A good hotel with excellent dining but is expensive and ultimately lacks activities, which seems a bit odd for a hotel billing itself as a beach resort.

This stay occurred in May 2023

Booking

We booked this hotel when it was a Category 7 hotel with Hyatt, using a Category 1-7 free night certificate earned for requalifying Hyatt Globalist status. The hotel has since moved up to Category 8, costing between 35,000 and 45,000 Hyatt points per night. Cash rates at this hotel seem to hover around $1,000/night on weekends, making it a good use of points if you’d otherwise consider paying that cash price.

Note that rooms here do not show when trying to book two adults and two children and so I booked a room noting only two adults on the reservation. In fact, the hotel bills itself as an “adult-centered hotel” on its website. However, we found the room plenty big for our needs, especially since our kids are smaller. I didn’t try to sneak anyone in or otherwise try to hide the fact I had the kids with me. This wasn’t a problem, and we found other guests bringing in kids as well. Just don’t expect them to have any activities or amenities geared toward younger children, though the restaurant does have a kids menu.

Earning Hyatt Points

An excellent option for earning Hyatt points is the Chase Ink Preferred. Currently, my refer-a-friend link offers a massive 100,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points that can be transferred into Hyatt at a 1:1 ratio for spending $8,000 in the first three months. Note this is a business credit card, but you may be eligible for your side gig and not even know it.

The personal Hyatt credit card (not a referral link) is also a good option for earning Category 1-4 free night awards, useable at this property. But the current sign-up bonus is lackluster (30k points for $3k spend, and then earn at 2x on everyday spend for the next $15k within the first six months). I’d advise waiting for a better offer.

Arrival and First Impressions

We arrived at the hotel and left the car with valet. One awesome feature of Hyatt Globalist status is free parking when fully using points (including free night certificates) and it saved us $60, which is a bit obscene for the area but they must feel their cash prices for the rooms justify the high parking fees.

Interestingly, the walk from the valet to the front desk was short, but the front desk already knew who I was and greeted me by name before I said a word (presumably valet told her). The friendly agent quickly checked us in and informed me we were upgraded. I believe the upgrade was mostly that we faced the ocean rather than the lagoon and that we weren’t on the first floor.

This hotel has a $55 daily resort fee that includes hardly anything incremental. Aside from water bottles and “premium” internet (if everyone gets premium, is it truly premium?), electric bikes are available sunrise to sunset. Thankfully, when staying at Hyatt when fully using points, resort fees are waived so we didn’t need to pay for this.

The Room

We arrived at our room (#207) and found a nicely decorated room. I thought the dark wood color on the walls was a bit overwhelming but thankfully the coloring was just on one wall.

Along the entranceway are a number of items in the mini-bar (well overpriced), along with some tea and a neat kettle.

The king size bed filled up a good portion of the room, with bedding that kept us warm. Our family of four was able to fit on the same bed but that might not remain the case at the rate these kids are growing up. Next to the bed are two water bottles, a radio, and an interesting couch cushion if you needed an extra seat. It doesn’t work well as a substitute for a couchsince who wants to relax in such a vertical position?

The TV was large and reasonably placed with a small shelf below it and the closet was also of a good size. The table is meant more for eating a small snack, not optimized for working.

The bathroom had a sliding barn door. For my house, it’s not a style of door I would want and aside from the color, the door felt a little out of place here. But despite my slight apprehension of the door, the bathroom here felt quality. The real star is the shower, which had excellent water pressure with hot temperatures that made it feel almost like a sauna.

Toiletries are from Votary, a brand I hadn’t heard of before but I thought they were excellent.

The view outside was pretty peaceful. At night, it felt like we were far from the city, but sadly there were no sounds from the ocean where we were. During the day, the view wasn’t as nice as the room overlooked a parking lot but the lot itself was pretty empty for the most part.

Breakfast at VAGA

The full-service restaurant for breakfast is VAGA. Thanks to my Hyatt Globalist status, breakfast was provided here for us free of charge. The program is only supposed to cover breakfast for those listed on the reservation, up to 2 adults and 2 children, but the hotel went above and beyond by waiving the charge for children despite the kids not being on the reservation (and yes we showed up expecting to pay for them).

The restaurant itself is beautiful, with an elegant staircase and plenty of seating both indoors and outside. We started outside but the spring weather was a bit too chilly for Jenn and we moved inside. Yes, there are heat lamps but we chose not to wait for them to fully turn on.

We started with milk and fresh-squeezed apple juice for the kids and matcha lattes for the adults.

For Char, we ordered the yogurt bowl with a side of fruit. The side of fruit here could stand on its own as a light meal.

Alex chose the mini VAGA breakfast, his default breakfast most places we go. He also received a side of fruit as large as Char’s.

Jenn ordered the carne asada omelet with a side of toast (not pictured).

I opted for the sunrise sandwich, which was massive. The sausage patty was nearly an inch think, making it more substantial than many burgers. This is what to order if you’re hungry or perhaps hungover. I chose a fresh-baked muffin as my side.

It’s a large amount of food and excellent quality too. There’s no way we could finish everything, so we took some to go and they put this cute bag holder next to the table to hold it.

And yes, it’s nice that the whole bill, including tip, is covered by the loyalty program. Free breakfast is the best benefit offered by Hyatt Globalist status, especially when at higher-end hotels.

The Pool

Off the first floor is the pool. We did spend some time here in the morning. If your room faces the pool, expect a lot of noise in the morning. Many kids were here splashing around. The pool is heated, which makes it fine for those cool, overcast mornings here.

There are some fire pits on the deck. I didn’t come here at night, but I imagine the area is popular after the kids are asleep.

The hotel also offers sunscreen right at the entrance. Sunscreen is one of those things that help differentiate the better resorts from the rest of the pack.

Also connected to the pool deck is a restaurant but it wasn’t open when we were here in the morning.

Just outside is a small walkway leading around the property. It’s fine, but don’t expect to make a hike out of the pathway.

The “Beach”

The small walkway does lead to some stairs leading down to a small area being used for a wedding and the “beach” below. This isn’t the kind of beach where kids can play in the sand. Instead, it’s best for surfers and we saw lots of them here. If you’re not into surfing, there’s not much to do in walking distance here. It’s a bit of a shame as the hotel lists the words “beach resort” in its name but it’s unlike most other beach resorts in that you can’t just relax at the beach.

Fitness Center

Also on the first floor is a fitness center. This is also the place to go if you need to refill your water bottles as there are no water refill stations elsewhere in the hotel (aside from going outside to the pool). The gym didn’t seem crowded when I visited in the evening but there is a good variety of machines.

Odds and Ends

It’s been a while since this last happened to us but the fire alarm went off at 1:30am due to a burst pipe. It was a bit difficult to find where we were expected to exit from the staircase, as we found ourselves in some back office rooms. So much for trying to count floors to figure out how to escape. We ran into someone else returning up the stairs who said they were instructed to go back to the room as it’s not an emergency. But given our room faced the utility vehicle driveway, the lights from the fire truck kept me up past 2:30am.

We went to the front desk the next morning to depart. Naturally, we did what the valet suggested and requested our car before going down. The front desk apologized for the incident and offered free snacks at the poolside restaurant. Since our car had already arrived, but we politely declined. I didn’t think it’s was the hotel’s fault for the incident but it was a nice gesture.

Recommendation: It’s Mixed

So let’s get one thing out of the way, I think the hotel itself is great, bordering on excellent. The food here at breakfast is of great quality and the hotel is surprisingly adequate for children despite promoting itself as a destination for adults. Though it bills itself as a beach resort, it doesn’t have the same vibe as a typical beach resort. There is no beach where you can relax at, rather it seems more designed for surfers.

The price point here is high. Category 8 hotels are very expensive properties and for the cash or points prices it’s charging, I feel like the money could be better spent elsewhere. For example, the excellent Park Hyatt Aviara is a short drive away and that is a marginally cheaper Category 7 hotel. Coming here ultimately just makes me compare the two hotels and while they’re both great Hyatt options, why not go the hotel that’s priced more affordable, especially when neither offers a true beach? Maybe the moral of the story is that I came to the Alila hoping for a little more to do here and walked away feeling there was not much to do at the resort itself.

Have you been to Encinitas? Where do you like to stay?