Staycation: Grand Hyatt

I splurged last weekend, and it was completely worth it. We spent the weekend in the Grand Hyatt, and never left the building.

We did a small escape from stress of work/life/relocation by heading over to the Hyatt for a staycation. This hotel happens to have a special deal for HKID holders called “8-2-8”: $828 per person (min 2) for 36 hours in the hotel from 8AM in the morning til 8PM the next night. I found out about it through a random SassyHK article and emailed their reservation service an enquiry to discover tons of availability and upgrade options (still at discount). I called to book and finalize.

For the weekend you can choose whether you have a harbor view or pool view (there is a price difference), and normal or club level, which includes breakfast and complimentary cocktails, snacks and canapés among other things. We splurged: pool view at club level. Free cocktails for us!

We arrived at 8:45 on Saturday morning, after a night of drinks with a friend who left town, groggy but excited. We had a suitcase with our swimwear, workout gear, nice outfits for dinner and casual outfits for lounging, and a few games and books. We ditched our computers completely. At the ground level we were greeted by the doorman, who escorted us to the front desk, then the clerk noticed we were club level and escorted us to our real check-in at the 30th floor. They checked us in for 5 minutes, with full directions for enjoying all the amenities of the club. We threw our stuff down in the room–I dozed for a few minutes while P had a soak in the beautiful bathtub–and then we went back out to the club lounge for an amazing breakfast.

The food spread included everything from fruit and yogurt, to cheese and bread, to sausage and poached eggs, to mango smoothies. In the two days I enjoyed it, I tried as much as possible. So much so that I didn’t get hungry for lunch either day and replaced it with an afternoon tea with muffins.

The rest of our time was mostly unscheduled, and we worried it would rain, so we seized some sunlight and went down to the pool. It is gorgeous: long enough for a lap pool, but with a natural shape that allows for more pool side cocktails and lounging than an olympic size, and it wasn’t so chlorinated your eyes burn. It’s a beautiful layout with great potential for both fun and exercise and relaxing with bubbly, as one of the concierges suggested.

Fortunately, even though the forecast was rain and storms, it was sunny for us all weekend; unfortunately we forgot to pack sunscreen because of the forecast. We tried to minimize our unprotected exposure, so we returned to the room after a quick dip and lounge, and decided to book a tennis court. They are operated by the Dynasty Club, next door, but on the same level as the pool, and the concierge set up our booking with rackets and three tennis balls for an hour. We wondered at first why they insisted we buy the balls, and then after an hour of playing we had only 1 left: the other two were lost to a thick vine covering a shaded path alongside the court. Mystery solved. We are also very bad at tennis. With all our setbacks of skill and wildly flung balls, it was incredibly fun, and also the worst sunburn I have had in an age. Even though the court was partially shaded, we were in direct sun for most of the hour of play; wear sunscreen.

We cleaned up a bit and then ordered room service at 3, of assorted “bakeries”: muffin, croissant, tart, wheat roll. Our afternoon tea was set and we read and played cards on our table for a few hours while the F1 qualifying sessions were on in the background. The only other items we had on the schedule were cocktails at 5:30 and a dinner reservation in the steakhouse at 7. When we arrived at the cocktail and canapés at 5:30, we realized we didn’t really need to have dinner with all this food freely available, but we did anyway. We made note that the canapés were as plentiful as the breakfast buffet, and limited ourselves to a tray of delicious appetizers and two glasses of merlot.

Having not left the building since 8:45, we weren’t about to start, and we went to our dinner reservation on the 1st floor steakhouse. They greeted us with “Hello Ms. Olson, Right this way,” as we had been greeted by nearly everyone on staff in the entire hotel, and the waiter instructed us on the special they had on seafood: currently alive to be cooked as freshly as possible. We were conflicted, and decided to share the mussles and a steak. Though this isn’t a restaurant review, I will say what I think: the steak was phenomenal perfectly rare and 1.5 inches thick at least, perfectly seasoned, and comes with an array of mustard selections. The mussles were less than perfect, but still enjoyable. I would stick to steak in the future. We also had dessert and port after dinner: salted caramel brownie. Weirdly, one of our main conversation topics was the art in the restaurant–and we were rather divided over the piece at our table because of what in my opinion was bad use of chiaroscuro. On the whole the meal was fabulous, in a beautiful restaurant with gorgeous steak and wine.

We returned to the room, and borrowed a DVD from the club collection: Pulp Fiction and watched until we fell asleep.

Sunday was much the same: up for breakfast overlooking the harbor, pool side reading, headed to the gym for cardio and weights, more bath time, complimentary afternoon champagne overlooking the harbor in the lounge, watching the F1 preview and reading in the room, back to the canapés and cocktails at 5:30 (the only item on the schedule).

The entire weekend was worry free and calm. We didn’t leave the premises for any reason, and just enjoyed the quiet and being away from our computers. We also somehow managed to not discuss our upcoming move, or work, or any of the regular life stress. Books, films, art, food and other activities were the main focus of our attention.