The Montage Beverly Hills Paintbox Experience

The Montage Beverly Hills Embraces Family

Lil Diva and I were recently invited to the Montage Beverly Hills to experience the hotel and their Paintbox Program.  I love the Montage, and was easily sold with the promise of massages and afternoon tea with Lil Diva, but Paintbox?  Whats that I wondered?

Happily, on this stay, I found out! Now I keep trying to find Montage Hotels in cities where they don’t yet exist!

Before sharing, let me ask a few travel-with-kids related questions:

• Did you enjoy luxury hotels before you had your children?
• Do you want to travel with you children, and enjoy a relaxing child-free dinner?
• Have you tried to revisit some of your favorite pre-baby spots, only to feel like you had chosen the wrong spot?
• Do you really need a break, but don’t have anyone that you feel comfortable leaving the lil’s with overnight?
  

The Montage Beverly Hills offer’s visiting lil’s Paintbox

Paintbox is an exclusive childrens’s program that ensures your next visit is just the right mix of family time and mommy & daddy downtime.  Paintbox at the Montage Beverly Hills is run by the AMAZING Stacy.  She is highly experienced and has extensive child development training, not only did my lil diva love the staff, but all the lil’s in the group wanted to go back at the earliest opportunity.

I’ve seen a number of hotels offer children’s activities that typically wrap by 4PM. which doesn’t really give mom & dad a chance to have quiet time.  Paintbox is open Friday and Saturday from 6-10.

The space is located in the lower level of the hotel and don’t be taken aback by it’s compact size – they use the Paintbox room as their operations base, roving around the hotel for games on the terrace, swimming and  even meals!

Paintbox Beverly Hills is open from 9 am to 4 pm daily.  Rates are $90 per day per child and half days are available.  Evenings are $60 per child.

 

The Montage Beverly Hills has a few other ways to let their pint sized guests feel welcome!  Upon check-in younger guests are treated to a mini-Mercedes stuffed with plush animals.  Lil’ Diva  happily chose her favorite brown bear.  I loved that they’ve chosen to offer one nicer quality gift offer their younger guests as opposed to something that would get used once and thrown away.

 

Once in our room I was impressed with the hotel’s personal touches, from the monogrammed neck roll to the pint sized robe and slippers set on the bed… and while not nearly as elegant, I can’t think of a mom  who wouldn’t be completely charmed the personalized greeting awaiting expected paintbox visitor,  Lil’s will be excited too!

 

 

If you are looking for a relaxing, luxurious getaway, the Montage knows how to pamper their guests!  Quality and attention to detail encompassed every aspect of our visit.  I was surprised by the Spa – it was more spacious then expected (not sure why I thought it would be smaller!).  I loved afternoon tea -  the hand painted china it was served on was delightful.  The open kitchen at Scarpetta is GORGEOUS, did I mention that Scarpetta just launched a brand new brunch that is laid out in this fantastic kitchen!

 

 

One of the highlights of the grown up portion of the visit was a rooftop dinner, served poolside in a private cabana.  The company was amazing, Kimberley, The Go To Mom, Jennifer from Modern Mom, Katie from La Jolla Mom, Julie Taylor from Family Finds and Alexandra from The Beverly Hills Mom – the conversation flowed with the food & wine!  I think we all shared how we met our spouses.  It was delightful… all the while the kids were having a blast at Paintbox.

 

Back in the room we enjoyed a nice bubble bath and it was time for some much welcomed sleep!

One last note about Paintbox, you don’t have to be a guest of the hotel.  Dining and Spa guests are also welcome to take advantage of the paintbox program.

The Montage Beverly Hills Paintbox  Spa Offer

Through 2011 the Montage is offering an amazing promotion, book a treatment and your lil’s will enjoy 2 hours at paintbox – complimentary – while you are pampered!  LA Mama’s…  it doesn’t get any better than this!

Love letter to the FDA – I was invited to visit The Montage Beverly Hills, Lil Diva and I dined, slept, and played as the Hotel’s guests.  Even though the beds were sumptuously comfortable, and the massage at the spa melted away my stress, the organic eggs were cooked to perfection… all the opinions expressed remain my own.

The Montage Beverly Hills

225 North Canon Drive
Beverly Hills, CA 90210
(310) 860-7800

www.montagebeverlyhills.com

The Montage Beverly Hills is Family Friendly Luxury, What is Favorite Family Friendly Destinations?

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Our Visit to Park Hyatt Aviara Resort

Park Hyatt Aviara Review

We discovered the Park Hyatt Aviara while we were planning a family  trip to Legoland in Carlsbad, CA.  Carlsbad is just north of San Diego and just over an hours drive from Los Angeles, making it a perfect local getaway.

One of the ways you can make keep your travel eco savvy is to go on local adventures.  I also think local trips are easier on the family in many other ways  too.  For our family, the children are out of diapers, bottles, pack n plays and our world is beginning to open up again!  We are starting to enjoy traveling together as a family!

Those who know me well know that I haven’t been a great a traveling with the lil’s.  Frankly, it exhausted me, but now that they are a little older, it’s actually becoming fun. Especially when you find destinations that truly make it a priority to cater to families like the Park Hyatt Aviara.

Back in the day, we’d escape to one of the many Southern California luxury destinations, but once we had children, it wasn’t quite the same.  We just didn’t feel comfortable with the idea of imposing our children on others – regardless of how delightful they are.  For this trip we were connecting with friends at Legoland, they chose the Park Hyatt Aviara (formerly the Four Seasons Aviara), we decided to go for it.  I’m not going to lie, I was a little  nervous.  Would we REALLY be comfortable with the children at a luxury hotel? Would I be so worried about the lil’s behavior that the trip would be exhausting?

I called the Resort directly to discuss which room might best meet the needs of our family for this trip, I have to share, from my very first contact with the hotel they were very welcoming and made a point of sharing their family friendly amenities.  While they do offer one bedroom suites, we decided to go with 2 adjoining rooms, this ended up working well for us.

From the minute you arrive at the Park Hyatt Aviara they let you know that they welcome you and your lil’s. The front desk staff wheels out a wagon full of toys and the children get to pick one – now of course the eco savvy in me wished the toys weren’t made in china 2 days toys – but the message they are sending is clear.  Bring the family.

Family Friendly Amenities at the Park Hyatt Aviara

• Toy wagon greeting from the front desk
• Toys & DVD’s available for check out from the Concierge
• A separate pool area, spa & wading pool dedicated for families
• A super cool large family room style game room with shuffleboard, pool tables, air hockey and video games (It’s actually 3 rooms)
• Restaurants with children’s menu’s that go beyond mac n cheese
• Step stools in the public restrooms for easier hand washing for the lil’s
• Camp Hyatt.  A free day camp for  children to enjoy during your visit.  Yes… you read that right free.

  

  Welcoming Families

Our “unofficial” Aviara Itinerary

Everyone practiced their best manners at afternoon tea in the Lobby Lounge – TIP – book early or you won’t get a reservation!

While the lil’s played in the pool, we took advantage of the poolside lounge.

While the lil’s slept, we took advantage of the games room (we had a sitter!).  Turns out I am clueless when it comes to shuffleboard, but have fun regardless.  I might have become a little addicted during our Aviara stay.

Dined at Vivace, a wonderful on site Italian Restaurant – they brought carrot sticks with dip out as a starter for the lil’s!  Love that.

Dined at the California Bistro where it’s worth noting children 12 and under dine FREE.  Yes, free.

We had an amazing time.  We took full advantage of the amenities, although I didn’t get a chance to visit the spa… hmmm…. perhaps we’ll have to go back.  SOON!

Love Letter to the FDA:  After booking our reservation with the Park Hyatt Aviara I was contacted by their PR firm and accepted the discounted media rate during our stay they extended.  As always my opinion remain my own.

Our latest family adventure took us to the Park Hyatt Aviara, where was your last family getaway?

Contact the Park Hyatt Aviara: 760 448 1234

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Tri State Journey

Diva friends,

I hope you missed me. I have just returned from a visit to my sister’s home in Santa Fe, New Mexico with the children. What an adventure! Then on our way home we stopped at one of my favorite places, a small dude ranch in the Arizona Desert – Stage Coach Trails Ranch.

I have so much blogging to catch up on, while I did blog when I could during my trip. I did want to spend as much time with my family as I could. And The Dude Ranch is pretty cut off, although my ATT phone worked fine, no WiFi equals no blogging. Not to mention, my sore buttocks from riding and waking up at 5:30 AM to beat the 110 degree heat. Yes that was 5:30 AM – I am nuts!

On my travels I found a great organic vodka, nice organic wines, a hotel chain that uses reclaimed water for flushing and recycles prominently. I’ll be sharing about this and more in the coming weeks!

Big Hugs!
Diva

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