Preacher7

Now that this venue is open for booking using Hyatt points, I’m wondering if anyone who has stayed there before could give us your input as to what the property is like. I booked a three night stay for this August before the availability dried up, but now suspect that may be prime hurricane season. Anyone know if that’s true?

craigthemif

Hurricanes are not typically a problem on the Caribbean coasts of Central and South America.

Of course that doesn't mean the weather won't be hot, humid and rainy...

Preacher7

Thx for this! The resort has no AC, and relies on open air to cool the rooms. If it’s raining, that could be interesting...

escape4

Wow I had no idea there was a SLH over there. How do you even get to Calala island, which airport nearby would be the best recommendation? Bluefields?

Maybe they just took it out of hyatt.com but I cannot find any kind of availability on Hyatt's website right now, not even cash.

Preacher7 when did you book? In the last few days? Good for you that you got points availability! ^ When booking with points, is it all-inclusive like it is when booking cash on SLH?

If I was holding a points booking now, no way I would cancel just for fear of hurricanes. Keep it!

projectmaximus

Minimum stays may be messing with your search, but they have a total of 4 rooms so I wouldn't be surprised if it is now booked solid. It was shared on some blog sites the other day and seems there was a huge rush to book whatever was left (there was already limited award availability before that)

The impression I got is you fly into Managua and then the hotel provides free transfers for all guests (with a puddle jumper AND boat ride). In fact, the entire stay is all-inclusive.

redstormrising

Resort (on both cash and paid stays) includes RT transfers from Managua, not sure about Bluefields but would check with the resort prior to booking flights outside of Managua. AA seemed to have the best options flight-wise of the US3, but couldn't make saver availability work for the times I was looking for.

For checking availability: what worked best for me was checking through the Calala site itself, find time when a Junior Suite is available and then check Hyatt. It looked to me like if the Junior Suite price was $2K+ per night it was not available on points, less than $2Kish it was. I found a week or two in June with 5-night availability but this was earlier in the week. This looks like an awesome redemption, for anyone that didn't see looks like even on points food and drinks are all-inclusive, along with a lot of excursions (diving and some others are more). Will definitely be looking to book here soon.

Preacher7

Just booked this week, after the bloggers got ahold of it, later in the day that the news broke. Pretty easy to find availability that day, not so much now. It calls itself “ultra-inclusive”!

ive been reading reviews since booking, and they sound mixed. I thought they’d all be raving about it, but weirdly they’re not. Has anyone out there in FlyerTalk world actually made a stay there in the past? I’d like to get a take from some of you to know if my wife and i should really pursue this thing. I don’t want it to turn out to be a dud after all the hassle in getting there (flying to MGA, interior flight, 2 hour boat ride). If it’s not all that and a bag of chips, I’d rather just do Miraval again in AZ!

Benjh

I've just booked 4 nights for 160k points, next march (2021)! And it was the very last room available. Few things to remember when booking, from my experience:
- Only 4 rooms: 3 junior suites and a master suite. Points book into a junior suite. No elite benefits there.
- 3 nights stay minimum. If you're trying to book for 1 or 2 nights, that's why you can't get through.
- obvisouly, very limited availability. again, I just booked the last room available for 4 nights a year from now, that's crazy.
- availability opens on the first of the month for the full month a year from now. So this April 1st 2020, all of april 2021 will open up
- hotel website search engine is your best tool, it shows availability very clearly https://www.calala-island.com/#book_suite
- For my dates, junior suites were $2800 so I don't think point availability depends on the price.

Hyatt clearly states a booking on point is exactly the same as with cash, truly all inclusive. It includes transfer from Managua, on one of two daily La Costena flights to Bluefields, then a boat ride.
I've exchanged a few messages with the hotel, and they are open to arrangements if you want to stay in Bluefields, or say, the corn islands. they can book your flight transfer on the day of your choice, which is great.

That being said, just like you, I'm very curious to know what the hotel is truly like. I mean: 4 rooms only, almost $10k for a 3 nights stay, it should be the most luxurious stay ever.
Are there really no FTer around here who've been there?

parrotheadmjb

How strict are they with the cancellation policy these days, I want to book an award here but the cash rate is $17000. I would hate to find out I can't go and get dinged for a $8500 charge lol

onlysuites

Also has anyone been here recently? Is the trip worth it? No a/c in rooms though is there always a nice breeze?

flyguy6

+1 for onlysuites's question above.

Is it possible to book an award stay here for 2 rooms at once for same dates? When I search I can't find any days with more that one room available even if all 3 of the standard rooms show available for cash.

liondragonx5y

Only two of the three standard rooms are available on points, so it may be pretty difficult to find two rooms for the same dates. They might have recently even changed it to one of the three, but I can’t confirm that.

mbmd

OMAAT stayed there just before the pandemic and gave a pretty solid review. It might be a good stay for some people but the whole "journey" did really seem worth it to me based on his review. To me the place looks nice but not the same level as Aman/FS and some STR/PH properties. Was a hard pass for my wife and I...

lhrhappy

Same. We're looking at Sailrock instead.

parrotheadmjb

It might depend on the dates but I can confirm it's still possible to do two rooms on points. I have 6 nights here booked on points next year and I just checked the same dates and there is still a room available to book on points.