Casino Hotels

Have you stayed at a hotel that is also a casino? If you've ever been to Vegas I'm sure you have! Marriott has multiple properties that are hotels and casinos.

We have stayed in tons of hotels that are also casinos with our kids. It's usually quite fun, especially if they have childcare like the Palms. Casino hotels usually have multiple restaurants including buffets and Starbucks. They typically have fabulous pools and spas. My favorite casino pools in Vegas are The Palazzo, Mandalay Bay, Monte Carlo, Golden Nugget, Cosmopolitan, and Caesars. Some even have shopping and shows. In Vegas almost all the casinos have shopping. Caesars and Planet Hollywood basically have their own malls. 

Post Powered by Marriott (I received no compensation for this post.)

Achieving Balance during a Military Move

Join us Monday May 6 at 9:00pm EST on Twitter to chat about Finding Balance on the Road.  This twitter chat is sponsored by Marriott Residence Inn in conjunction with Travelingmom.com.  Follow hashtag #TMOM to join the conversation.

Achieving balance during a military move is always the impossible task. You've just spent days (more like months) planning, packing, cleaning, loading, out processing, collecting medical records, school records, and about a million other things. Once you've actually pulled out of the driveway and onto the road you are already beyond exhausted and have days of driving ahead of you.

When we moved 3,000 miles with 3 kids from Portland, Oregon to Panama City, Florida we had 9 days. I drove my mini van, my husband drove our Explorer and towed his 1968 Camaro, and my dad drove the biggest U-haul we could get and towed the largest trailer we could get.

The military move was already off to a bad start when we ran out of room in the U-haul and had to get a trailer the next morning, but I knew we had a nice hotel to look forward to as we headed toward Boise. We were staying the night at the Boise Residence Inn near the mall. We had stayed there the previous year on vacation, so I knew it was nice and the perfect place to stay during a military move.

2 bedroom suite

Like all Residence Inns it had

• pool
• hot tub
• evening meals during the weekdays
• hot buffet breakfast
• free grocery shopping
• fitness room
• tennis court
• basketball court
• kitchen in your room

Even better is the room layout, always a suite. The 2 bedroom allowed us to sleep in one room, my dad in another room, and the kids in the living room. Ensuring that us drivers got a good nights sleep.

I got to the hotel hours before my husband and dad arrived. Instead of having to take the kids to eat when I'm tired by myself, we just relaxed at our hotel. We checked in and went to the complimentary evening meal, which included beer and wine. Afterwards I took the kids swimming. Swimming is the perfect way to burn off all the energy they had after sitting in a car for 6 hours and the hot tub was the perfect way for me to recuperate.

Residence Inn Las Vegas South Swimming Pool

The next morning we had a great breakfast and took the kids swimming again to burn off energy before another long car ride. We then headed out towards our next stop the Las Vegas Residence Inn. That's right we drove from one Residence Inn to another the entire trip, because they are always nice with the amenities we need. They also offer military rates.

Residence Inn has a new Family Travel Talk Forum on Facebook. It's a place where moms and dads can discuss family travel, finding balance and making memories. Here you can get advice on how to get the most out of your family vacation and tips for road trips with kids. It's a great resource for military families when they are planning a military move.

Twitter Party
Join Travelingmom.com on Monday May 6th at 6 PM EST for a #TMOM twitter party all about Finding Balance and your chance to win fabulous prizes. Visit the website for more information and to RSVP.

Fabulous Prizes
1 - $400 Residence Inn gift card
2 - $200 Residence Inn gift cards
1 - Cat Cora by Starfrit 12 Piece Stackable Stainless Steel Cookware Set

The Twitter party on Monday is sponsored by Residence Inn. Even though they are our sponsor opinions are my own.

Bourbon Orleans - Hotel Review

 Do you have a trip planned to New Orleans, but don’t know where to stay? Last time we went to New Orleans we stayed at the Bourbon Orleans. They were offering a special rate on Travelzoo.com that included breakfast. Since, we were choosing to route through New Orleans on a military pcs, we were very budget conscious and I booked it solely on the price and did no research. Imagine our surprise when we arrived to a luxury hotel.

Yes, despite the reasonable prices, this is a luxury hotel located on Bourbon Street with a pool. The inside has a beautiful lobby, a restaurant, a bar, and the rooms are lovely. In the middle of the hotel is an open courtyard with a salt water swimming pool. It was a extremely hot day in June and the pool was beyond inviting. The pool area was clean and quiet. The kids enjoyed playing in the pool while dad and I sipped on our complimentary cocktails from the hotel bar.

As I mentioned, our rate included breakfast and it was delicious. It wasn’t your typical hotel breakfast buffet, it was better. They served large portions of eggs, meats, potatoes, pastries, pancakes and anything else you may want to eat. The food in New Orleans is phenomenal and the hotel’s good met my expectations of having wonderful food.

Bourbon Orleans offers valet parking for a fee. They take your car to a secured parking lot.

Mansion House Hotel in Elgin, Scotland

Where to Stay in Elgin, Scotland

The Mansion House Hotel is located in Northeast Scotland in the small town of Elgin.  It's a beautiful hotel inside and out.  It's a 19th century Baronial mansion and also the town's country club.  My husband got there before me and let me know I was going to flip when I saw the hotel!  He was right. (Thank you Air Force!  He was on a work trip that I crashed.)

Unfortunately these are all the pictures I have.  My phone froze up and I lost most of the pictures I took during our Scotland and Ireland trip.  This hotel has a pool, jacuzzi, sauna, steam room, billiard room, multiple dining areas, and more.  They also have tv's in every room with cable.  Breakfast was included with our stay and it was delicious.  It is not a buffet, but there is plenty to choose from.   I believe we paid $129 pounds a night. The Mansion House hotel can be contacted at 01343548811 or reception@mansionhousehotel.co.uk

The Truth behind Hotel Security

Until recently, I never thought much about hotel security.  It was only once I needed them that I interacted with them.  I found that many of the assumptions I had about hotel security were completely off based.

False Belief - No one comes in the room except the house keeper.
Truth - At any time, in a hotel were a card key system is used, there are many people that can gain access to your room.  Housekeepers, mini bar attendants, room inspectors, managers, maintenance, and more.

False Belief - There are cameras all over the hotel. 
Truth - They have cameras in the elevators, but beyond that not many.

False Belief - The room has already been clean, therefor, no one else will enter the room.
Truth - Workers come in your room for many other reasons besides cleaning. For example: the head housekeeper may come in your room to inspect the work the housekeeper did.

False Belief - When the privacy light is on no one can enter your room.
Truth - These lights mean nothing to the staff.  One security officer at Caesar's Palace told me that meant: Knock instead of using the doorbell.  A hotel manager at Caesar's told me that 85% of people leave them on "accidentally" and become upset if their room is not made up.  The hotel policy is to disregard the privacy light all together and assume you left it on by accident. 

False Belief - The room door shut all the way when I heard it slam shut. 
Truth - Many of the doors are heavy and seem to slam shut.  Due to fire codes, that prevent smoke from spreading into rooms, there is a barrier all around the doorway.  The door slams into this and may or may not actually close.  You should actually push it a little until you hear the door click. 

False - Placing items in the safe will prevent them from being stolen.
Truth - Items are often stolen right out the safes and sometimes the entire safe is taken from the wall.  (This is information I was told by a detective.)

Pin It

Hotel Camino Maya–Copan, Honduras

We went to Copan, Honduras over Easter weekend and stayed at Hotel Camino Maya.  It is on a busy corner across from the plaza and very easy to find. The street along one side of the hotel was filled with vendors selling all kids of goodies.  The other street had food vendors.  Overall the location was great.

Our room was good.  These are pictures of a triple room, you can see some pictures of their regular rooms here.  We had two double beds, a bathroom with a shower only, tv, bottled water, and most important air conditioning!  The maid service was good, we never saw them make up the room.  From what I could tell they cleaned and replaced everything daily, sheets, water, soap, and towels.  The tv had cable with some channels in English.  The lobby had 2 computers with free internet. 

The hotel had a bar, Lost Monkey’s and a restaurant, Elisa’s.  We of course had to try both.  We ate at Elisa’s the first night we got there.  I don’t remember much about it after the exhaustion of so much traveling.  I can remember how good the Honduran tacos looked.  The guy eating them said they were fantastic.  We had the room closest to Lost Monkeys so we were able to actually go to the bar and watch the kids in the room at the same time.  This was a first for us!  Lost Monkeys seemed like a popular hangout and was fun.

The hotel was built to where it has a big open courtyard.  I especially enjoyed sitting out there in the morning having my coffee.
When we were there the hotel was bright red.  If you look on their website it is yellow.  The bar also has a different name on the website.  Don’t worry though, you are looking at the right website!

Hotel Camino Maya info

(504)2651-4646 /4446/4518

info@caminomayahotel.com

http://www.caminomayahotel.com/

Hesperia Tower Hotel - Barcelona, Spain

Hotel Hesperia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Hotel Hesperia Tower

The Barcelona hotel we stayed at was Hotel Hesperia Tower.  It was unbelievably nice, designed by Richard Rogers a famous British architect.  It was by far the nicest hotel we stayed in on our trip. 

After flying into the wrong airport and then taking over an hour long bus ride into Barcelona we found ourselves in downtown Barcelona at 2:00 AM wondering where our hotel was. We looked at the map and quickly decided it was to late to be trying to figure this out, so we had to find a cab.  After walking around for about five minutes a cab rolled by and picked us up.  We got lucky because our hotel was no where near where we were and we were not sure the cab driver understood which hotel we were saying!  After the stress and exhaustion of the day I was so relieved to see such a beautiful hotel and room.  

Room Service

They even had room service at that hour.  Again, we were lucky, because we had not had dinner.  We ordered the "lunchbox" which was swiftly brought to us.  It was a huge sandwich and salad, assorted dessert and some other stuff.  It was so good I wish I had taken a picture.  

This was also the cheapest hotel we stayed in!  Only $68 a night with breakfast.  The breakfast buffet had a huge selection and everything was delicious.  At that price it might just be the best hotel in Barcelona!

Here are a few photos of our room.

Hotel Milton Roma

Looking for a hotel in Rome? We chose to stay at the Rome hotel, Hotel Milton Roma.

Here are a few picture of our room. It was small but it had air conditioning! The bathroom was very small and the shower was really small and you couldn't keep it from flooding the bathroom. The location is not the greatest, but the bus stop and subway station are right outside the door! It is within walking distance of the Colosseum and Roman Forum.

The greatest thing about this hotel was the breakfast. They put out quite the spread! Eggs, bacon, lots of coffee choices, fresh bread with yummy jams, fruit, meat cheese, tomatoes and mozzarella, all kinds of pastries and more.