charliew24

Hello, just want to ask a couple of quick questions.

1. Has anyone stayed here and if so is the property nice, pluses/minuses?

2. I am thinking of booking a premium weekend stay using Hilton miles of 60,000. The rate is 249 a night otherwise. Would it be beneficial to use the miles or pay for the room?

Thanks in advance, all comments are appreciated.

Charlie

edg1

I stayed there and it is NOT worthy of a premium hotel. I think that they put it in the premium category because of the high rates charged at this hotel (due to its proximity to the wineries), but it is not worth the price or the premium points in my opinion. It has the feel of a cheaper hotel that was redone to make it seem a little nicer. The walls are very thin, and the rooms are very average by Embassy Suites standards. Given that hotels such as the Waldorf and the Hilton Cavaleri in Rome are in the same category as this one, I have no idea how they justify this hotel as a premium. If you are unable to get a better rate there, try the Marriott instead.

mspman

Hi Charlie.

I agree. I do not think that this property is a 'premium' property. It is only because of the high rates that it is in that category.

However, the swans in the courtyeard are cool.

cataber

As someone who grew up in Napa and one who has stayed at or visited this property many times, I would definitely agree with assessments made above. This is not worth the high prices ($$$ or points). I'd suggest a nice B&B for those prices - certainly a more authentic experience of the Napa Valley...no points/miles, though...

hedoman

edg1 has it right. There are too many good options in this price range.

charliew24

Thanks everyone, I appreciate the answers. Will look into something else.

Charlie

NJUPINTHEAIR

Hi!

I have read many of the posts on this property and they are decidedly mixed.

Cordelli -- What was it about this property that had you so enthralled with it? As you stay often at Hiltons, etc., I am quite interested because of the varying viewpoints, as well as the fact that you really did not go into detail about why it was so nice!

I have been looking into the HGI Napa, but I was not able to get a 6 night award stay for it, whereas, believe it or not, I was able to get it at the E/S!!

For those of you who are interested, I was able to reserve 7/12 - 7/18/04.

Finally, how difficult is it a drive to Sonoma from here?

Thanks in advance for the responses!

yyzflyer

It's not that far depending on your route. I have a map of the area showing both that I made up the last time we were there - could email if you wish.

We saw the ES the last time - it's right in "downtown" Napa, but stayed at the Marriott just north of town. I think getting any award stay longer than a couple of days at that time of year is a real coup.

cordelli

Like everything else out there, depends on where in Sonoma you are driving to. Being a long slender valley, there are like only two or three north south passages, not many to cut across, so if you are in the south part of Sonoma it's easy, if you are way up in the north corner, then of course it's a bit longer.

I like the hotel because first and foremost, the staff has always been great. Never a hassle, check in takes like 30 seconds, if yo uare on a wine weekend visit the bottle is always waiting in the room, etc.

The honors package is always there, while it's not going to kill anybody if we don't get our fifty eight cents worth of water and the bag of chips, it's good when we do.

Their happy hour is the only one in all the Embassies I've ever stayed at that I enjoy. They pour decent wines, the food is simple, cheese, crackers, fruit, and olives. You can take it outside, sit along the little pond set up they have and share with the birds. It's very relaxing.

I like the location. Most parts of Napa are pretty close to it, and we haven't ventured too far up north in Sonoma that traveling is a real hassle. If we were to stick pins in a map of our favorite wineries, the Embassy would be about in the middle of them all.

The property is pretty with the courtyard. Noise has never ever been a factor, not sure if that is because they are a fairly expensive place, or because it's open and spread out.

Lastly, I really enjoy a suite when we are out there. Relax in one room, sleep in another. We sometimes travel with a good friend, and having a door to close off the bedroom is a real nice feature, some of the other properties out there don't include the door. Stupid thing, doors cost so little and there is already a frame there.

The place is comfortable, you can pop open a bottle you just purchased, relax in your room or at a table outside, and nobody will bother you.

NJUPINTHEAIR

YYZ Flyer and Cordelli thank you very much for your prompt responses!

Let me add a bit. I am not a Diamond in Hilton -- only a Gold -- but I am currently a Platinum in Marriott and could easily stay at either the Napa Marriott or the Renaissance in Sonoma.

I thought that it might be a better use of my points -- cost benefit ratio -- to stay at the E/S because I have over 800,000 HHonors points and I frankly am disenchanted with the HHonors program.

That said, I am troubled by the apparent ease that all 3 of the above hotels come up on Priceline and thereby seemingly devalue the respective points I have accumulated all the more!

Frankly, I have read that some feel that the Category 6 designation for the E/S is not deserved especially when the likes of the Cavalieri are taken into account, and I kinda agree, but I don't think I will be going to Europe any time soon, for despite the appreciation of my Hhonors points in that part of the world, for my taste, the $ is so in the toilet, that it just would not be a good use of my time and $$ to go there -- obviously others will differ.

Therefore, given the above, which would you choose?

I have basically heard uniformly good things about the Renaissance, and have read about everything on the E/S -- to some people complaining about the traffice noise from Hwy 29 -- I live in a built up area, so I doubt that would bother me -- to the apparent belief by some that the E/S is just about an avg hotel, notwithstanding your glowing rec, Coredlli.

If it helps, I have placed the link of the event in Sonomoa that I hope to visit, and perhaps this will allow both of you to inform me where I might wish to actually stay, although my wife wants to vist both wine growing regions -- she is the real vine head, I am just the designated driver!!

I have heard really great things about the HGI Napa -- and this property apparently does not show up on PLN -- but can't get the dates to work for me.

So your further input -- as well as that from others would be most appreciated!

One final thing. For those who like to explore the wine growing areas of CA, I found a nifty little search engine that will tell you of all the events going on in a specific area of the wine growing regions of CA. I have placed the link below that of the one containing the Sonoma event that I am interested in.

Thanks for your assistance!



http://www.sonomawine.com/showcase.html


http://www.freeruntech.com/search_form.html

squeakr

having Stayed at all 3 -

the Marriott Napa has recently (past couple of years) been renovated and is very nice, but I STILL don't like the location (a service road parallel to the freeway) and the staff are not the friendliest. The place seems like exacly what pricleine shoppers (of which I am one) are all about - nothing particularly classy about the place.

Ren Sonoma is newish, I don;t like the layout (cottages and rooms spread out in what seems like a giant parking lot) but the staff are awesome, the spa is one of the best I've been to and as I like Sonoma better than Napa it's more convenient for the wineries and restaurants we like. It's not as quiet as one might think for being a resort type facility - noise really carries form the pools and the street - but it's very relaxing once you get settled in.

E/S would not be the price they are if they weren't in Napa. Nice enough location and facilities but you definitely pay a premium for location location location.

I echo the comments on their wonderful staff - and it is nice to have a suite.

I think you'd like the Ren or E/S and especially if you need to use up points E/S is not a bad deal. The happy hous is great, it's a nicer location than the Marriott and you'd be close enough to the Sonoma events you'd like to attend.

edited for spelling



[This message has been edited by squeakr (edited Feb 22, 2004).]

T Q

If the suite part doesn't matter, I'd like to say that our visit to the HGI Napa in Aug last year was great! They too, on Fri and Sat nite only, had a wine/cheese/fruit cracker happy hour. It was a very nice surprise for us. The hotel is new and nice. Since we were without kids that night the suite was unnecessary. We took the wine train which included a nice dinner while cruising up and down the Napa Valley. and thoroughly enjoyed it. Here's the website if you're interested. At the time the ES was much more money.

http://www.winetrain.com/

NJUPINTHEAIR

Thanx Squkr and TQ!

Having looked into just where the festivities that are planned for the night of 7/17, I found that the Hilton Santa Rosa is the closest followed by the D/T Sonoma in Rohnert Park.

Unable to book either the HGI Napa or Santa Rosa for the nights of 7/16 and 7/17 but was lucky to get the D/T.

Would I be better off spending only 50,000 points for the D/T which is much closer to where I want to be on Friday and Saturday -- premium days that might be difficult to book on PLN in any case as it is a weekend, and spend a couple of days at either the HGI in Napa or the less point costly HGI in Fairfield?

20,000 vs. 35,000 points a night is a big difference, but it seems that the HGI Fairfield is not in that nice a location being right next to a mall??

Since I am a fan of Hyatt -- and Diamond in that chain -- I was thinking of flying into Sacramento -- CO has a non-stop from EWR to there -- and staying ovenight at the Sacramento Hyatt and then traveling first to the Hyatt in Lake Tahoe --- never been there -- for a couple of days and then winding up in Napa (somewhere at a Hilton property noted above) and finally in Sonoma for the last 2 nights at the D/T.

How does that plan sound to those who are much more knowledgeable than I?!

Thanks!

yyzflyer

Definitely fly into SMF vs. the bay-area airports IMO. Great airport, well placed between Napa/Sonoma and Tahoe. (The drive to Tahoe is entertaining - you'll find out unless they've improved the road.) Loved Tahoe BTW, but didn't stay at the Hyatt - I believe it's on the north side of the lake away from the "action". We're looking at a week in the wine country this summer, but were leaning towards Sonoma. After your success with an award at the ES though, I'm going to start plugging in dates on the beta Hilton site.

(Hi cordelli! Enjoyed dinner with you and your wife in London.)

yyzflyer

Realizing this is the Hilton forum, I still have to defend this hotel a little. The renovations were underway when we last stayed there, so I haven't seen the completed work. That's not a freeway out front, but a not overly busy 2-lane state road. The best (or worst, depending on your perspective) thing about the location is that the Wine Train runs right past the hotel four times a day. (Personally I thought it was cool.) The staff there (with one very notable front desk exception) were very friendly and we were treated very well. Out of character for a Marriott, they too had a happy hour style wine tasting - probably competition-driven. I wrote a review in the Marriott forum somewhere.

I appreciated your comments on the Sonoma property, which we are considering for this summer.