Redemption

Like several of my previous redemptions, this stay at the Alila Marea Beach Resort Encinitas also came down to pure luck. My original July 4 holiday plan was not to come here at all. I had booked a Hampton Inn up in Ventura so I could burn the 100,000 Hilton points I got from opening a no-annual-fee Hilton card back in 2016. But one day last month, while eating lunch, I casually did a search and discovered that Alila Marea Beach Resort Encinitas had actually released award availability for the July 4 long weekend. Generally speaking, this property only occasionally releases award nights on regular weekends, and not on holiday long weekends like this.

After a bit of internal debate, I decided to change plans. So without overthinking it, I transferred 30,000 UR to Hyatt and booked this Alila, then canceled the award stay on the Hilton side.

The end result: those Hilton points are still sitting there doing nothing, and it has already been five years. Sometimes all I can say is that your plans really do lose to fate.

In short, my redemption strategy is basically this: lie low, wait patiently, and the moment the opportunity appears, pounce on it!

The Drive

We headed out after breakfast in the morning, making a few extra stops along the way to enjoy the scenery. This is the Laguna Beach Alila (not one I opened, to be clear). Has any expert-level traveler here stayed at it before?

This is Dana Point. From here, the Pacific Surfliner and Metrolink trains start running along the coast.

This is Oceanside, which is also the boundary between Orange County and San Diego County. Because of that, the station here also has a very literal “borderline” feel to it: in the photo below, the machine on the left is an SD County NCTD Pronto ticket machine, while the one on the right is a Metrolink ticket machine.

By the way, judging from the spacing and the screws left in the ground, did Metrolink remove one of its ticket machines here? That would be pretty sad...

A Metrolink Orange County Line train. Oceanside is the southern terminus of this line, and passengers were getting ready to board northbound for Los Angeles Union Station.

Only then did I realize the Springhill Suites in the upper left belongs to Marriott... I did a quick search, and it was going for 38,000 Marriott points per night... kind of outrageous.

On the other platform across the tracks was a Coaster train operated by San Diego County NCTD.

This station is the northern end of the line, and passengers were preparing to board southbound for San Diego.

On the adjacent platform was a train heading inland to Escondido, using a Siemens DMU diesel multiple unit. For non-railfans, just think of it as a diesel-powered metro train.

The beaches were absolutely packed for the holiday weekend, with a crowd density beyond imagination... What I hate most is high crowd density. When I see too many people, my first instinct is to hide. So we kept driving south toward our destination.

Check-In

With plenty of stops along the way, our slow local-service-style road trip finally reached the booked destination at 2:30 p.m.: Alila Marea Beach Resort Encinitas.

This hotel does not offer Self-Parking at all; only Valet Parking, at 52USD per night, plus tip. Oh well—if they let you redeem points for the room, I guess they have to make their money somewhere. Nobody has it easy!

The welcoming pine tree in the hotel lobby has also shown up on other websites.

At check-in, the front desk asked whether we wanted to pay an extra 75 to upgrade to a Coast View. We thought about it and chose No.

There were two reasons:

First, the room available for upgrade was on the first floor, and the view might not actually be as good as the third-floor Lagoon View room. There was a real chance the “upgrade” could turn out worse. It felt a bit like in Idolmaster, when after training a card, the SSR becomes an SSR+ but somehow looks worse instead.

Second, wouldn’t that 75 be better spent on food?

That’s the feeling exactly. I think this SSR+ version of Minami Nitta after training looks worse than the original furisode kimono SSR where she’s holding an ema... feel free to roast my taste...

After getting the room key, I took the customary room-key photo to anchor the post. The room key at Alila Marea Beach Resort Encinita is made of wood and has a lot of character, so when I checked out the next day, I let the front desk know that I was taking it with me as a keepsake.

There was also a wristband with the hotel Logo on it. Please ignore my very dense chestnut spines, thank you!

We took the elevator to the third floor and almost went the wrong way... The fire door beside us stays closed and has to be pushed open.

The hallway was very long, and after several turns we finally reached our room!

The room looked like this.

The coffee machine and electric kettle on the table—sorry for the slightly high-entropy setup:

The bathroom and shower doors were done in that industrial sliding-door Style.

What brand is this? Is it considered upscale? Would love to hear from the experts.

The balcony and the outside view—you can see the Beach parking lot from here.

I remember one review site complaining that there was obviously a Beach parking lot right next door, yet the hotel still insisted on charging $52 for Valet Parking. All I want to say is: I understand the urge to save a few bucks, but... the beach parking here does not allow overnight parking. Otherwise, best case you get a ticket; worst case, you get towed.

Just as I expected, this room type also gets a partial Coastline view, so there really was no need to upgrade.

And as a railfan, what interested me even more was the thing on the right side of the picture—the coastal rail line. If you're lucky, you can spot both Amtrak Pacific Surfliner and Coaster trains.

A few shots from the balcony. From here, you can photograph the balconies of other guest rooms as well as the restaurant at the far end of the second floor.

California State Route 1 and the beach.

Seagulls and pelicans in the lagoon, plus Amazon delivery vans speeding along Interstate 5 in the distance.

After waiting a while without seeing a train, I did at least get a bus—there it was on Highway 1, the legendary NCTD 101 route, running from Oceanside to University Town Center... that route really covers some distance.

Then suddenly a train showed up, moving so fast it nearly caught me off guard... Amtrak Pacific Surfliner to San Diego Santa Fe Depot!

I went out for a walk and spotted one of the big El Camino Real bells by the roadside.

The legendary 101 bus showed up again—service on this route is actually pretty frequent.

The railway wasn't quiet either—an Amtrak Pacific Surfliner came roaring by.

I really felt the classic railfan saying here: waiting for a train feels like constipation, but when they come, they come like diarrhea. Not long after the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner passed, a Coaster train showed up too.

Since Coaster stops at Encinitas station, it was moving a bit slower than Amtrak.

PS: The hotel front desk offers complimentary electric bike rentals.

Gas prices at the local 7-11 station—they looked decent enough.

Dinner

After a casual loop outside, we headed back to the hotel and first went to check out the viewing deck on the first floor.

For some reason, there was nobody there at this time... so I took the chance to snap a panoramic shot first.

Then a few more from different angles.

A train came by—oh yeah!

I also took a quick look at the Gym area. It was completely empty inside.

The TV was showing the MLB game between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Phillies.

Since we had reserved dinner at VAGA in advance, we headed to the entrance once it was almost time.

But by pure accident, we went to the wrong place and walked straight in through the restaurant's back door, with nobody there to seat us...

Just as we were standing there totally confused, a server came over and led us to the front. Then I realized why the place looked so familiar—it turns out you can just go up from the hotel lobby via this spiral staircase!

Here's a look at the menu.

Table decor.

A faux fire.

The tableware, staged for a photo.

Italian glassware.

The food arrived. I have to say, the portions were a bit small. Li Zi ended up ordering some bread afterward.

After the meal, we stood on the restaurant’s viewing deck for a look around.

The VAGA restaurant logo.

Another train came by on the line: Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner. The two mismatched cars in this consist (the 2nd and 4th cars behind the locomotive) had been reassigned from the Bay Area.

Lizi has ridden these mismatched cars before, and the seat pitch is incredibly stingy. Thumbs down!

Night Views

California State Route 1, the beach, and the lagoon at night.

The hotel at night.

The pool at night.

One of the pools was heated, and after a full day of activity, coming here to relax my leg muscles felt amazing.

Breakfast

Nothing much to report overnight; the next morning we went back to VAGA for breakfast in the same spot.

The menu.

I ordered a cup of coffee, and the sugar packets were kind of fun.

Just casually posting what we ordered. Same as before: the portions were a little small.

Pool

Behind the hotel there was a place renting surfing equipment. Unfortunately Lizi doesn’t know how to surf, so we just took a look and left.

Walk down the stairs next to it and you can reach the beach. We found a small-size pebble.

Balanced!

One distinctive feature of this hotel is the pool, so here are a few casual shots.

Heading Home

We checked out at 11:00AM. After mentioning it to the front desk, I kept the wooden key card for my collection.

Recognize this place?

An abandoned spring of human energy—the site of a former nuclear power plant.

As usual, we looked for a chance to stop and photograph trains on the way home. Last time we stopped at San Juan Capistrano; this time it was San Clemente.

Only Metrolink stops at this station; Amtrak does not.

Amtrak just blows right through!

A faux Shonan coast—pretending this is Fujisawa, Kanagawa, Japan.

Lizi is pretty confident about photographing trains these days!

Back on the road, with LA getting closer…

Home at last. That wraps up the main part of this post.

Summary

  1. Award redemptions have gotten more expensive, which is a bit annoying. The standard is now 30,000 points for a base room, 5,000 higher than at the beginning of the year. The increase isn’t huge, but UR points are precious, so you still have to use them carefully. On the other hand, if you look at it differently, getting close to 900USD in value out of 30,000 UR points is still pretty decent… a little self-comforting optimism…
  2. In terms of hardware, this is probably the nicest hotel Lizi has stayed at so far. Since it was only built last year, everything still looked very clean and new. Lizi is, famously, just a basic elite member, so I can only share a review of the standard room. If any big shots with Globalist status want to stop by, feel free to test whether an upgrade to a better room is possible. Based on my observation, the Lagoon View rooms on the second and third floors are probably the standard rooms, while the Coast View rooms on the second and third floors, or any rooms on the first floor, seem to be a bit more premium. (The first-floor rooms have larger outdoor patio space, and you can also request a bonfire.)
  3. Shampoo, conditioner, and similar amenities were stocked in decent quantities. I did not run into the stingy situation mentioned in some reviews on other forums. Maybe after being open for a year, they got enough guest complaints that they no longer dare to be quite so cheap?
  4. The food really is a bit expensive. With Lizi's appetite, I had to add bread at dinner just to get full. But as always, the same old point applies: as a basic elite member, Lizi definitely has to pay for everything. If anyone with top-tier Globalist status visits, feel free to check whether anything in Dining can be comped.
  5. For parking, there is no relatively less-annoying Self Parking option at all; the hotel only offers Valet Parking, and it costs 52USD per night, with tip expected on top of that. Oh well, when you think about it, the room was already booked with points, so let's let them make this money instead. A little here and there keeps everyone happy in the long run!