Travel Party of 5 | Points & Miles for Family Travel

The Seabird Resort: Using Hyatt Points for a Dreamy, Luxe Family Beach Stay

• Raya & Duane

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We share our recent stay at the Seabird Resort in Oceanside, California, highlighting our incredible suite upgrade experience and why this beachfront property remains our family favorite. The Grand Ocean corner suite with panoramic views completely transformed our experience, offering ample space and unbeatable ocean vistas.

• Booking details: 87,000 Hyatt points for a 3-night stay (29,000 points per night) during July 4th weekend
• Successfully applying a suite upgrade award for the Grand Ocean Suite with two-sided balcony and panoramic views
• Globalist breakfast benefits covering both adults and children, with all charges ultimately waived at checkout
• Pool and beach amenities including complimentary chair and umbrella setup, boogie boards, and sand toys
• Family-friendly features like the kids' activity room with video games, ping pong, and board games
• Excellent nearby dining options including Wildland (Italian), The Taco Stand, and Stella Jean's Ice Cream
• Special beach bonfire experience with s'mores for $300 (plus tax/gratuity)
• Trip cost breakdown: approximately $2,400 total for our family of five, excluding accommodations
• Using the Travel Spend app to track vacation expenses and budget more effectively

Follow us on Instagram @travelpartyof5 for more detailed content, including a full highlight reel of our Oceanside stay and the amazing suite.


Speaker 1:

In today's episode, we're sharing all the details of our recent stay at the Seabird Resort in Oceanside, California, which is a beachfront favorite that we keep coming back to. We'll also share why it's so perfect for families and what made this visit extra special. So listen in. Hi, I'm Raya.

Speaker 2:

And.

Speaker 1:

I'm Dwayne, and we are your hosts of the Travel Party of Five podcast, where we share how we travel as a family of five around the world.

Speaker 2:

We will also share how we use points and miles to travel as affordably as possible and sometimes even completely free.

Speaker 1:

So if you're wanting to travel more with your family but you're not sure how, we'd love for you to listen in.

Speaker 2:

So welcome to our podcast, where we hope you learn a thing or two to get you closer to your next trip. Welcome back, hello friends. Thanks for tuning in.

Speaker 1:

Hi, we are just melting away here in the Phoenix heat. If you live in a warm climate, that's desert-y. We.

Speaker 2:

Feel for you, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Phoenix broke a record the other day day and it was 118 degrees and it's just like it's too hot to even swim. I feel like you know, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Pool water is like bath water it is yeah, it's not.

Speaker 1:

It's not great, but we're going to flash back to a week ago, when we were out of this heat and in the wonderful 70 and sunny weather of Oceanside, california.

Speaker 2:

Yes, one of our favorite places, my favorite place.

Speaker 1:

Yes. And when Dwayne asked me like hey, what is the podcast episode going to be about this week? And I said the seabird. He was like again.

Speaker 1:

So, if you've been listening for a long time, we do already have an episode about the Seabird I think it's about from last year.

Speaker 1:

Again, we've stayed there multiple times, but our stay this time was completely different, and we also went and did like ate at a bunch of different restaurants and stuff. So I figured it's still worth talking about, especially if you are planning a trip there in the near future. I always like updated information, right? Because I'm like, oh, if they stayed there a year ago or two years ago, like, is that, does this still apply? And there were some changes that we noticed, and we were also there on a holiday weekend, which I think definitely impacts things as well. So, yeah, I'm also going to share towards the end. I found a new travel budgeting app to keep track of how much money we're spending on trips, because, if I'm being honest, I always had, like this general idea in my mind, but I never like sat down to reconcile what it what we were actually spending, and so I'm going to talk about that, um, at the end, too, and we'll share how much money we spent on this trip.

Speaker 2:

So yeah, and if you don't want to know how much money you spent, don't.

Speaker 1:

Don't download that, yeah, don't get it, but I like, when we are, we used it for our yosemite trip and, um, ouch, yeah, we spent a lot of money we for that trip, um, and then we used it for this, um, kind of Indian Wells Oceanside trip as well and basically what I've been doing is, just on the car drive home I've been, like you know, pulling like okay, up the statements for this card and that card and whatever cards we're using and I'm inputting it into this app and it doesn't take very long and I do feel a sense of like accomplishment, like okay, this is what we spent. And, yes, on the way back from Lake Tahoe it was a painful, like oh god, but on the way back from this trip it was like, oh, that's pretty good. At least I thought, yeah, dwayne was like that's still a good amount of money, which he's not wrong, but anyways, we'll get to those details at the end.

Speaker 1:

So the Seabird it is a category six Hyatt in Oceanside, california. Directly next to it is its sister property, which is called Mission Pacific. That is kind of a more adults vibe. We've never stayed there in full transparency, but you do have use of the facilities at both properties when you stay at one. So if you stay at the Seabird you can go use of the facilities at both properties when you stay at one. So if you stay at the seabird you can go to like the pool at mission pacific and if you stay at mission pacific you can visit the seabird. I also think the breakfast, if you stay at mission pacific, is at the seabird.

Speaker 2:

So yes, there was a family there this time that was staying at the mission pacific and, yeah, we ran into a couple times at the Seabird.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, to book this stay. We stayed three nights. We used 87,000 Hyatt points. It was peak pricing, so 29,000 points a night because we were there on July 4th weekend. So July 3rd, 4th and 5th were the nights that we stayed. And I also applied a suite upgrade award, which we'll talk about in a second. But our our Hyatt points all come from either chase or spending on the Hyatt card predominantly from chase, but you know we do spend on, we have both. I have both the Hyatt personal and the Hyatt business card. We do spend a good amount on those throughout the year as part of our strategy to hit globalist every year. So that's where the points came from. I am a little bit like about the future of our Hyatt points because the chase ecosystem hasn't been super friendly to us lately, so like I even joked on Instagram the other day that I might need to get a Marriott card because I don't know if we're going to be able to stay in so many Hyatts next year. Our chase points are very low right now, like under 100,000 low.

Speaker 2:

So just got to boost them up. Yeah, I just just gotta boost them up, yeah, I just. First of all, let me just start off by shouting out to the person that sent you a picture of them drinking our cocktail that we suggested. Yes, uh, last week's episode they even called it the party of five, which I thought was pretty funny. I mean, obviously it's not our drink, but yes, to call it a party of five.

Speaker 1:

That's pretty awesome, so shout out to you. His name was Ryan and he sent it to me on Instagram.

Speaker 2:

Hopefully they were as good as we said they were.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, hopefully you liked them. I showed it to Dwayne and he was like, wait, did he try it yet? And I was like I don't know.

Speaker 2:

But in case you don't know, it's 18, uh, 1800 coconut, tequila, squeeze of lime and, like a citrus, fresca, grapefruit fresca, yes, well, there's also just a plain citrus. I think that'll be fine too. You don't even have to use 1800, just whatever coconut well, yeah, yeah, um.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that was pretty funny. We got a good laugh out of that this morning, so hope you enjoyed it. Let me know, okay. So let's talk about the suite. So first of all, I applied to suite upgrade award. You earn a certain amount of those on your way to globalist status. So if you hit 60 nights you should end up with five suite upgrades awards, if that's what you're choosing. There are some milestones where you get to pick and choose what reward you get. I always choose the sweet upgrade awards because those are the most valuable to us as a bigger family.

Speaker 1:

As a side note, if you do not have globalist status, there are a couple of ways to get sweet upgrade awards. So, number one there are Hyatt Facebook groups where you can go in and people gift them or trade them. So some people are looking for, like maybe category one through four free night certificates and they have sweet upgrades to give away and you can do like a swap. Some people will just give them away for because they can't use them and Hyatt does allow gifting. Also, they expire and generally a year after you've used them. So, like the ones that we've all used this year, they expire February 2026. And then throughout this year we're going to earn some that we can then use next year. But the reason I bring up the expiration is if it's like January and you have a stay like end of January, middle of February, that's probably a really good time to see if someone has one to gift you, because they're going to be generous, because it's going to expire anyways and they can't do anything with it. So I would keep that in mind and you can maybe get one without even having to trade anything.

Speaker 1:

The other way to get one is you can purchase them on eBay In full transparency. This is completely against Hyatt's terms and conditions and this is something we have never done. However, I do know people that have done it successfully and maybe paid 50, 60, 70 $80 for a suite upgrade award, and that person will apply it to your account or to your reservation rather, and it seems to work just fine. But you have to kind of go into that. There's a little bit of risk associated with that and we have never done it, although I would probably do that. And then the third way is like, even if you're not getting globalist status Again I mentioned, there are milestone rewards. So even if you can't get to 60 nights, but maybe you can get to like 40, that's another way that you could earn, like a suite upgrade award.

Speaker 2:

So they're totally worth it.

Speaker 1:

A thousand percent. So I booked. I booked our stay here at the Seabird last July, so July 2024, I booked for July 2025. And you know I wasn't going to apply a suite upgrade award actually. But then a few months ago my sister asked if she could kind of tag along on our pre-planned vacation, which then I was like we need more space and the regular rooms at the Seabird. They're fine for our family of five but they are small. So the rooms that we've had in the past have been almost like a like the bedroom isn't a separate room from the living area but it's just very, very small and cramped.

Speaker 2:

Yes, so there is a pull-out couch in the living room area, but once you pull it out, it's basically the whole room.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, like to fit in the pull-out couch, opened in a pack and play. Last year we had to rearrange the furniture Like that's how cramped it is.

Speaker 2:

And someone this year obviously did the same thing and just threw the furniture in the hallway, which I thought was pretty funny.

Speaker 1:

Yes, we passed that and we were laughing because we were like oh yeah, we know, we know why they did that, but I was like there is nowhere for a third adult to go, like at all.

Speaker 2:

I mean, unless you're a thruple, oh God.

Speaker 1:

But even then it's still tight.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, like I still don't know how that would work and that's so awkward. So I knew we needed to get a suite, but there were no suites available on the app and I'm like, well, okay, so I and this was maybe in April of this year, and so I set an alert on max, my point for a suite specifically and I let it sit for like a month and nothing was popping up. So I thought you know what I'm just gonna call the hotel, because some hotels I don't want to say play games with their availability that they post online, but they do right, they sometimes restrict what's available, especially on a holiday weekend. I'm sorry, what did you do?

Speaker 2:

I called the hotel no, no, no, before that you oh, I set an alert on max my point.

Speaker 1:

Max, my point is a um, it's a website and they have a free version. There's a free version that you can set one alert at a time at um, but we have the paid version because I I need more than one alert going at a time, usually um and anyways. So I guess, as a side note, let me back up so you can use this to look for regular points availability or suite upgrades or whatever. So if, like, there's a property you're trying to stay at, you can set certain dates and if there's currently no points availability, it will alert you when, when and if points rooms become available. So I specifically had it set up for a suite at the Seabird to alert me and it didn't.

Speaker 1:

So I called the hotel and I just said, hey, like you know, we have a reservation coming up and I was wanting to apply a suite upgrade award. But I I just wanted to see if you had any suites available and someone looked in the computer and said, oh yeah, we have this suite available and I thought, oh, great, so they were like, you just have to call, you know, like Hyatt, to apply it. And so then I called the globalist line and they were like, oh, I don't see any suites available, but let me call the property. And I said, yep, I just called the property. They told me to call you and they had it worked out and it was applied within maybe 20 minutes. That being said, I'm unclear if the suite that we were upgraded to is a standard suite or not. The hotel called it the Grand Ocean Suite and I couldn't find that particular suite in the app or on the Hyatt website, so a little unclear about that. But this suite was the nicest suite we have ever stayed in.

Speaker 1:

I mean, I would be surprised if that's the standard suite it was a corner suite and it was on the fifth floor and so the balcony basically was had two open sides and the front is open to the ocean but the other side is just completely open to like the entire coast and like town of oceanside and it was huge yeah the balcony was huge it had chairs, it had a dining room table, it had a couch.

Speaker 1:

Couch I mean a lamp there was like a, also like a, a, I don't know, like a table on the side, kind of like a cadenza, but yeah, where you could like put food on to serve. It was probably like a 16 by 12.

Speaker 2:

It was very big.

Speaker 1:

It was big and like everyone, like you walk in and you're like, oh, wow, and then you kind of turn to see like the patio, and then you're like oh, wow, like that was everyone's reaction. And if you want to see what we're talking about and you don't follow us on Instagram, you need to go there, click follow at travel party of five and I have a whole Oceanside highlight where I have not only the video of the suite but also everyone's reaction walking into the suite.

Speaker 2:

Yeah what's by far the nicest one.

Speaker 1:

It was incredible and I am normally pretty excited to go home when we come home from a trip. But I was actually very sad to leave this view Like I was, like I am forever ruined by this suite, like how do you go back from that?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, even the guy checking in was like oh, this is one of my favorite rooms.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it was incredible. I was like, oh, this is one of my favorite rooms. Yeah, it was incredible. So I guess that's just one example of where the suite upgrade awards can kind of work out even better than we thought they would. So okay, so the way that we set up the hotel, I guess, if you're a family of six, so there was a pullout sofa in the living room and then we brought in a rollaway. My sister slept on the rollaway the first night and then she left, so then we still had two more nights and so we. Then we just had our oldest child sleep on the rollaway and the little two slept in the pullout sofa bed, and that worked out really well. We still had plenty of room and space. There was a half bath in the suite plus the full bathroom in the like right off the main bedroom, and then it was a king bed.

Speaker 1:

So plenty of room plenty of room, very nice room yeah, as far as other globalist benefits um the breakfast is, so they. I think they only did this because it was a holiday weekend.

Speaker 2:

Yes, because I don't remember having that issue last time we were there.

Speaker 1:

So when we checked in, we got a text that basically said like these are your globalist benefits, and it was a daily breakfast credit for two adults and two kids, which we know that's pretty standard. And then they said this Friday through Sunday, which was, I mean, really the only days we were there Well, Thursday through Sunday, which was, I mean, really the only days we were there. Well, thursday through Sunday. They said we will have a continental breakfast buffet that includes hot foods available at the Shelter Club from 7 am to 11 am. The Shelter Club is the restaurant that's at the pool deck which is on the third floor, and you know reservations are recommended. Blah, blah, blah. And then they said we also anticipate heavy traffic at the breakfast restaurant piper due to hotel occupancy and encourage reservations. The cost of the breakfast buffet at piper is 52 per person and we will cover up to 40 for up to two adults and two children which is expensive of the cost of the buffet and so the normal breakfast buffet is always at piper.

Speaker 1:

They don't normally have like this kind of club breakfast is what I'm going to call it. At the shelter club they did that because of the high occupancy and the hotel was definitely crowded. And keep in mind, the next door hotel, the Mission Pacific, also is coming over to the Seabird for breakfast. So we did a combination of both. We did the Piper Buffet the first morning and even like even after the globalist like things, it still costs like $70, we calculated and I was like that is so expensive. So then the next morning we ate the free breakfast at the shelter club and then the third morning, the last morning before we left, we ate at Piper but we ordered off the menu.

Speaker 1:

However, at checkout they wiped all the breakfast charges. Yes, which was amazing. Yes. So we were very cognizant of what we were spending because we were fully prepared to pay out of pocket for whatever the difference was. But at checkout our bill was $187. And that was literally just for some food and drinks we ordered at the pool a couple of days and that was it. And oh, and, $15 for a boogie board, which we'll talk about in a second.

Speaker 1:

They wiped all the breakfast charges, even when we went over the allotment that they told us we would have. So I think it just goes to show you like last week we talked about Indian Wells and how they very much nickel and dimed like every cent that we paid and this hotel did not. So I think you just got to go into it expecting to pay the difference or expecting to pay whatever, and then be pleasantly surprised if you don't, because I was like, oh, this is amazing, yep looks. I saw that bill and I was like, yep is amazing, yep looks. I saw the bill and I was like, yep, looks, correct, thank you, bye, um, okay, let's talk about what else is available at the hotel and kind of what was different from last year um, okay, well, the pool, obviously, which is pretty small.

Speaker 2:

the pool is small. Yes, it's is small, yes, really small. Actually, we had to get out there early in the morning reserve some seats, and they were very strict. Well, I mean, they were strict in the morning, it seemed like. So they only gave you 30 minutes to save your seat. If no one was there, then this lady would come around and take your stuff off the chair if you weren't there and we saw her do that multiple times.

Speaker 1:

Yes, we also saw people complaining like, like ma'am, it's eight o'clock in the morning and all these seats are taken, but there's only two people in the pool, so then the people would complain and then she would go around and take people's stuff right. So it's like I I really think she was only doing it if people complained.

Speaker 2:

Yes, and they only did in the morning. Um again, I think it's because of the, the weekend we were there.

Speaker 1:

Yes, this was literally on July 4th. Like the day of the fourth, the beach was so packed already at 7am that we just decided we're not going to the beach today.

Speaker 1:

I mean, it was was it was just too packed yeah, too many people and so we yeah, we hung out at the pool that day and it was great actually, we got chairs right like that, look over the um, the ocean, and so that was actually really fantastic. But we put our stuff on our chairs and that's the day we ate at the shelter club, which is literally on the same deck as the pool, and we could see our chairs and we just kept sending our kids over there to, like you know, make an appearance To reset the 30 minutes, yes, so yeah, you have to get there early.

Speaker 2:

Save a seat Again. It's probably just the weekend, but you might be fine any other time, the holiday weekend.

Speaker 1:

You mean, yeah, they also have at the pool deck, which I think is really fun If your kids need a break from swimming. They have like a little area. It's in the same kind of restaurant area as where the pool bar is it's just a pool bar?

Speaker 2:

I don't necessarily think it's a restaurant. They have in-store seating but yes, they have like checkers and chess A pool table, pool table so the kids can go play games.

Speaker 1:

you know, if they need a little break from swimming and our kids actually did that a couple of times and it was nice knowing they're right there, but like I don't have to go over there, you know, yeah, and they also have if you want to go to the beach, you can have like a little trailer set up down on the beach that you can get chairs, umbrellas, boogie boards, sand toys, towels all included with your resort fee. So whether you book on points or you pay cash or whatever, it's all included in your stay and they will set up the chairs for you and the umbrella for you. Um, because we were there on a holiday weekend, we did ask for two boogie boards and they said we can only give you one and if you want a second one you have to pay for it yes I don't know if that was just for the holiday or if that's their new policy, but last time we definitely got two for free yes

Speaker 2:

so I mean we might even got three, but whatever. Also this weekend they made us bring our chairs and umbrellas back, like to the little little trailer, which they haven't done that in the past. You just tell them hey, we're done. They go grab your stuff. We never used to have to take it back ourselves.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, which is fine, but yeah, we were surprised it was very, very busy. Yeah, um, and that was on the 5th of july, so that wasn't even on the 4th it was still pretty crowded. Um, the hotel also sets up an activity room for kids. This year it was smaller than last year. Last year they had a bunch of like these foam blocks and stuff and it was a much bigger room. But they have like a couple of video games in there, like pac-man type video games ping pong table yep um tables to play cards cards board games.

Speaker 1:

There's usually like a tv to show a movie cornhole, yeah, yeah. So I guess, if it's like rainy or whatever. That's a good, um a good indoor option for the kids to play in as well. Um, what else, what else, what else I mean, that's pretty much it.

Speaker 2:

It's just the the area that this hotel is in. I love it's cute little town, beachy town, it's walkable, a lot of good things to do. Um, we can probably talk about the places we ate now, right, yeah.

Speaker 1:

So we generally try to do breakfast at the property because of our status and then because this was a road trip, we brought a bunch of snacks and Uncrustables and all that for lunches for the kids from home Fruit, chips, the whole shebang, yeah of snacks and uncrustables, and all that for lunches for the kids from home fruit, you know, chips, the whole shebang, yeah. And then for dinners we we try to go out and not eat at the property to save money. Um, I don't know that we actually saved money doing that this trip because our dinners were pretty pricey. But the food I think the quality of the food is generally better than hotel food.

Speaker 2:

So some cases yeah, so okay.

Speaker 1:

So we went to wolf in the woods. This is duane's friend from high school. Is the executive chef there. We've talked about this on the podcast before. This is not a family friendly restaurant and it is not a cheap restaurant. No, that being said, it's one of our favorites and, if you're a foodie, it's one of the best restaurants in San Diego. It's won a lot of awards. It's about 45 minutes from Oceanside, so it's not close. We had to take my sister to the airport and so in San Diego and it's like eight minutes from the airport maybe. So we went there for an early dinner, actually on the 4th of July, and then we dropped her off at the airport afterwards. So that was like normally we would go there when we're in San Diego but not Oceanside, but that's how that worked out.

Speaker 2:

It like it was an expensive dinner yes, and if you're ever in the san diego area, check it out for sure.

Speaker 1:

Yes, definitely worth it the other place that we ate for dinner was the taco stand, which is in oceanside yep, right down the street from the hotel, five minute drive. I found them on instagram and have been following along for quite a few months and their food always looks so good, and so we headed there for dinner one night and it was very good. I would get the taco. They have carne asada fries, but I would get the tacos if it were me. That's what I had and they were delicious. They make their tortillas in-house. You can see them literally making them and everything was really good, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Carne asadas weren't my favorite, but I mean they were so good. But I mean, coming from arizona, there's so many places to get good carne asada fries yum yeah, that's why I say like I would go the taco route.

Speaker 1:

Um, like the baja fish taco, that was my favorite one. Yeah, and the other place he ate, which was a recommendation from duane's friend who is the executive chef at wolf in the woods. Place we ate, which was a recommendation from Dwayne's friend who is the executive chef at Wolf in the Woods, was called Wildland, which we will go back to for sure. It was so good it's like Italian food.

Speaker 2:

Yes, I got a margherita pizza, which was. I mean, the tomato sauce they used on it was so fresh I mean, I don't even like tomatoes.

Speaker 1:

Yep, we had some spaghetti. I got this pasta that I don't even honestly remember what it was called, but it was like one of the best pastas I've ever had in my life and I mean it had like the pasta.

Speaker 2:

It was like ravioli, yeah I, and like squash, which, yeah, you know, normally not. I mean I eat, but it's not my first choice, but I mean, that was so good.

Speaker 1:

It wasn't like your traditional ravioli. I forget what it was called. It was like.

Speaker 2:

The server recommended it which.

Speaker 1:

Wait, I'm going to look it up. Hold on, it was called Agnolotti. Yes, and whatever was inside, it was not your traditional ravioli filling, because I don't generally like ravioli, but this was so good.

Speaker 2:

As the kids would say, slaps.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it slapped.

Speaker 2:

They also have breakfast at this restaurant, so my friend, the chef, recommended it for the breakfast. Oh, we didn't have the breakfast, but I mean I would definitely go.

Speaker 1:

Yes, service was really good.

Speaker 2:

Service was excellent actually.

Speaker 1:

We didn't have a reservation, but we went early. We were there at like five and we had no problem getting a table. It is a little on the fancier side.

Speaker 2:

So like we probably spent 200 bucks for the five of us, it is I mean, but I mean I was still in sandals and a t-shirt, so not that fancy, but yeah I mean people had dogs on the patio yeah but we also had the burrata toast, which I thought was it was good, very good and we got the wood-fired cabbage, which was also also good, which was really good actually. Another thing the server recommended Like that wouldn't have been my choice of appetizer, but I'm glad he recommended that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, it was super good. The only thing that none of us really liked was the chicken and pasta soup which was on the kids' menu. Our daughter loves soup so she ordered that, but it was very rosemary and we she didn't love it. Yeah, um, okay, we also wait. Uh, ate ice cream at Stella Jean's, which was another recommendation from Carmine. Yes, and that was also very good, like really unique flavors. It was like three minutes from wild land, so that would be a good like dinner, then dessert right after.

Speaker 2:

They have flavors like mango sticky rice. That was my favorite one Ube.

Speaker 1:

The ube had like some kind of toffee in it or something. I liked the ube, but I liked the mango sticky rice more, I thought it was yummy. And they also had some regular flavors like chocolate, vanilla, butter pecan. Yeah, regular flavors like chocolate, vanilla, you know, butter pecan, yeah, yeah, it was a really cute little, it was a really nice area like.

Speaker 2:

I really fell in love with that area this time yeah, we were, it was, it's in carlsbad typically you don't venture out, yeah, when we're there.

Speaker 1:

But this time we did and I'm glad we did yeah, we were even joking like it would be so nice to live here and not have to like hide indoors four months out of the year because of the heat, and then we sat down at the table where the ice cream was and there was a. It was a carlsbad magazine, but it was flipped over and on the back was a full page ad for a local real estate agent, and I was laughing like. I was like is this a sign?

Speaker 1:

don't worry, it's not, though, because it's so expensive the prices were like everything is a million dollar plus. So I don't, I don't think that's for us right now. But, um, I wanted to briefly talk about, like what? What is it about this hotel that you think we keep coming back to, other than like it's drivable for us? So it's it's. I think it's an easier like trip right, we don't have to fly. For me, it's like it's the Cape Cod vibes of the hotel. I love that. I grew up on the East Coast, like in the Northeast. I really love that. I love that it's directly across the street from the ocean and I love that we can park the car and we really don't have to drive anywhere unless we want to.

Speaker 2:

Yep, I mean, I agree. Like I said, I fell in love with that little area there.

Speaker 1:

In Carlsbad. Yeah, yeah Well, oceanside is the same yeah.

Speaker 2:

I mean, yes, oceanside, really really chill beach environment which I love, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

I mean, the weather there is perfect. Yeah, it's not too hot, not too cold. If you are really good, like if you were looking to do kind of like a whole week, uh, what I think would be a really good split stay is a few days at the park hyatt aviara that is in carlsbad. It's maybe there may be 15 minutes apart, so it's not far at all and you can.

Speaker 1:

You're not by the beach at that property no, no, you're not, but you could do like lego land, um, if you're staying there, if you have younger kids, and, again, just kind of enjoy carlsbad, like we just gave you a few really good places that are in carlsbad that you could go to and then go over to the seabird for like the second half of the week and kind of do more of like the pool, beach, ocean, oceany vibes, yeah, and I think that would be a really that would be a really fun week vacation in my opinion and if you don't have kids, stay at the mission pacific, because, yeah, that's more adult the top gun house is also right next door to both of these properties.

Speaker 1:

We actually didn't go there this time, but they serve hand pies which are like little dessert. Think of like a McDonald's apple pie, but like a little better.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, they're pretty good.

Speaker 1:

And then one other tip I would give about Oceanside is Camp Coffee is like what a three minute walk from the Seabird, and we got coffee from there a couple times in the morning and we enjoyed it. We think their coffee is pretty good. They do have a bunch of smoked like it's. It's right, the name of the place is camp coffee, right, so the vibe is like campfire ish and they do have some like smoked whatever. I got one of those last year and I did not enjoy it. But their regular coffee like they have a molasses latte I really like. So anyways, check it out.

Speaker 2:

Speaking of camp coffee. You didn't even talk about.

Speaker 1:

I just thought of that your little bucket list thing. My bucklet.

Speaker 2:

Your bucklet.

Speaker 1:

So since I was a kid, I always wanted to have a fire on the beach in California. Right, I grew up reading Sweet Valley High books.

Speaker 2:

Oh my God, me too.

Speaker 1:

Oh, stop, no, you did not. So on the Seabird website you can book different like experiences and one of them is a fire pit rental, and so you can basically how it works is they set up this little fire pit on the beach for you. You can have up to six people, aka six chairs, and then they provide like s'mores ingredients and marshmallow sticks and all that. And so we did that for the night. We arrived. So we checked into the hotel, saw the amazing suite, went and got tacos at the taco stand and then we came back and had this fire on the beach and it was a little expensive. It's not cheap. It is not cheap, but again, this was kind of like a one-time thing. My sister was there with us. I was like this is going to be fun and so we did it. It was $300 for 90 minutes plus tax and gratuity, so the gratuity was 20%. So it was $382 or something like that. Total Expensive yes, expensive again, but we paid $0 for all of our hotels and so on that whole trip. So I was like I'm gonna do it and check off this kind of bucket list item for me. It was really fun.

Speaker 1:

The kids, of course, got wet in the me. It was really fun. The kids of course got wet in the water immediately in their regular clothes, which we told them not to, and they didn't listen. So our boys ended up splashing around in the water. Then they came and had a s'more. They warmed up by the fire, then they'd go back in the water, but we got to kind of see the sunset and the fire was nice and warm. It was kind of chilly at that point, you know, right on the water with the wind, and so I have fond memories of it. I thought it was enjoyable. What did you think it?

Speaker 2:

was a good time. I was cold.

Speaker 1:

Even with the fire.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, because you were getting all the fire, because it was blowing towards me. Yes, oh well, I even had to wear a sweater, which, well, I didn't even bring a sweater. I had to wear your sister's sweater. Yeah, that's right. Oh gosh, but yes, I mean again, it's a pretty penny. Yeah, but if it's on your bucklet list, then I would do it. If not, build your own fire.

Speaker 1:

You can't I mean you can't build your own fire. As a side note, there is no way for you to do that. Um, and there are, like other beaches maybe, that there are fire pits set up, not not where we were, but like in other parts of California, and I mean you got to get there at 6am to save your fire for the day. So, um, okay, let's talk about the app that I recently found to say, or to track spending. So, first of all, I think that I learned about this app from v family travels on Instagram. I want to give credit where credit is due. I'm pretty sure she is the one who posted about it and I thought, oh, let me try that. It is called travel spend and they have a free version or a paid version. The free version only allows you to track one trip at a time. So I did do the paid version, which I think I paid like 60, no, $30 for the year, or it was like $60 for lifetime access. I'm pretty sure I just did the one year because I thought, oh no, I didn't. I did the lifetime. No, go me. So you can pay whatever you want, obviously, or just try it out for free. I did.

Speaker 1:

I tried it out for free on our trip to Yosemite and Lake Tahoe and I was like, oh, I really like this.

Speaker 1:

It's simple to use and easy to log expenses. So and you like, you can choose, like if you're paying for a hotel, for example, and it's $1,000, you can choose, you know, log this over the course of like four days or five days or whatever it is, so that you know a portion of that $1,000 counts for each day and you don't have to just log it all at once. So it kind of shows you how much you're spending daily and then you can see categories like food, gas, whatever. So that is the app. On this trip spent $2,638 and 83 cents. Now that actually includes some money for my sister's meals, which she actually just sent us money for this morning. So it's actually closer to like $2,400 when I subtract what she sent us. And if we didn't do the fire pit rental or the wolf in the woods dinner, it would have been closer to like 1700 for the week for a family of five but both the wolf in the woods and the fire.

Speaker 1:

They were roughly the same amount of money. It's expensive. So between those two things it was like over $800 of our budget. So keep that in mind, like there are definitely ways to spend less than what we spent. Now I will say we had brought again a lot of fruit, snacks and stuff for the kids and I did not count that in my expenses cost mainly because I don't remember when I bought them or how much they were, but a lot of it was just stuff we already had anyways. And then a few extra things that I bought for the trip, but not much. I did add in the tequila, though I added in the cost of the tequila in that already.

Speaker 2:

So that's probably one of the cheapest things $20.

Speaker 1:

However, in contrast, like what we spent on the Lake Tahoe, yosemite trip was more than double that amount because we paid for a hotel and all that. So I mean a week's vacation for a family of five for $2,600, $2,400, let's call it. I think that's pretty dang good. All in Dwayne is just staring at me like I don't know what are you thinking? Are you just thinking that's so much money?

Speaker 2:

I mean it is a lot of money and you know I'm just thankful we're lucky to be able to do that.

Speaker 1:

I mean, yes, but I think that's like a really cheap vacation, I don't know. What do you guys think? Tell me on Instagram, Let me know If you don't follow us on Instagram. Again, I have a whole highlight about Oceanside and I generally post like I post things in more real time than I do. Then obviously we're able to talk about on the podcast. So if you like want to know what we're up to and kind of what's happening, like the recap of our time at the Seabird I finished posting yesterday kind of what's happening, Like the recap of our time at the Seabird. I finished posting yesterday. So that is already up and available if you want to take a peek at it and go look at the suite.

Speaker 1:

I mean that was just, I'm forever ruined. Yes, definitely the nicest hotel room we've had.

Speaker 2:

Okay, anything else that you think people need to know about? No, um, just if you haven't been, I think you're, you're gonna fall in love with it.

Speaker 1:

just as we did. Um, yeah, someone someone did ask me on instagram how far this is from disneyland. It's a solid hour from anaheim, which is where disneyland is, and maybe more if there's traffic.

Speaker 2:

And there's always traffic.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, if you didn't want to do the stay I suggested with the Park, Hyatt, Aviara and the Seabird, another good option would be Disneyland for the first half of the week and then drive down to Oceanside for kind of a more chill, relaxing second part of the week to relax after Disneyland.

Speaker 2:

We did that a couple years ago and it was great and there's a lot of hotels right by disneyland, so you'll be able to find one that fits your your budget yeah, the hyatt place or hyatt house is what where we've stayed, and it's walkable there's also a hyatt regency right down the street.

Speaker 1:

Yeah anyways, okay, well, hopefully this was helpful. If you have a seabird stay coming up in the near future, um, let us know if you think that amount of money is too much or too little, like if you think that's a great budget-friendly vacation or not. I don't know. Let me know and we will catch you on the next episode yes, we appreciate you thank you so much for listening have a good one Bye.