I did not plan a trip to Vancouver for 420 festivities. I originally booked the Hyatt Regency Vancouver two weeks before for April 20 on a $239 CAD ($200 USD) room rate due to spotting a potential best rate guarantee claim for two double beds on getaroom.com for $101.45 USD.
My Hyatt best rate guarantee claim was approved and the room rate was reduced to $102.14 CAD ($84.87 USD).
Hyatt Regency Vancouver total room rate after tax came out to $118.99 CAD or $98.87 USD for my one-night stay before traveling by ferry to Victoria, the capital of British Columbia on Vancouver Island.
A day of free music around the corner from the Hyatt Regency Vancouver on Monday April 20 were bonus features of my stay in the city before heading out to Victoria and Vancouver Island adventures. This was the first part of my free Alaska Airlines ticket trip for $85 taxes from San Jose SJC to Vancouver. I earned the free ticket flying San Francisco to Salt Lake City two times in January, with the second trip spent at the Hyatt Escala Lodge for the Sundance Film Festival.
Loyalty Traveler – Quiet Hyatt Escala Lodge Park City Utah (February 1, 2015)
Hotel Review Hyatt Regency Vancouver
Hyatt Regency Vancouver is a 34 floor hotel with 644 rooms in central downtown Vancouver on Burrard Street, five blocks from the Vancouver Convention Center on the waterfront. The hotel is centrally located for walking all over downtown Vancouver from Yaletown to Stanley Park to Granville Island.
Vancouver YVR Airport to Hyatt Regency Vancouver by SkyTrain
You can reach the hotel taking the Canada Line Skytrain from Vancouver YVR to Waterfront Station. From Waterfront Station take either Expo Line or Millennium Line one stop to Burrard Station. Hyatt Regency is adjacent to Burrard Station. Ticket price is $9.00 CAD with the YVR surcharge paid when boarding Skytrain at YVR Airport, $7.75 CAD on weekends and after 6:30pm.
Price is $2.75 or $4.00 from Burrard Station downtown Vancouver to YVR Airport.
Hyatt Regency Vancouver is a big business hotel. The lobby is filled with a Starbucks, restaurant and bar.
Elevators program for your own floor
The elevator is the first distinction for this hotel. Have you ever been in an elevator and a young child walks in and starts pressing floor buttons? Hyatt Regency elevators work by pressing your specific floor selection on a touchpad in the hallway and you are assigned one of the five elevators. The elevator only goes to floors pre-assigned by guests using the touchpad.
There are no buttons inside the elevator to press. Usually I rode my own elevator or sometimes the elevator carried another guest to one other floor.
I stayed on the Regency Club lounge 29th floor, room 2922. My room view looked out to Burrard Street south and the iconic Fairmont Vancouver Hotel across the street.
The room had all the conveniences of a big King bed, even though I had booked two doubles for the best rate guarantee claim.
The desk by the window had a comfortable rolling chair.
The biggest surprise was seeing a mini-bar refrigerator sitting empty. I strongly prefer an empty refrigerator in the room to a stocked mini-bar I won’t buy from due to high prices.
The bathroom was spacious with appealing mirror and shower tile design.
The closet held the safe, robes, suitcase stand and iron.
Hyatt Regency Club Lounge
Being on the 29th floor was convenient for getting drink and fruit during the day, along with a different hotel view tan my room view.
The Regency Club side of the hotel has the view northwest for a glimpse of the sea and mountains of North Vancouver and Grouse Mountain.
Hyatt Regency Fitness Center and Outdoor Pool
Outside on the Regency Club patio, I enjoyed the view looking out to the city without the obstruction of seeing through glass.
I looked over the 29th floor patio ledge to see the Hyatt pool and spa tub some 250 feet or so below.
Vancouver April 20
Turned out that Hyatt Regency Vancouver was 1.5 blocks from 420 Vancouver, celebrating its 20th anniversary as probably the most liberal cannabis festival in North America. From what I heard, April 20 and Canada Independence Day July 1 are two days when smoking and dealing cannabis products in public is apparently tolerated in Vancouver. An estimated 25,000 people attended the event.
As I mentioned in my post last week, 420 Vancouver Experienced, I was walking from the Comfort Inn Downtown Vancouver to the Hyatt Regency Vancouver and the direct path led me through Robson Square past the Vancouver Art Gallery. The day long 420 Vancouver festivities and rally were visible and audible from my Hyatt Regency room. Vancouver is a city that parties in a big way has been the experience I have had on several trips to this city.
