've done something similar to what we're thinking about for next year, even better!

Wondering whether any others plan vacation itineraries with an eye toward where Marriott properties are located?


Not specific to Marriott..but yes, to the "best" hotel in each city.

Examples from past few years:
Shelbourne Renaissance Dublin
Marriott County Hall London
Hyatt Warsaw (OT, but Warsaw was GREAT)
Hotel Imperial Vienna (SPG)
Hyatt Mainz Germany

So, yes, I have. I stay in some real dumps to get the points in the chain that I want to use for vacation in the summer!!!

I use Marriott and Hyatt and ended up planning my trip next year around those two brands. I ended up choosing Bali since my wife and I always wanted to go and the hotels require very little points for rewards compared to alot of other places. We are flying through Hong Kong where we will stay at the JW Marriott for three nights. This will be about 90,000 points. In Bali we will stay at the Courtyard Bali for 4 nights. This is where the free night certificates come in handy since this is only a Cat 3. We will then stay nine nights at the Bali Hyatt using a combination of free credit card nights and points. This is also a good hotel for rewards being a category one and required only 5,000 Hyatt points a night.

I wanted to go all out on this vacation because I figured this might be the only year where I will be Marriott Platinum and Hyatt Diamond at the same time. I think for the future I will move strictly to Marriott since it is more practical for work travel.

Not sure if this is really Marriott related. This should be moved to one of the travel sections.

Wondering whether any others plan vacation itineraries with an eye toward where Marriott properties are located?

Not sure if this is really Marriott related. This should be moved to one of the travel sections.

:rolleyes:

I originally took this OT. It seems the OP was asking specifically about Marriott. I think it should stay.

Back OT-does anyone else stay in marginal MI properties - ie. Fairfield/courtyard/older properties, so they can generate points for next years vacation?