250,000 MR points.... Where to go?

ronniefastback · Dec 22, 12, 12:45 pm

I've got 250,000 points and am thinking of where to go. First thoughts are either the Caribbean or Europe. My wife said, "I want to go to the best Marriott in the world."

So, that said.... if you had this amount of points laying around, where would you go?

Mr. Vker · Dec 22, 12, 12:58 pm

Many will say the best use of a large chunk of points is a Travel Package. 7 night stay plus a given amount of FF miles. They have been of great use to us.

http://www.marriott.com/rewards/usepoints/morepack.mi

I am VERY partial to the Thailand hotels. Great point value, beautiful, and fun. Bangkok and Phuket make a great trip. I think these can be considered the best Marriotts in the world.

Although we go to Marriotts in the Caribbean, I don't think any would be considered "best in the world" except Scrub Island.

Europe has great properties. Just depends on what you want.

slocouple · Dec 22, 12, 1:08 pm

First, we are not big Marriott points accumulators, but have done redemptions with Hyatt, SPG and Hilton. I think it would be best to try to think creatively. If you go for the obvious resort-y destinations, you'll likely eat through your points so fast it will make your head spin. How about, instead, choosing a place you'd like to go, and then working around it. For instance, if you choose London, there is a Marriott at Heathrow airport. Silly, perhaps, but it may be a good points value for the first and last days of a nice vacation. Prague is a fabulous city with a Marriott. San Diego, CA has a Courtyard in a beautiful Old Town location. A vacation in San Diego would be fantastic, I would think.

MSPeconomist · Dec 22, 12, 2:15 pm

It costs a lot of points, but you can use points for RC stays. If you consider them to be Marriotts, they would be among the best Marriotts in the world. IIRC a night at the RC Hong Kong is 70,000 points.

R&R · Dec 22, 12, 2:25 pm

PHULAY BAY Ritz Carlton Thailand would be the ultimate vacation !

Paradise in this lifetime!

In 2012, there was a Free night included in a 5 Night award for Ritz Carltons.
It continues into 2013 .
But sadly NOT at Phulay Bay, since it is in a Reserve area!
Possibly true for the Phuket Marriott Resort area, as well.

CJKatl · Dec 22, 12, 3:10 pm

Agree on the Thailand hotels and Prague. The Budapest Marriott provided us with a very memorable vacation, too. The CL there is among the best in the chain, and the location/views are awesome.

You could do a couple European locations and take trains from one place to another.

USirritated · Dec 22, 12, 4:57 pm

It might be helpful if you were to tell us what kinds of vacations you like. If you like to go to cities and see art, museums, history, palaces, and similar, the recommendation would be one thing, but if you prefer beaches or some other kind of natural surroundings, the recommendation would probably be very different. I am sure there are as many as 20-25 hotels in the Marriott system which might be considered among the best in the system, depending on who you might talk with.

There is one other way to go also. Check out the Travel & Leisure 500 Best Hotels in the world issue. There are always several Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels represented on that list, along with the Peninsula's, Mandarin-Oriental's, Taj's, Fairmonts, Oberoi's, Four Season's and the like. I just did a quick check for Asia, and there are 4 Ritz's in China, 1 Ritz in Malaysia, and 2 JW Marriott's in Thailand on the list for that part of the world alone. All of the other regions are listed too. Check it out here.

R&R · Dec 22, 12, 5:17 pm

Don't be 'irritated' quote: "It might be helpful if you were to tell us what kinds of vacations you like."

It was pointed out by ronniefastback, that they had Marriott points to use for a fabulous vacation, so there is no need to review all the outstanding hotels of the many chains throughout the world to find one.
Marriott can more then give them enough choices to enjoy those points.

cyclogenesis · Dec 22, 12, 5:37 pm

If you were ever thinking of getting the 1K worth of cheques you need to do it before the end of the year..

USirritated · Dec 22, 12, 5:55 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by USirritated

There is one other way to go also. Check out the Travel & Leisure 500 Best Hotels in the world issue. There are always several Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels represented on that list, along with the Peninsula's, Mandarin-Oriental's, Taj's, Fairmonts, Oberoi's, Four Season's and the like. I just did a quick check for Asia, and there are 4 Ritz's in China, 1 Ritz in Malaysia, and 2 JW Marriott's in Thailand on the list for that part of the world alone. All of the other regions are listed too. Check it out here.

Quote:

Originally Posted by R&R

Don't be 'irritated' quote: "It might be helpful if you were to tell us what kinds of vacations you like."

It was pointed out by ronniefastback, that they had Marriott points to use for a fabulous vacation, so there is no need to review all the outstanding hotels of the many chains throughout the worldto find one.
Marriott can more then give them enough choices to enjoy those points.

I read the OP's post carefully, and responded accordingly. The T&L list is quite easy to pick out the RC and Marriott properties, which I did for just one region. The OP was asking for an opinion on the best in the world, which is of course a matter of opinion. Since most of the opinions were for Asia so far, that was the region I chose to highlight. Since the T&L list is a survey of many people, and not just the opinion of a few people, I thought it might be helpful for the OP. I am sorry that you do not agree, or maybe that you did not carefully read what I wrote, but I never did tell the OP to consider other hotel chains, I just mentioned them as all on the list, to indicate the list is diverse.

As far as you being irritated by my question to the OP, was that really necessary? Obviously, a beach resort might be the best to one person, but another person might prefer cities, is that a problem for you R&R?

BKKLEE · Dec 22, 12, 7:53 pm

knowing that there are 3 JWs in Thailand, was wondering which 2 made the list, only to find only 1 in the T&L cited, but at least it's good to know that the JW Phuket was NOT amongst them (as so too w the St Regis BKK)........

Quote:

Originally Posted by USirritated

Check out the Travel & Leisure 500 Best Hotels in the world issue. There are always several Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels represented on that list, along with the Peninsula's, Mandarin-Oriental's, Taj's, Fairmonts, Oberoi's, Four Season's and the like. I just did a quick check for Asia, and there are 4 Ritz's in China, 1 Ritz in Malaysia, and 2 JW Marriott's in Thailand on the list for that part of the world alone. All of the other regions are listed too. Check it out here.

USirritated · Dec 22, 12, 8:53 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by BKKLEE

knowing that there are 3 JWs in Thailand, was wondering which 2 made the list, only to find only 1 in the T&L cited, but at least it's good to know that the JW Phuket was NOT amongst them (as so too w the St Regis BKK)........

Not only that, but I miscounted for China, where there are 3 Ritz's, not 4, and I missed the Ritz in Singapore.

Oh well, the point is still the same, there are lots of choices, and T&L provides an objective opinion on the best Ritz Carlton, Marriott, and JW Marriott hotels worldwide.

BKKLEE · Dec 22, 12, 9:46 pm

objective................highly disagree....... as toooooo many props continue to 'live" on their reputations with services and attitude previously provided having significantly deterioriated...........

Quote:

Originally Posted by USirritated

........ the point is still the same, there are lots of choices, and T&L provides an objective opinion on the best Ritz Carlton, Marriott, and JW Marriott hotels worldwide.

USirritated · Dec 22, 12, 11:39 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by BKKLEE

objective................highly disagree....... as toooooo many props continue to 'live" on their reputations with services and attitude previously provided having significantly deterioriated...........

No, sorry, I have been to some of these hotels, and have even stayed at a some of them (Mandarin-Oriental Bangkok, used to just be The Oriental, Bangkok, The Peninsula Bangkok, Raffles Singapore, and have visited some others) and the quality of them is very high, and if a hotel is not maintained properly to a high level, their rankings suffer, or even fall off the list. If you follow the rankings year after year, you can see the changes, the new entries, the disappearing entries, etc. All of the hotels on the list are re-rated every year.

BKKLEE · Dec 23, 12, 12:53 am

from your list of great hotels, I have had a dozen stays over several years at the JW Bangkok cited............ have found the lounge fare repeatative every 3-days..........even with asian suite U/G program for plats have never received a suite U/G......... rooms need renovation (understand now in progress)......... quality of their seafood buffet has really gone downhill.........besides the "spiked" onion soup nothing special............

but they're still on the list - so, as I stated, and restate here, on the list due to previous yearly stds, but do not deserve to be on the list now.........

Quote:

Originally Posted by USirritated

No, sorry, I have been to some of these hotels, and have even stayed at a some of them ................ and the quality of them is very high, and if a hotel is not maintained properly to a high level, their rankings suffer, or even fall off the list. If you follow the rankings year after year, you can see the changes, the new entries, the disappearing entries, etc. All of the hotels on the list are re-rated every year.