Hermitage Bay Antigua Trip Report: $2,000/Night All-Inclusive for $0 Using Hilton Free Night Certificates Justin Vacula of the Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast is joined by James from the Churn and Burn Podcast to recap Justin’s all-inclusive stay at Hermitage Bay in Antigua, a luxury resort.
Justin and James discuss the full Hermitage Bay experience, including flights on American Airlines, complimentary resort transfers, the arrival process, and a beachfront villa upgrade. Justin shares details about the beachfront villa, including the minibar, outdoor shower, mosquito nets, pop-up TV, strong Wi-Fi, beach access, and room layout.
They also discuss the quiet, relaxed resort atmosphere, friendly staff, low-crowd levels, resort cats, and how Hermitage Bay compares to other luxury all-inclusive resorts. The episode also covers the all-inclusive food and drink experience, including vegetarian accommodations, sushi happy hour, breakfast, lunch, dinner, cocktails, and the overall quality of the meals.
Justin and James also discuss resort activities such as water sports, yoga, the fitness center, and other low-key on-property activities. Justin also shares negatives from the stay, including bug bites, wind and sand during meals, no umbrellas in the room, Hilton gift cards not working at the spa, long airport lines, and a strict departure photo issue at the Antigua airport.
Justin also compares Hermitage Bay favorably to Calala Island and answers a listener question about how to value luxury points redemptions when the retail price is extremely high.
Timestamps
00:00 Points And Miles Intro
00:32 Hermitage Bay Overview
02:24 Flights And Arrival
03:47 Check-In And Upgrade
06:58 Villa Tour And Comfort
10:11 Resort Vibe And Crowd
11:20 All-Inclusive Dining
15:16 Activities And Amenities
20:54 Wi-Fi And Tech
21:52 Support The Show
24:09 Bugs, Wind, And Rain
26:55 Spa And Gift Card Fail
28:41 Airport Exit Issues
31:55 Calala Versus Hermitage
33:44 Listener Question: Redemption Value
38:28 Wrap Up
41:31 Final Outro
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Rough Transcript:
Travel at low cost with points and miles. Credit card rewards bring the smiles. Many adventures, tales to be told. Make and save money, the world will unfold
Fight the war on happiness, pick up the gold. Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast breaks the mold
You’re listening to the Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast. I’m your host, Justin Vacula, here to help you make money, save money, and travel the world at low cost. I’m back from an incredible all-inclusive stay at Hermitage Bay in Antigua, a luxury resort that often costs around $2,000 per night.
But instead of paying thousands of dollars for this trip, I redeemed Hilton free night certificates from American Express credit cards and paid zero dollars out of [00:01:00] pocket at the resort.
And this wasn’t some bare bones points redemption. We’re talking about a stay inside of a beachfront villa, steps from high quality food and drinks included throughout the stay, excellent service, a sushi happy hour, and even a few very friendly resort cats wandering throughout the property. I’m going to take you inside the entire Hermitage Bay experience, what the rooms were like, what I ate, how the stay compared to other luxury resorts I’ve visited, what there is to do, and most importantly, whether this was a good use of Hilton free night certificates.
I’ll also talk about some issues I had at the airport, some negatives about the resort, and respond to a listener question. Joining me for today’s show is returning guest James from the Churn and Burn podcast. On with today’s episode, recorded August 17th, 2026. Welcome back to the show, James. Yeah. Thanks, Justin.
I was able to get away from my busy schedule [00:02:00] of churning and burning to join you for this trip report. Happy to be here.
Very good, and happy to have you on as we talked about Calala Island before in another episode, so listeners can find that in the archive, as that was another all-inclusive property or they called it an ultra all-inclusive property, but today’s about Antigua and Hermitage Bay.
I burned some American Airlines miles or points to get to Antigua. I flew from Philly to Miami, and then Miami to Antigua. American Airlines was the best points option for this. I got very lucky. I was upgraded on both legs to near the front of the plane, as I have status with American Airlines.
Won’t go too deep into all the numbers in that because it’s more about the resort, but that was getting there. Upon arriving in Antigua, I met with a representative from the resort who had a Hermitage Bay sign-up. They escorted me [00:03:00] to lines to go for luggage inspection and immigration, and then from there I walked with them to a shuttle area, and there was a shuttle that went from the airport to Hermitage Bay.
I believe it’s the case if you stay for a minimum of three nights, you get complimentary transportation, and this ride took about 25 to 30 minutes. It was some fields, some underdeveloped areas, some unpaved roads, some houses and restaurants passing by, and then you get to the resort, which is a whole different experience.
They had a security position at the front where they had to open a gate, and I saw a very nice big resort. The big check-in area and the beach was right there. A very large pool, various bars. Upon getting to the resort, they offered me a welcome drink, and there were some check-in forms where they were asking about dining preferences, and I had to acknowledge some terms and conditions.
Basically, be safe in the [00:04:00] water. If you leave the resort, the liability’s on you. Pretty basic. And upon check-in, my name, my address, and so on were there, but I didn’t see my Hilton Honors number, which was interesting since I booked this through Hilton using free night certificates from American Express cards.
I asked if there were any room upgrades available. They came back and said that I could choose the beachfront villa, which was an upgrade, or I can go with the standard hillside room. So it was a pretty good experience with the one hiccup of them not recognizing status initially, but then they honored that and gave me a room upgrade
That’s pretty nice. I’ve heard so much about this place. It’s nice to hear that they actually care about Hilton status here.
Yes, and I got lucky at Calala. I got upgraded to the master suite on its own side of the island, and here there were maybe five to 10 beachfront [00:05:00] villas on the bottom part, and I think the advantage of choosing the beachfront villa is that you’re near the bars, you’re near the pool, you’re near the restaurants.
If you were to take the hillside, You would have a room that’s far away from the action. You could walk down this really big hill, or better yet, you can call the front desk and they send a golf cart to pick you up, and then you use a golf cart to get back to your room as well. The hillside rooms, I believe, were smaller compared to the beachfront, but they included a private pool some have described as a plunge pool.
With the beachfront villa, you can simply walk to the beach and I’d rather be closer to the action and have the beach right there rather than having to go back and forth. But some people differ on what they prefer.
These are really more like villas than rooms. The plunge pools look pretty substantial. They’re, it’s not just like a bath on a porch, right? It’s a real legitimate plunge pool. And I would say the, just from the [00:06:00] photos, Justin, it seems like the geography of this place was fairly breathtaking.
Would you agree with that assessment? What was your experience? Yes. You can walk right outside of the beachfront villa. Various hills or maybe mountains in the back. You get to see some of the yachts and boats that are out there, and if you take the golf cart to go up to the hillside area, you got really good views of the entire resort and the nearby coast.
Or of course, if you are in the hillside villa, then you get a great view of the property at all times when you’re in your room. It does look really nice. It is picturesque. They certainly promote that on their social media as they promote the food and the relaxation. I think those are some of the bigger draws of the resort.
I don’t think this is something for someone who wants some strenuous activities or big adventures. It’s more of a leisure resort, I would think. And of course, the food, once again, is a big focus. But returning to the [00:07:00] room, it had a minibar included, which is really cool because usually my advice is don’t touch anything, just avoid the minibar.
But you open a small fridge, and there were many types of alcohol in there. And then there was soda, fruit drinks, different types of water, like soda water, tonic water, and there were some chocolate snacks. There were also some chips and nuts in the room in small packages. The bathroom was very large, and there was a tub inside.
They also had an outdoor shower, which is interesting, and lots of space throughout. There were also some nets surrounding the bed that housekeeping put down at night, as unfortunately there were some bugs. I think the no-see-ums, maybe mosquitoes throughout, but as far as I saw, no high risk of disease or anything like that, unless you were to go into swamps off the property.
But of course, we’re not doing that. There was air conditioning, but I don’t think it was great. There [00:08:00] was a unit far up on the ceiling. It wasn’t like a central air mechanism. But I was able to sleep just fine. During the day when I was in the bed, I didn’t have the covers completely over me. So some good, some bad about the air conditioning, but better having air conditioning rather than just fans, as was the case with Calala Island.
There was also a pop-up TV. You can use a special remote. The TV goes up and down in the entertainment center, which was a cool feature. It was also very big. Lots of cool things about the room
Nice to hear about the AC. Yeah it’s not like you’re having to cool this huge massive facility with it, so maybe central air is not that necessary. You mentioned there’s obviously some mosquito nets here, but it seemed like that wasn’t ever an issue. Were there any things about the room that maybe somebody who’s used to your fancy American five-star hotel would say, “Oh, that’s, [00:09:00] that’s a little different.
You do have an area that cleans your feet. There are some like mini showers outside of the room to clean your feet, which is pretty cool, and then you could just go back in the room.
And outside of the room there were many chairs on the deck, which some people commented on, “Oh, you could sit on any of the 12 chairs outside,” and that was definitely the case. There was a swinging chair, multiple day beds, lounge chairs. There was a lot outside. So you could sit on the porch area after getting out of the water, and you could drip-dry on your way, and you’ll be just all right.
The temperature outside was maybe around 80 to 85 Fahrenheit, and for the most part it didn’t rain. It started to rain towards the end of my visit, but not on the first few days.
That’s pretty nice. Outdoor showers seem pretty common at places like this, always a nice touch. And it is so interesting to see all the furniture, you’re right, Justin, on these patios. For a, a place that kinda [00:10:00] seems like it’s marketed towards honeymooner types, it’s a weird situation to have “Hey, while you’re on your honeymoon have your 10-person family come visit you at this remote destination.”
I think they had a no younger children type policy. Yeah. I’m not totally sure what all the rules were. And there were also different reservation types because at the restaurants, we’ll get into the food later, there were some prices on the menu, and I asked about that and they said that some people are on the bed and breakfast rate, so they didn’t have the all-inclusive.
So maybe it would be multiple people coming together or families, but it seemed like most of the other rooms were just couples. There were two people. I was just solo, and there weren’t too many people there. I think about 40 guests were there when I was there, but not everybody is eating at the same time.
There were different times for the meals. There was a sushi happy hour that was one time, but maybe about 10 people were there. And the beach [00:11:00] wasn’t busy. You’re not competing for lounge chairs by any means. And there were also water sport activities that you can go and request a kayak, paddleboards, snorkeling equipment, and much more.
I’m really curious to hear about the food and just the resort as a whole. Yes. The food was impressive, as was Calala Island, as every meal had many menu options. And before, they asked about dietary preferences or food preferences. So if you’re gluten-free, if you’re vegetarian, vegan, kosher, I believe they accommodate all of that.
Or at least before you book, you can contact the hotel, let them know, and clarify. But I requested vegetarian options, and they brought out special menus for me with items that were different from the main menu. For example, a cauliflower steak was an option.
So it wasn’t like, “Oh you just get a Caesar salad.” There was much more substantial food than that. There were [00:12:00] also non-alcoholic drinks that were provided. They had mocktails, and they had special smoothies, many different types of smoothies. I got the honeydew almond smoothie many times throughout the visit.
They also had protein smoothies, cherry smoothies, all different types of specialty coffee drinks, lattes, cappuccino, iced, hot, mocha, much more. They also had some things like lobster salad, red snapper filets, smoked salmon, grilled bell peppers, sautéed mushrooms, burrata cheese with tomato and basil, cod croquettes, grilled king prawns.
And breakfast, they had the classic avocado toast, make your own omelets, and a rotating dinner. There was one night on Friday that was Caribbean night, where they were saying that they were going to bring out everything. And they asked me, “Oh which sides would you like? We’re gonna bring you all [00:13:00] the starters and then an entrée.”
And I suggested not to bring the sides ’cause I thought it would’ve been too much food. And they were very generous with the portions. I just don’t want to see food go to waste. But you certainly had the option to request more food if you wanted. It wasn’t like a cruise where, oh you just get one entrée, and then you’re gonna get charged for more.
You can request multiple things. They did have some up-charge items, like certain wines or caviar, but I just skipped all that and went with the free options. Very fresh, very flavorful, friendly service. Refilling the drinks was very common. It was an overall good dining experience.
Everybody talks about all-inclusives and just the overall quality of the food.
Calala notoriously markets themselves as ultra all-inclusive, and I know your assessment of the Calala food, and I think most people’s assessment, is that it’s terrific. And so my question, [00:14:00] Justin:
you’re well-traveled, a lot of resorts, both non all-inclusive and then some places that you have to pay. Does the all-inclusive food here measure up to somewhere that’s, not all-inclusive? Do you feel like it’s free, right?
Oh, it was very high quality. It wasn’t like, “Oh we’re just gonna give you a continental breakfast, and here’s a muffin and some yogurt and maybe some fresh fruit, not including berries.”
It was very good food, and they’re marketing themselves around $2,000 a night for the all-inclusive, and even if you use Hilton points, it would probably be around 800,000 to a million Hilton points if you were to stay for five nights. I used certificates, and I still feel that I got really good food.
They had entrees on the menu that were priced around 65, $70, $18 fruit salad. So if you were coming on the bed and breakfast rate and paying for everything, it would be very [00:15:00] expensive.
But with the all-inclusive rate, everything was included, or most things were included, and I think I got extremely good value Yeah, just looking at people’s photos, the food actually does look phenomenal, so it’s really nice to hear.
What is there to do here, Justin, other than just lounge at our villa or sit on the beach or eat food? What else could we enjoy? The water sports I mentioned, if you’re for snorkeling, paddleboarding, kayaking, swimming, of course, there’s a lot to do there.
There are some smaller reefs on the property. You can take the golf cart up and get views of the hill. They have a fitness center on property, and there’s also an outdoor yoga and Pilates area where they have classes or instruction in the morning, and I believe you could just go up there at any time and use the equipment if you wanted.
There’s a lot of [00:16:00] socializing opportunities as they have the main pool area and the main bar area. There are also other bars on property. And usually I keep to myself at these resorts, but several people approached me and were friendly. I was wearing a Upper Moreland Golden Bears T-shirt that I got for free, basically, using grocery points a few years ago, and some people said, “Oh, I recognize that.
I’m from that area.” So small world there. And then someone said to me, “Oh, aren’t you a travel blogger?” Someone had recognized me at the resort, so I guess I get to be a mini celebrity there. And they were seemingly in the know. They were talking about they booked it with Hilton points.
They didn’t have all the certificates, but they were knowledgeable about the certificates. There’s also cats at the resort. So if you like animals, the cats just- Yeah … walked around throughout the dining area. There was one just standing in front of my villa, which was funny. And initially, they seemed [00:17:00] maybe skittish, where the cat would walk near me, I’d go to pet the cat, and the cat would dart away.
The second attempt, I just stood there, and the cat was snuggling against me and then was more open after that
they’re not really feral cats, they’re semi-civilized. Probably they get a lot of food from the resort. Yes. And yeah I’ve seen this famously the Hyatt Regency Grand Reserve in Puerto Rico has probably at least a dozen cats on property.
And to my chagrin as a, even as a cat lover I found that their Globalist Lounge closed because now it’s like a, I guess some sort of housing room for when the cats get too hot. Oh the cats took over the lounge. Yeah. Man, it’s these Hyatt devals and these cats, man. They, they-
I love the cats, so that’s pretty fun to hear actually. Seems like [00:18:00] maybe you could entice them with some leftover seafood or something from your room service meal. Oh, yes. No, no room service for me as there was additional charges for that.
Ah. But you could just walk to the restaurant and eat there. I’m almost never a fan of room service- Yeah … and the fees and gratuity and charges for delivery and all that. And the cats would probably be very interested in the sushi happy hour. This was just one hour. I think this has changed over time, where it used to be like a two-hour affair.
It was all you can eat. But in this case, there were just two courses. They had the drinks available, the alcohol, the smoothies, and much more. They also had the band on Caribbean night, and I think at other times too, so if you like music you can be there with the band. But this resort doesn’t advertise itself as so much of, we have all these experiences for you.
Where at Calala Island they had things like you could take a boat tour of the islands, or we’ll give you the picnic on the [00:19:00] beach, or the picnic that ended up just being outside of my room. And they had different events on property, like certain drink tastings.
I also asked about if there were any kind of bird watching or animal events, and they said the closest thing they have to that was a garden tour where you can see some of the birds around the plants and maybe some animals through there. But they said it was only Tuesday, and I missed it. I could stop by and ask, but when I did stop by and ask, they said, “Oh, the person who does the tours isn’t available right now.”
So no garden tours for me. If you really want the garden tour, make sure to go during a Tuesday. But then you might also want the Caribbean night, which is a Friday. Yeah, it’s kinda cool that they have some sort of calendar going on. I know you mentioned people online can complain about this place with lack of things to do, and it seems like you didn’t really encounter that particular complaint.
But my opinion is y- you’re not going here [00:20:00] necessarily to do things. I don’t know, some people might think that sounds crazy, but I would go to this place to just chill out and pet the cats on the beach. Yeah. More of a leisure resort, for sure. Yeah. It’s different than going to Las Vegas and, oh we can go to all these different casinos and see shows, or we can gamble, or we can go and see these interesting shops or exhibits or whatever the case might be.
That’s a little bit of a negative if you were one looking for many things to do or experiences. But of course, you can also bring your Nintendo Switch 2 that you purchased with Dell credits. You can bring other things to do. You can exercise. Yeah. There’s a lot. You can keep yourself entertained.
It’s been a pet peeve of mine when people are complaining about airplanes and, oh, there was no in-flight entertainment, or the in-flight entertainment didn’t work, where I can just keep myself occupied, and that’s certainly what I did here at Hermitage Bay.
How was the Wi-Fi in the room, Justin?
Oh, that’s a great question. The Wi-Fi was excellent. [00:21:00] Normally, on cruise ships, the Wi-Fi is traditionally very bad, especially for uploading and downloading, as some three-minute YouTube videos would take me 10 hours to upload. Oh. But at the resort, I took a video of the beachfront villa room. You could find it on my Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast YouTube channel.
Five-minute or so video recorded with my Insta360 camera, so a very big file, high-quality video. It took maybe 15 or 20 minutes to upload the file, and then maybe 20 minutes to download as well. The Wi-Fi was pretty good. Streaming was also fine, and you could connect your TV with the phone in many ways for YouTube, Netflix.
The Nintendo Switch worked fine.
We’ve talked about lots of the positives and some negatives, and we’ll get into more of the negatives and some listener questions after the break.
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We’re back with James from the Churn and Burn [00:24:00] podcast talking about my recent trip to Hermitage Bay in Antigua, an all-inclusive luxury resort I booked with Hilton free night certificates.
Before the break, we talked about some possible negatives, and I’m feeling the bug bites a little bit, especially around my ankles, around my feet, and some itching feelings. One negative about that, I don’t think anything serious. I mentioned before no-see-ums are likely the biggest culprit, maybe some mosquitoes, but not too bad
It’s basically bugs where you don’t know they’re biting you when they’re biting you.
Yes, definitely around the sock line, the ankles. And if I were to do this again, maybe I wouldn’t wear sandals everywhere around the resort. Maybe put socks on. Maybe even wear pants if you really wanna be that dedicated, although shorts, of course, are more appropriate for the weather.
But yes, the bugs got to me at some point, [00:25:00] but nothing serious it seems. One other negative is that sometimes it was windy at the property. I was trying to take a video walking the beach, but upon listening back to it, there was tremendous wind and audio interference, so you will not see that video. And even worse, they had the restaurants on or near the beach, and there were times where it got very windy and the sand would blow around.
A garnish would fly off the plate, or a server would just stop and put their back to the sand. I don’t think sand got in any of the food, but it got very windy. There’s a potential that would happen. For future meals, they moved it more inside rather than on the beach
I guess you could just pack some industrial strength bug spray. Any other weird things happen?
Any incidents of note or anything else about the property you wanna mention? There were times where it rained, [00:26:00] and this was on the final day of my trip. They said that someone could come to the room and take my luggage, so I wouldn’t have to lug it throughout the beach area or the walkway. They came to get the luggage, and it was raining outside.
I asked them if they could bring an umbrella back so that I’d be able to walk to the lobby area with the umbrella. Someone came back and said, “Oh it stopped raining, so we didn’t bring the umbrella.” I start walking and it started raining again, so that was awkward.
Why wouldn’t they just bring the umbrella? There were no umbrellas in the room that I saw, and at other resorts there would be umbrellas provided. Even some cheaper hotels there would be umbrellas in the room.
I think a minor thing there, but something worth mentioning
Yeah, I would just expect that. It’s a beach. It’s especially in the Caribbean, there’s no way around it. Whether it’s Cancun or Miami you’re getting a good rain once a day. So no big deal.
I also tried to use Hilton gift cards as they had a spa area that [00:27:00] was not included.
You would have had to pay for massages, facials, whatever you would get there. And my plan was to use Hilton gift cards to pay for the massage. I didn’t want to tempt fate, get the massage, and then try to pay with the Hilton gift card. So I asked them if they could try using the Hilton gift card before I would get the massage.
And it was a bit humorous at first because they were trying to put the Hilton gift card in as if it had a chip, but it doesn’t have a chip. I told them, “Could you please try swiping the card?” They tried swiping it. It seemed like they were trying to manually enter the card number. It didn’t work.
I asked them if they ran it as credit, and it still didn’t work. So the Hilton gift cards persist. I have been able to use them at other places for food, but here they didn’t work when I tried to use it for a massage. I can’t fully blame the resort on this, as they might have some card readers that don’t accept these or maybe it’s [00:28:00] not properly coding as a Hilton purchase.
I actually had somebody fairly high up in Hilton explain this to me once, and the long and short of it is it’s really not something that a property has any control over. At the point of sale, there’s not some button they can push or there’s not something the GM can do to get it to credit right. From what I understand, they either work or they don’t. And some properties, they just don’t for whatever various reasons.
Worth an attempt. I can always use them at other places so Hilton gift cards for another day.
The way out, I think, was a little bit late. They said checkout was at noon, you’ll have a ride to the airport at 12:30, and your flight departs at 3:30. So I thought that was enough time to be on time, well ahead of time, having maybe an extra [00:29:00] 30 or 45 minutes before boarding, but the lines at the airport were quite long.
I would have preferred to have left earlier, maybe 11:30 or 12 o’clock, and that was probably doable. But I went with their wisdom and their timing rather than asking for an earlier ride. The line to check in was long. Then there were some lines to get through the passport control or immigration area. And then on my way out, they said, “Oh, we need you to scan your QR code.”
Before the trip, I had to fill out this arrival and departure form and take a selfie with my picture. So at home, I stood against my green screen, I took a photo, and on the way in, I saw the photo on the screen. They said, “Go ahead. Everything is good.” But on the way out, the immigration officer said, “We cannot accept your photo because you took a photo without a shirt, and you’re going to need to refill out the form [00:30:00] and retake the photo.”
And I was quite surprised to hear that because this was just a headshot, shoulders up, neck up, and they said the photo was unacceptable. I told them that I got in, no one said anything about this photo, and now my flight boards in about 20 minutes. But she insisted that I still have to refill the form.
She called someone over. They were friendly about it, and I had to spend another five minutes or so and then reenter the line. I didn’t have to start over in the line, so that was good, but this brought up some worry in me that I might miss the plane, and it’s a very rare occurrence
Yeah, people in award travel community, in our community, we all pride ourselves on not missing flights.
I certainly almost never have this happen. And when you do, it’s a big story like this. You did make your flight though, right? I did make the flight, yes. But I thought it was very picky of them, “Oh, you weren’t wearing a shirt in [00:31:00] the photo.” It’s not like it was a full body photo. It wasn’t even close to below my shoulders.
Some shoulders were in the image, and then it was just the rest of my face. So I don’t understand what the issue was, whether this was a real rule or not. It seemed very strict to me. So in the future when I take a photo at home next to my green screen when I’m at home, I’ll put a shirt on, and you could see a little bit of fabric and maybe that’ll be acceptable next time.
It’s similar to when I deal with cashiers in stores sometimes and I’m thinking to myself “Is this immigration officer going to be fired because there’s no cloth around my neck?
What is going on that they’re denying me leaving the country because of not having a shirt on in the photo of the headshot?” So that was- Yeah … that was interesting, let’s say. But it was okay. I didn’t have to start all over again. I didn’t miss the flight. Just a minor annoyance and a lesson learned for next time,
We’ve been mentioning Calala back and forth. I think it’s a [00:32:00] natural competitor to this place because Hilton free night certs, right? It all-inclusive. It ticks a lot of the boxes even though these places are different.
Given the choice between Calala and Hermitage Bay, you were gonna spend five nights at one or the other on five free night Hilton certs. Which one would you choose and why?
Very easy. I think I would choose Hermitage. The main appeal of Calala Island was that they were offering a cash incentive. I believe it was $2,515 to go, and some downsides with Calala were the lack of air conditioning, no air conditioning, and the journey to get there was quite a thing. I liked the boat ride, but I didn’t like getting up super early, having to take a flight, having to take another transportation and then get on the boat.
Here it was more direct, just landing at the airport, and it was a shuttle or a van [00:33:00] to get to the resort that took only about 20, 25 minutes. The food was comparable, the rooms were comparable, but the lack of air conditioning was a big negative about Calala Island, and some of the transportation options weren’t the best
Calala had some positives, like their excursions, the food was great. Calala also had this customer service where you connect with the team on WhatsApp, and you can make requests through that.
I thought that was cool. There were some times at Hermitage where I called the front desk and no one answered, so I had to walk over.
That’s a little comparison between the resorts once again, and we’ll move on to a listener question. If you go to my subscribestar.com page, listeners contributing $10 or more a month, you can have your questions addressed for podcast episodes. One supporter, Michael Trager from travelzork.com .
Thanks, Michael, for your [00:34:00] support. Michael asks, “I like to discuss retail value versus points used versus what someone might pay. For example, a one-way business class flight might cost $12,000, but I wouldn’t pay that. Maybe I’d pay $1,500. What would we value in dollars since I seldom or never value luxury redemptions at full price?”
With this resort, this is me talking now, they wanted $2,000 a night. I wouldn’t pay $2,000 cash to go here or probably much of anywhere. Maybe a few hundred per night I think would be appropriate for me paying. Of course, I used the Hilton free night certificates to pay, but I think as far as value with all the food and drinks included, the beachfront room, I think it was very nice and a really good use of my Hilton free night certificates.
It’s a good question of thinking they could put a cash value on it, but would you really pay [00:35:00] that? Most listeners, I imagine probably not, and that’s why we’re in the hobby. People like Dave Ramsey say, “Just pay for your own vacation,” lamenting the hobby, or some people will say, “Oh I’ll just use money from work and pay for that.
I don’t wanna put in the effort of points and miles.” But for me, I’d rather take the steps to get the certificates, get the new credit cards, and pay zero out of pocket for the stay itself. There were some taxes and fees on the flights and some incidental expenses like the getting to and from the airport, but overall, I was very happy with the experience
i’ve always preached this for years, and it’s the cents per point of your redemption, guys, is not what they were charging in cash. It’s what you’d realistically, personally pay.
Be careful how far you go down the rabbit hole of figuring out what your true cents per point is, because I [00:36:00] think what I’ve experienced is the further down that rabbit hole you go, the more you can talk yourself out of some really phenomenal redemptions just because you’re like it’s really nice, but I wouldn’t pay that, so I’m actually gonna, cash out these points or find a way to convert them to cash because I’d rather just have the cash.”
But, you know life is short, Justin, and I’m never gonna regret… I think I shelled out 185k JetBlue miles last year for Japan Airlines first class, and when I did it, it hurt a little bit, right? That’s a lot of miles. I know they’re JetBlue, but, a rational individual might’ve sat and said, “This is too much.
I’m just gonna do business class,” right? Justin, it was worth every mile, man. Memories for a lifetime. My P2 was amazed by Japan Airlines. The A350-1000 with the brand-new closed suites, and it was bucket list stuff. In the [00:37:00] spirit of my pod, to answer your question, Michael, churn ’em and burn ’em.
I like with the certificates using them on properties that otherwise would cost a high amount. Yeah. I’d be a very sad panda to use a Hilton free night certificate at a Hilton Garden Inn that would otherwise cost $150 per night when instead I can go to places like Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam, Calala Island, like Hermitage Bay, and many other properties that are usually expensive.
You get the luxury experience. It’s nice if the food and drinks are included, and you get some memories, that’s for sure. That’s an important thing about the hobby. Now, it’s more difficult if, say what about if I just stay in the United States and here’s a property that would otherwise go for $600, but then there’s a property down the street that would go for 100, then, eh, maybe not so interesting there.
I know past podcast guest Justin Walter has encouraged me many times to [00:38:00] use Hilton certs for international travel, to use some upgrade certificates for international flights, and get out of the country. But some people prefer the domestic or maybe they don’t have as much time off, but I’d encourage listeners to go to some of these traditionally pricier properties and have these experiences rather than just settling for the United States.
Agreed on all points, Justin. Yeah. Very good. Any other questions you might have for me about the resort? I don’t know. I think we covered it really well. I guess it’s not so much of a pain point since the place is mostly all-inclusive, so you don’t really have to worry about what’s gonna happen when you dip off with your $500 in Hilton gift cards and pray that they’ll cover your meals.
I am much more interested in this place than Calala, I gotta say. Viewers, you might find me there in the next few months or years. Who knows? [00:39:00] Very good, and I think I would return, although I’m preferring to go to other destinations first, so we’ll see what my Hilton free night certificates might do in 2027.
But nice to have these different places, go to different countries. I’ve only been to Antigua before on quick cruise stops, so it was different actually going to the country, staying overnight, and having a really good experience and a shorter stay for just the three nights. But I was happy using the free night certificates, walking out with zero dollars on the tab, not having to worry about the food, paying for the food.
Just having it included, I think, was pretty cool. And past podcast guests, Heidi and Beth, also went to the resort, and they had really good experiences too, so that was a contributing factor for me going to Hermitage Bay. Awesome. Yeah. Thanks for coming on. And one more time, if you could remind listeners where they can find you [00:40:00] and your podcast.
Look at the Churn and Burn podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcast. That is where I’ll be waiting for your golden ears. Finally, Instagram. You have an Instagram handle as well. Yeah, Churn and Burn podcast.
Very good. Thanks for joining me today. Yeah. Thanks again, Justin. Always nice to come on and I hope to come on again and maybe have you as a guest on mine, so appreciate it.
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