Introduction

This is Chestnut’s first review of a Hilton-family hotel.

Since I first applied for the no-annual-fee AMEX Hilton basic card at the end of 2016, six years have flown by. That’s long enough to finish a Ph.D. (except for notoriously brutal majors like organic chemistry or biochemistry).

PS: I crawled out of the organic chemistry pit myself, and my Ph.D. took six and a half years!

Besides the initial 100,000-point welcome bonus, I’ve also earned a few dozen K through referrals. True to the fine tradition of patiently saving up for one big move, this time I went all out and redeemed 2x95K for the iconic red building at Hotel del Coronado.

Since my Hilton account didn’t have enough points to cover the full 190K, I had no choice but to transfer some MR points while there was a 1:2.6 bonus.

If paying cash, a standard room during Christmas would have cost about $625 per night including Tax&Fee. Even if you transferred entirely from MR, you’d still be getting about 1.7 cents per MR point in value.

Here’s the math: 95000/2.6 = 36538. $625/36538Pts = $0.0171/Pt. That looks right, doesn’t it?

Check-in

Normally I’d open with a photo of the room key card, but since I had already selected Digital Key online, I couldn’t get a physical key at first. As for why I said “at first,” you’ll see later.

First, a photo of the plaque introducing the red building. The oldest part, the Victorian Building, was built in 1888, which makes it 134 years old now. I looked it up online: when it first opened, a standard room started at $2.5, while now it’s over $400... which means inflation over those 134 years has been about 160x.

Over those 134 years, this red building has seen who knows how many stories... the most famous is probably the meeting between King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson here in 1920.

A quick shot of the front desk. That rack full of vintage tassel room keys is now purely decorative.

With Christmas approaching, the crowds were honestly hard to believe.

This is the famous “prison-door” elevator in the red building.

The interior has obviously been refurbished who knows how many times over the past century, so it still looks pretty decent.

My room was on the fourth floor, and the hallway had this all-pink style.

I unlocked the door with my phone and went in. Here’s the interior.

You can already tell from the window layout just how old this place is...

The bathroom setup.

The weirdest thing was this desk inside the bathroom... what’s the point of having such a huge piece of furniture sitting here?

I even posted it in a group chat to ask people... and their brainstorming was as wild as expected. The most outrageous answer was: for nude video chats... What?

Then I figured out what that table-and-chair setup was for: the bathroom had no exhaust fan, only this transom window... so I had to stand on the chair and manually open it.

Back in the bedroom, I opened the transom window to look outside. The feeling really was like stepping back more than a hundred years.

Imagine if there were a Rapunzel-like girl here saying, “I’m a princess, I’m a princess,” then letting her long hair down so the prince could climb up.

Oops, there I go free-associating again, haha.

There were somehow still this many people outside too. Unreal.

The Next Day

The next morning, I opened the transom window for some fresh air.

I played Rapunzel again and stuck the camera lens outside for a shot.

The second-floor hallway lounge.

Does anyone know who the person in the photo is? I couldn’t find it...

The Lobby was relatively less crowded in the morning than it had been the night before.

A super-antique USPS mailbox by the main entrance.

A famous plant: the Dragon Tree by the entrance.

The main building.

A quick follow-up to the teaser from earlier: Digital Key worked fine for getting into the guest room, but the pool access system wouldn’t recognize it. So in the end, we had to go to the front desk and get two physical key cards.

And here are the room keys again, front and center!

The pool.

Then we headed down to the beach for a look.

Malibu is 150 Miles from here.

In the afternoon, we drove to Old Town to meet up with an old classmate. Here are a few extra photos from Old Town.

I’ve always thought the SD bus livery looks a lot like the Imperial Japanese Navy...

Off-screen voice: Lizi, why doesn’t this post have any trains this time?

Lizi: Don’t worry, I’ve got one waiting for you right here! You have to strike when they least expect it—catch them completely off guard!

Off-screen voice: Pu...

The beach at dusk.

The ice cream shop and restaurant downstairs.

The pool and main building at night.

There was actually a ping-pong table by the pool, although it had already started fading from the sun and wind.

Day 3

It wasn’t until the last day that we realized the balcony on the fifth floor, one level above where we were staying, was actually accessible.

That said, the old wooden railing looked like it could betray you at any moment... probably best not to lean on it.

We got up even earlier, and the Lobby looked much less crowded than the day before.

The courtyard.

Then back outside for another look.

We circled around the main building and ended up below Lizi’s guest room.

Can you spot Lizi’s room? [doge]

This side is Beach Village, the so-called premium rooms.

These were just way out of reach. Even the antique base room was 95,000 a night, and these premium rooms were well into six figures... forget it. Looks like this will have to wait until I have Aspire someday and can try my luck with Diamond status.

After making another loop, we went downstairs for the buffet. 79 per person... it felt... okay, I guess...

The Logo on the public restroom looked like a popsicle.

One last shot of the main building to wrap things up.

Ode to Basic Members

And finally, one last bit of aggressive brainwashing—a song dedicated to those who spend huge amounts of money chasing status just for the sake of keeping status. A friendly reminder to not forget your original purpose!

“Basic Members Are Great” (to the tune of “Socialism Is Good”):

Basic members are great, basic members are wonderful, basic members are savvy and avoid getting played!

Platinum members got scared off, and Diamond members failed to requalify and were struck down!