Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Road Trip: Our Accommodations in Monterey

For our babymoon we wanted accommodations that offered comfort and service. We chose The Clement Monterey, an Intercontinental Hotel, built in 2007. The hotel is impeccably kept, the staff polite and incredibly accommodating.
Road Trip: Our Room

Miniature bonsai, orchids, a zen garden, and sea otters graced our room. These were nice touches. I hadn't stayed at a hotel that had plants before; it definitely made the room feel more like a home. On Christmas Day, we discovered a candy cane had been hooked to our door - an unexpected touch.
Road Trip: The Details

The Clement Monterey was also the first property that actually followed its water conservation policy regarding linen replacement. No matter what I've done at other places, wet towels have always been replaced. Here the room was tidied, but as we wanted the linens were not replaced.

There were only two minor nits with our room. The package we chose included breakfast. The only downside with this was that we had to go across the street to the restaurant to redeem the coupons. Had we known that we couldn't have breakfast delivered to the room with this package, we'd probably have skipped the package. I don't remember seeing this restriction when I booked; it should be a little clearer. Our room had a view of the main pedestrian/cyclist trail. In the summer, this trail is packed and noisy. Over the Christmas holidays, few people were on the trail. During tourist season, to ensure a quiet room, be sure to select a room with a water view.

The hotel has a VIP Kids Club area and offers in-room babysitting. It's definitely on our list of places for a weekend getaway when we have Gates. This trip we chose not to take the sea otters home with us; with Gates, we may leave with the sea otters in hand.

Tomorrow I'll share our experiences with room service as well as our breakfasts.

What did you do over the Holiday?

Happy Travels!
Eden
 
Credits: All images taken by Eden Hensley Silverstein for The Road to the Good Life.