Avenue of the Arts – VDay Weekend

This valentines, things went a little different. Brandon asked me a few days before Valentines Day if I thought we “overdo” things.“Overdo things? I don’t think so… it’s not like we go all out.” I replied.

But, a quick look through our past valentines day revealed a different story. Valentines Day in SF 2014  : We flew out first class to San Francisco and stayed at the Hyatt, which is Brandon’s favorite hotel so far. Plus, plenty of gift giving also. So, after glancing at the previous post, we decided to tone it down a little bit this year. We stayed at a nice hotel, I gave Brandon a Robe + Lucky Brand Belt and he treated me out the whole weekend to yummy restaurants. 

Anyway, on to the hotel review! If you’ve been following me for quite some time, you should know that I appreciate a great hotel. I love spacious rooms, a great view (rarely get a great view actually), quiet surroundings, and overall great customer service. Avenue of the Arts hotel was actually one of the best hotels I’ve ever stayed at – I like it more than the Hyatt one that Brandon and I stayed at last year, but Brandon insists the Hyatt is better. Don’t listen to him. Listen to me. Also, sorry in advance! I used my old point + shoot to take photos so the quality isn’t that great. 

Avenue of the Arts does quite well on trip advisor 🙂 We asked for the lakeside view, with a king sized bed and they were more than happy to accommodate us! I loved how the rooms have hardwood floors, and it’s huge! The lakeside view wasn’t what I was expecting… but they tried so I give them an A for effort. 

It’s right next to South Coast Plaza, we can literally walk across the street and get there. So, we were really happy with the location. Also, parking sucked. It costs $19 dollars to park overnight, which is pretty pricey compared to other places that we’ve stayed at. On Saturday, an employee happened to walk by us and scanned his card which made our parking free! BUT, since it was already charged on Brandon’s credit card, we ended up having to pay for it anyway. Still super sweet though. After dinner (on Saturday) we tried to find parking but there wasn’t any… so Brandon and I debated parking further and walking to the hotel. It seemed sort of ridiculous that we were paying 19 dollars a night but still had to park further so we drove around until a car left and were able to park. The 4 cars behind us weren’t as lucky though… 

     

Excuse the messy room!

Also, one of the reviews on Tripadvisor complained that there wasn’t a microwave. Usually, not having a microwave isn’t a big deal to us as we don’t need to reheat food, but we ate at Maggiano’s which has an amazing deal. Buy 2 pastas, get 2 pastas to take home! So, since we spent two nights at Avenue of the Arts – we couldn’t reheat our food! Luckily, there was a fridge so we stuck the food in there. I understand why some people may hate the fact that there isn’t a microwave though.

The picture that Brandon wants to buy…

I loved how we had a balcony with two chairs. Brandon watched the sunset outside while drinking a bottle of Heineken, but I was already fast asleep (I am always taking naps).

 Before dinner, we took a stroll around the hotel to see what else they had to offer.

The silver trumpet was always packed.

The outdoor seating was perfect! Surprisingly, it wasn’t too cold or too hot and Brandon + I were able to sit and chat with each other. We were the only people outside so it was very romantic and quite nice.

You can compare this hotel with the Fairmont Newport Beach Hotel !
Anyway, hope all of you had a wonderful wonderful Valentines Day !