Alex: Looking for a very relaxing, all-inclusive wellness getaway? Look no further than Miraval Resorts. Keep listening to hear how you can visit these resorts on points and what it’s like to stay there.

Welcome to Points Talk with the Travel Mom Squad. We are three moms who’ve discovered how to leverage credit card welcome offers to get hundreds of thousands of dollars of travel expenses for nearly free. We’ve used credit card points and miles to take vacations to places like Hawaii, Paris, Greece, Maldives, Japan, and so much more. And the best part? We each still have 800 plus credit scores. Imagine being able to take the vacation of your dreams for nearly free. It’s totally possible, and we’re here to show you how.

Alex: Hey, I’m Alex.

Jess: And I’m Jess. Let’s talk points. Alex and I just got back from a visit to Miraval Arizona, which is located in Tucson. Today, we are talking all about Miraval Resorts and how you can book them on points and save a lot of money because Miraval is pricey. So Alex, tell us all about Miraval in general.

Alex: Okay, so there are, well, there were 3 locations. A fourth just opened. So you have the Miraval Arizona, which was where we went. That is the OG, the original. There’s Miraval Austin, which Jess has visited, and she’s going to tell us about a little later. Miraval Berkshires. Did I say that right? I always mess it up.

Jess: Berkshires, Berkshires.

Alex: I don’t know why that’s so hard for me. Miraval Berkshires, which is in Massachusetts. And then this one’s kind of interesting. There’s the Miraval Red Sea. It’s Shura Island in Saudi Arabia, and it is accepting reservations starting for dates March 30th, 2026. So you could go in and book that right now. Who knows if it’ll actually open? I feel like anytime Hyatt has a new property, it’s like accepting reservations for these dates, and then you book it, and then it’s like, “Oh, just kidding, we’re opening 2 months later.” And, “Oh, just kidding, actually, it’s 6 months later.” And so we’ll see, but I think it’s interesting because that’s like a very different location than the other 3 properties.

Jess: It’s a little random. I will, I mean, it looks amazing, but it is a little random compared to the locations of the other ones.

Alex: Yeah. So, Miraval is an adults-only, all-inclusive wellness resort. So it includes all of your food and drinks except alcohol, but you can get, as Jess did, you can get all the lattes you want. She was excited about that. She thought she was going to have to pay for those. And then a lot of activities. So some things you will have to pay for are spa treatments and certain activities.

It is pricey, like Jess said. You’re looking at around $2,500 a night for 2 people. But you can book it through Hyatt for 45,000 points a night for single occupancy or 65,000 points a night double occupancy. Rooms sleep 2. So it’s not like some of the other all-inclusives where you can use points for 2 and then pay cash for a third. You would have to book another room if you wanted to bring 3 people.

So it is pricey on the Hyatt side of things. 65,000 points for 2. It’s the most expensive thing you can do with Hyatt points, as far as I know. But if you can split that with somebody, like which Jess and I did, it makes it pretty reasonable, especially when you think of, “Oh, this would be like over $1,200 per person per night.” That makes it a pretty good value.

Another nice thing about staying here is you get a daily $175 resort credit per person. So you could put these towards spa, which is what we did. We used it towards our massages, or to some of the paid activities. Another thing that I love about this resort is there’s no tipping, and so you don’t have, it just, it’s nice not to have to think about it. I don’t mind tipping for good service at all, but it’s just like remembering to have cash or remembering, like, okay, how much should I tip them? It’s just you don’t even have to think about it. It is all built into your the price that you’re paying to stay there.

Jess: And you don’t sign anything. Like you go to lunch, you go to dinner, you get your latte, you get your smoothie. They just hand it to you, and you walk away. You know, like you’re not, there’s not even a way. I mean, I guess you could technically give cash to people, but I don’t even think they’re allowed to accept it, or I think they’re like discouraged from accepting it. So, I agree with you. I love that the tipping is built into the resort and it’s just like, you don’t have to worry about it, you don’t have to think about it.

Alex: It adds to the wellness and mindfulness aspect of one less thing to think about.

Jess: Yes. Exactly. Are you also going to talk about the digital device? Is that in a different part of the thing about how like you can’t use your…

Alex: I think it is. Yes, it is. But yes. So stay tuned.

Jess: Yeah. You’re gonna wanna hear, you’re gonna wanna hear about this. But so here is how we booked it. So I actually last year, I hit 100 qualifying nights with Hyatt, which is the most I’ve ever hit. I did not spend 100 nights in Hyatt hotels. That is a combination of, I did stay in a lot of Hyatts, though. That is a combination of stays, my 5 elite nights on the personal Hyatt card, and then nights from spend. I also, I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this on the pod, I know I’ve mentioned it on the Premium one before, but I have a Hyatt leverage code that Award Travel Academy and Next Level students can take advantage of when they are paying cash for their stays. It’s a discount on cash stays. And so every time $5,000 is spent using that code, I earn 2 Elite Nights. So I actually earned a pretty significant amount of Elite Nights from our students using that code.

And so, anyways, all of that combined, I hit 100 Elite Nights. One of the Milestone Rewards when you hit 100 elite nights is you have a choice between 10,000 bonus points, a suite upgrade award, or a Miraval extra night award. Well, obviously, I’m choosing the Miraval extra night award because that is worth up to 65,000 points. You know, why would I choose 10,000 bonus points when I can get an award that’s good for 65,000 points?

So I chose that one. Alex and I had to like finagle our schedules to find a weekend that worked, but we did. And so basically, we paid 65,000 Hyatt points for the first night. We got the second night free, and then we split, you know, so we each paid 32,500 points for 2 nights, which is a steal. I don’t know if I would go to Miraval with Ted. A, because like the wellness aspect, he would not really enjoy, and the device-free thing that we’re going to get to, but also 65,000 points is a lot of points. So it’s, this is one like, I’m going to go to Miraval with someone, either by myself, which is what I did when I went to Austin, or with someone I can split the points with.

Alex: Yeah, no, I agree. I think it’s like the perfect place to go on a girls’ trip. So go with your girlfriend who has points.

Jess: And there, the other thing is like there were men there, but it was overwhelmingly women.

Alex: Yeah. And so, I actually do think Mitch would like it. He likes the, like, the, I think he would like the food there. It’s very more like, it’s a healthier food, really good quality food, good and clean ingredients. I think he’d really like that. And I do think he would like the different activities, which we’ll get into in a bit. But yes, much more women there than men.

Jess: So with the free night award, you don’t get the, you don’t get the resort credit for the free night. So Alex and I each got a $175 resort credit for that first night that we used points for, but we didn’t get a credit for the second night. Honestly, that was fine for me. Like, we’ll get into what we did, but we each got one spa treatment. We did one paid activity. So it wasn’t, we didn’t spend a ton of money outside of that $175 credit. So Alex now is going to talk about how we got there.

Alex: All right, so the resort is about an hour from Tucson, or if you’re going to fly into Phoenix, it’s just under 2 hours from Phoenix. We flew into Tucson. It’s really nice, they have a complimentary shuttle. So they will email you ahead of time and get your flight details, and they will be there to meet you when you come down the escalator with a sign with your name on it. We had the cutest old man that picked us up. And then you drove there. They had little bags in the car waiting for us. It was a nice van, like it was a nice, a nice ride. They had our little Miraval totes that we carried around with us all weekend, water bottle, like all the information we needed.

The really cool thing is we flew, so we went to Miraval right after we had a meet-up with our ATA and next-level students. And so Jess was already in Salt Lake, and she’d flown, yeah, so you flew Delta to Salt Lake, which Jess doesn’t do very often.

Jess: I did.

Alex: How much did you pay for that, Jess?

Jess: 16,000 miles. I actually booked it through Air France. And so it was 16,000 miles from, you know, nonstop from Houston to Salt Lake on Delta.

Alex: Yeah. And then Jess and I flew from Salt Lake to Tucson. We also booked this on Flying Blue. It was a Delta flight, and it was 8,000 points each way. So I did this round trip. So for me, it was 16,000 miles total. I believe the flight for cash, like the cash rate on Delta was like $500 because you’re flying into this little airport, and I mean, it was ridiculous. So we were both feeling pretty good about our 16,000 or, well, 8,000 miles each way flight, in my case. So.

Jess: And then I flew home from, there is a non-stop from Tucson to Houston and so I lucked out. I found a United cash fare for only $113. So when I saw that, I was like, I’m paying cash. That’s pretty good. I mean, granted, you know, the demand for Arizona flights in August is probably pretty low. But yeah, $113 from Tucson to Houston was pretty good.

Alex: Yeah, that’s really good. And it was kind of funny. So when we left the resort, I think our flights left at 11, and they had us leaving the resort at 9, which would put us getting to the airport at 10. And we’re like, this must be a pretty easy airport to navigate. And we were talking to our driver on the way back, and he’s like, oh yeah, we never get here more than an hour early. It’s so quick. Literally, I don’t even know if it took 1 minute to get through security. It was so fast.

Jess: They don’t have CLEAR® though, so.

Alex: They don’t have CLEAR, but they do have TSA PreCheck®. Yeah, they do. So I love going through smaller airports that are just quick and easy to navigate. So that was nice.

Okay, so now we’ll talk a little bit about the specifics to Miraval Arizona. It is in the desert, as one would expect. It’s like a Southwestern style, very on brand with what you would expect if you’re going to a wellness resort in Arizona. Like when I pictured it and I went there, I was like, this is exactly what I pictured. So there’s a nice little stream running through the property, cactuses, mountains in the background, which I didn’t really realize Tucson had all these mountains and that was, it was, the surrounding area was prettier than I expected. Like the scenery was prettier at Miraval than I expected it to be.

We were upgraded to a double suite. Well, and Jess booked it all. So Jess, do you want to share how you scored us that double suite?

Jess: Yeah, so the other thing I wanted to say is you cannot book, like if you do get the Miraval extra night award, you cannot book it online. You have to call, which I hate calling. So I found a way to do it. I found the email address for the person to book it through. Well, the other thing is like with something like this, it’s kind of tricky. I like having everything in writing. You know, like I like being able to just like describe exactly what I want to do. So I think it was like Miraval.arizona… no, I need to look it up. Let me tell you exactly what this email address is because I know that y’all are also going to want. Okay, it’s arizona.hyatt.vip@miravalresorts.com. Send me an email or a DM.

Alex: I can see, I can see how you would not have memorized that.

Jess: So that is the email address if you want to coordinate this by email. So we did that. And when we booked it, the only room available, the only room with 2 beds available on points was an accessible double room. So I went ahead and booked that, but we don’t need an accessible room, and I don’t like taking an accessible room from someone who may need it. And so I used Pam’s handy-dandy upgrade template, and I emailed that same address back, and I said, we are checking, like, we’re so excited, this is our first time. When we booked it, all that was available on points was a double accessible room. However, we don’t need an accessible room. So if there’s availability in a different room like the, and I gave, I said like, the Sunset Double or the Double Suite, that would be greatly appreciated.

So they email me back and they say, you know, just the standard, oh, we’ve received your request. We’ve added it to your booking. At check-in, they’ll let you know if they’re able to accommodate you. So sure enough, I think it was either the day before or the morning of, I checked my Hyatt app, and it had us in a double suite. So never hurts to ask. I do think it helped that we were there in August, and it was probably an off-peak time. But yeah, so we got, you know, we got that upgrade for free.

Alex: Which was funny though, like, and I thought the suite was great. It was so big. It was, it was really nice. But then yesterday, Jess texted me some pictures, and she was like, “This doesn’t look like our suite. Is it just that the pictures deceiving or did we are these like the updated ones?” I’m like, because it’s the property’s going through renovations right now. And so I, I’m guessing that we got an old suite and that’s what it’s going to look like after renovations. We were like, “Dang, this looks real nice.”

Okay, so when we got there, we checked in, and you have to sign a waiver. And this is where we’re going to get into the digital device-free information Jess was alluding to, but we go in, and you sign this waiver, and you have to initial everywhere, and you’re signing all these things. I’m like, I’m looking at Jess, I’m like, I don’t know what I’m signing, but I’m like, I guess I’ll just sign this. I was like, I kind of want to read this. Like, mostly what the digital device free meant, because he they say like, “Oh yeah, you’re sign, you know, that you won’t use your phones on properties.” I’m like, okay, but like, what does that mean?

So anyways, we sign it, and never, no one really actually told us like much information about that. But in our Miraval totes, there was a little bag, like a little linen bag for you to put your cell phone in. And then throughout the property, we’d see signs that say like, “digital device-free area.” Like when you go into the restaurants, or then there would be other areas where it says like digital device, I don’t know what the phrase was like, not allowed, but you can use your digital devices here.

So that’s a very unique thing about all Miraval properties. You’re not supposed to be walking around with your phones out, talking to somebody, which I appreciate. I don’t like when you’re, especially like in an airport lounge or somewhere, and someone’s on their cell phone and they’re really loud. So that was nice. It was kind of interesting because we’re both like, well, we’re content creators. We really want to get a picture of our meal right now, like to share with people on Instagram.

So at the beginning, we were like really good and we did not take out our phones, but then by the second day, Jess was like, there’s nobody near us right now. Like we’re sitting outside by ourselves. So she’d like snap some pictures of her food and everything. And I don’t, I don’t think it’s so much that. I think it’s more like the being disruptive with your phone is the issue.

Jess: No, I think it’s talking on the phone that they’re really discouraging of, and like walking around on your phone, not paying attention to where you’re going. You know, but I think I’ll talk about we took, we took a photography class that I’ll get into, but she was very encouraging, like, “No, take pictures. Like Miraval wants you to promote their resort,” you know, so you’re allowed to take pictures.

Alex: Because at first we’re like, “Oh, we’ll take a picture really quick, like with me standing here and there.” And then we’re like, that made us feel better because we’re like, okay, we can take, because that would be kind of crazy if you can’t even take pictures on your vacation.

But I do think it really fits with the whole vibe of Miraval, is they want you to be present. They want you to be there experiencing the resort and really mindful, and when you’re just on your device, like scrolling, you know, like that’s not what they’re wanting you to get out of Miraval. They’re wanting you to like, okay, let’s, let’s set that aside and be present in the moment. And so I think that is also part of why they have like the no phones, no digital devices.

So, so anyways, keep that in mind. I think that could be hard for some people, but we survived. Obviously, you can use your phones all you want in your room, and then they have those certain areas where, if you do need to make a phone call, you can go and talk and do what you need to do.

So, as far as like at the resort, there are 2 pools. There’s the Oasis Pool, which is the main pool. That one is right by the spa. It’s like in the center of the property. And the pool is open, but the spa itself is going, is under renovation. It should be done sometime later this year. So right now, the spa has been moved to another part of the resort where they’ve just taken these guest rooms. And I think the spa, what like the main area where you check in for your treatments, is like a suite.

Jess: Yeah.

Alex: And then they walk you over to a different room for your treatment. So it’s kind of funny, but like it was fine. Like it, they’re doing the best they can with what they have to work with, and I wasn’t bothered, but I think the new spa, once it’s done, will be amazing. So that was the only downside. It’s not like we could be like, oh, we’re going to go to the steam room and now we’re going to go do a like the sauna. Like they didn’t have any of that stuff available because it’s under renovation.

So as far as the activities, this is kind of some of the options you can find availability. And like I said, a lot of them are included, and then there are also a lot of them that you would pay extra for, but you could use that 175 credit to go towards these. So there’s photography classes. So whether you want to do an iPhone or if you have a digital camera, journaling classes, meditation, hiking, pickleball, a lots of fitness classes like yoga, barre, stretching, water aerobics, nutrition classes, cooking classes, classes like about dealing with grief, forgiveness, spirituality, dreams, like learning how to interpret your dreams, different type of crystal classes.

So there’s a whole wide range. Like, there was definitely something that Jess and I were like, okay, well, that’s not really our thing, but this sounds really cool. And so I think regardless of what you’re into or not into, you probably, you could find something you like. They also have like a ropes course type thing and like things to do with horses as well. Like different kind of a variety of classes that are involving horses.

And so before we went, they will connect you with like a scheduler person, kind of if you want someone to help schedule you. We just did it all online ourselves, but they will send you like, here’s all the classes available. You can go ahead and book them. They’ll send you, you can look at the schedule for each day, and then choose what you want to do. And then if you want to, you don’t, you’re not like married to that schedule. But some of the classes do fill up. And so we booked our classes beforehand, but then we also while we were there, added a class, like the day before. So you can make changes to your schedule with someone there on property, that will help you do that. Jess is going to talk about the activities we did and what we thought of those, and then also talk about the food options there.

Jess: Yeah, so we did a few classes each day. I am very much, like I told Alex, I was like, I don’t want it to be like we’re in classes all day long because I want to have downtime to just like relax and chill.

Alex: And you can. Like we met some women there who literally, we saw their schedules, and it was jam-packed. And I think that’s why we travel well together because you and I are both like, yeah, we want to do some classes, but we also want to like just relax and hang out and not be on a schedule.

Jess: Yeah. So the day we got there, we actually did an iPhone photography class, which I thought was great. At first, when it started, we were kind of like, “Okay, yeah, we know all this,” but then she got into like some more detailed things. And we were like, “Whoa, this completely changes like how we take photos and videos for social media.” And so I thought that one was great. That one was included. We did an afternoon stretch that day that was included. The next day, we did water aerobics, which was really fun.

Alex: Yeah, that was one of my favorite classes.

Jess: Yeah, I think water aerobics and the photography were my two favorite that we did. So we did a water aerobics class. We did a breathwork class, which we were both like, meh, it wasn’t like super great. We were supposed to do celestial yoga, which is like yoga outside under the stars, but it was storming. And so they moved the yoga indoors, and we decided to skip it. That one was a free one also. We were like, it kind of like defeats the purpose of going to celestial yoga if it’s indoors.

Alex: Yeah. Well, we had just gotten massages that day too, and it was raining, and we were like, let’s just stay in our rooms and be cozy and not go out. If we’re just going to be doing yoga in a studio, we could literally do that anywhere.

Jess: Yeah. And then the last day we were there, or the morning before we left, we did an outdoor floating meditation. That was the only paid, other than the spa treatment. That was the only paid activity that we did. It was $75 each. I think it was 45 minutes long.

Alex: Yeah, I think so.

Jess: I thought it was cool. It was like outdoors, and you’re in those little hammock things, and the woman, the instructor, it was kind of like a sound bath. Like she played those sound bowls. I thought it was cool. Alex said she was bored.

Alex: Well, I just thought…

Jess: We learned on this trip that Alex doesn’t like to sit with her thoughts.

Alex: Well, because when I sit with my thoughts, I’m thinking of what things I could be doing. Like, oh, I could be working on this. I guess I’m not very great at relaxing, maybe. But like, I love getting a massage. I can just sit there with my thoughts and massage all day long.

But I, so you’re in like these silk, they’re like silk hammocks, and I just got a little bit uncomfortable too after sitting there for a little while. I think it, I didn’t know what I was, what to expect. I thought that she would be talking to us and like doing a guided meditation, which I’ve never done, but I was thinking like, oh, this will be cool. But it was literally like we just laid there for 45 minutes while she played sound, the sound bath, which was really pretty. Like I really loved the sound of it, but I would have rather like had instructions of what to do instead of just sitting there and feeling a little bit uncomfortable. But it, but it was, I’m glad we tried it. Like that was my thing with going here was, okay, like I have all these activities that I can try. I want to try new things and like, you know, go a little bit out of my comfort zone. I don’t think I went too far out. I tried to get Jess to do a crystal… oil infusions…?

Jess: No. She wanted to make, what were what are those? She wanted to make some like essential oils, like read our energy and make an essential. I am, y’all, I am like the opposite of woo-woo. So, like me going to Miraval in the first place is already like, I’m stepping out of my comfort zone. And then she wanted to pay like $89 to make some essential oil. And I was like, I would do it if it were included, but I’m not paying $89 to read my energy and make it into an oil to bring home.

Alex: Hey, and you put crystals in it. And here’s the thing, I’m not like super into that either, but I like the idea of being like, “Oh, I’ll try it. Like that’s, this could be fun.” And it’d be like hands-on. I think that’s what I liked about it. like we’re like making something. Hey, you paid $75 to lay in a silk thing. That’s not much more for crystal oil infusions. But I wasn’t like, I didn’t really care. I was like, yeah, I don’t know if I want to spend that much money to do that either. If we had the credits the second day, then I would have been more like, I would have been like, “Oh yeah, I’ll use credits.” But yeah, I get what you’re saying about paying for it. Yeah.

Jess: And then the other thing we did that we paid for was, like Alex said, we got a spa treatment. We each got a river stone massage. It was 75 minutes, $300, which is pricey. I feel like that’s pricey, but I feel like, A, they jack up the prices because they know that you’re going to apply your credit, and B, the tip is built into that. You know, so when you, so it was $300 each for our massage, but we applied that 175 credit. So it was $125 each for our 75-minute massage, which I felt like was reasonable. So with the massage and the outdoor floating meditation, we each paid $200 for our entire stay, which I feel like is great.

I did not, Alex never drinks. I did not drink at all. I was like, I’m going to be in my wellness era. I’m not going to drink any alcohol. We’re going to like do this together.

And so the funny thing though is, like Alex said, everything is included except alcohol. But we, we had like a couple of lunches and a dinner and no one was drinking soda. Everyone’s glass was either water or iced tea or they had like a herbal lemonade. They had like a hibiscus lemonade or something. And so I was like, they must not have Diet… and it wasn’t, there were no sodas on the menu. I was like, “Oh, they must not have Diet Coke. Like that’s probably too unhealthy for them.”

But on our last day, the waiter asked if we wanted anything other than water. And I said, “Do you have Diet Coke here?” And he said, “Yeah, we have Diet Coke.” And I was like, “Oh my god, I could have been having Diet Coke this entire time.” But I thought that they were going to like shame me for asking for Diet Coke. So, anyways, he was really nice about it, and so there you go. If you go soda, they do have sodas and those are also included.

So there’s a main sit-down restaurant called Cactus Flower. That is where they have all the meals, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. For breakfast, it’s, for breakfast and lunch, it’s a buffet, but you can also order off the menu, which is what we did. We got a little bit of a buffet and a little bit off the menu.

For dinner, it’s just off the menu, and for dinner, you do have to make reservations, which I found a little odd because there was never anyone in the restaurant while we were there, but I guess it’s a staffing issue. So we actually didn’t know we needed reservations until we got there, and they were able to accommodate us. But if you’re listening to this, make your reservations, make your dinner reservations ahead of time.

So for breakfast, they had things like huevos rancheros, avocado toast, eggs made to order, yogurt, fruit, pastries. They have a lot of gluten-free options. It’s very, I feel like they would be very accommodating to allergies or, you know, vegan, or vegetarian, just like dining preferences. I feel like they would be really, really accommodating to that kind of thing.

For lunch, it was things like burgers. They had a special every day, and there was a salmon one the first day we were there that was really, really good. Chips and salsa, fruit, salad, just, you know, healthy, healthy lunch things. And then dinner, it was more substantial things like chicken, steak, shrimp. For dessert, they had cookies, ice cream, crème brûlée, lime bars.

And so I felt like the food was really good, especially considering it’s, you know, sometimes with all-inclusive, you don’t really know what kind of quality you’re going to get.

Alex: Didn’t you say the chef there used to be the chef at like the Park Hyatt?

Jess: The Park Hyatt Washington D.C. Yeah. So I read that. I didn’t know that beforehand, but it was in, I think it was in the menu, or it was in the little book that they gave us. So that was really cool. So I was really, I thought the food overall was really, really good.

Alex: I did too. I really liked it. Like, there was nothing that I was like, “Ooh, this isn’t good.”

Jess: Yeah. And then there’s also a Coyote Moon Lounge, which is a bar. They have small snacks. Alcohol is not included, and so we did not actually go in there, but we walked by it a few times. They have another cafe called the Palm Court Cafe. It’s just like a little walk-up cafe, and you it, they have grab-and-go food, grab-and-go yogurt parfaits, breads, pastries, sandwiches, veggies and dips.

That’s also where they have smoothies and lattes. And so I was a frequent visitor of the Palm Court Cafe. I didn’t know that lattes were included. I thought that like lattes and smoothies would be an extra charge. And so when they told us that at check-in, I was like, “Oh, it’s on.” So I think I got like 3 iced lattes a day while we were there. But Alex got a couple of smoothies and said they were really good too.

Alex: They were way good. Yeah. Really good.

Jess: And then there is an oasis, there’s a pool and bar, or there’s a bar at the Oasis pool. We did not ever go there, but it’s open from 11 to 5. You can get like food there too. And then they do have contactless in-room dining for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We did not order in-room dining at any point. So we can’t really speak to the food, but I assume it’s the same food that’s in the main restaurant because there’s only one main restaurant. So yeah, overall, I was impressed with the food.

I’m going to talk about Miraval Austin next. I actually think that granted, it was, it’s been a few years since I went to Miraval Austin. So my memory could be a little bit fuzzy, but I remember thinking that the Arizona food was better than I remembered of the Austin one.

Alex: Yeah, I remember when you went to Austin and you, when you were leaving, I remember you telling us, like it was good and you love, like you really loved the place, but you were like, “I needed fry… I need to go to McDonald’s and get like a Coke and some fries” or something. It was like, I need. And I don’t feel like you felt like that as much this time.

Jess: No, no. So maybe they’ve, you know, expanded a little bit for those of us who are like, “Can I get dessert like with sugar in it?” But yeah, so I went to Miraval Austin. I think it was in January 2022, if I’m remembering correctly. I went by myself. I drove from Houston.

So I’m going to kind of compare the two. There are a lot of similarities. I think as far as the activities go, there’s a ton of overlap. It’s, it’s, you know, the meditation, the yoga, the water aerobics, all those classes are almost identical. I will say I don’t think that the Austin location has that equine experience. So if you really, really, really want to do some of the activities with the horses, then you’re going to want to go to Arizona. We did not do that because it was August in Arizona, and we were like, we don’t want to be outside for 4 hours. But if you went at a more desirable time of year, I could, I’ve heard really, really good things about those classes.

So, Austin, I feel like is more of a modern farmhouse feel. The rooms are in buildings like kind of like a hotel. You know, it’s like 3 stories tall and there’s rooms on each floor. Arizona, it was more like standalone, not standalone because they were connected, but just like little casitas. You know, where like everything’s on the ground floor. You have your little entrance into your own little private casita. It makes sense that it’s more modern because it opened, the Austin location opened in 2019, whereas Arizona opened in 1995. So way before the Austin location opened.

Arizona is way bigger. It’s set on 400 acres. Austin is set on 220 acres, so almost half the size. Arizona has the beautiful mountain views. Austin has more views of like the Texas Hill Country and Lake Travis. Like I said, activities, super similar. Alex and I were talking about this at dinner on our last night because she was like, “Well, what would you do? Like would you go back to Austin or would you come back to Arizona?” I love them both. I think because it’s so easy for me to drive to Austin that I would just return to that one. Like it’s a little bit more of a pain to fly into Tucson for me.

If I had to fly no matter what, like if I were Alex and it was like, okay, I have to either fly to Arizona or I have to fly to Austin or I have to fly to the Berkshires, I feel like I liked the rooms better at the one in Austin. Like they were more modern, more updated. The bathroom, especially, was better than what we had in Arizona. But I did like the authentic desert Southwestern feel of the Arizona one. So I don’t think, I really don’t think you can go wrong with either one. Alex, I’m curious what you, like, are you interested in trying a different one or are you like, “No, I know I like Arizona. I just want to go back there.”

Alex: I know I like Arizona, and I’ll just go back there. And it’s also a quicker flight for me. It’s easier for, it’s a, it’s a shorter distance for me to go. And to me, it just felt very wellness resort there. And hopefully, as they’re renovating, some of the, some of the rooms will look more like what we saw on the Hyatt website, like with those pictures, because if it looked like that, that was a lot nicer than what we stayed in. So hopefully, like it’ll all look better.

I have a question for you, though. Do, what do you think is the right amount of time to stay here? Because we did 2 nights and I wonder, I think people are probably like, “Oh, was that enough time?” Like that seems really short.

Jess: I think one, I think 3 nights would be ideal. This is for me, this is for me, for someone who’s not wanting to do every single activity. Like the woman that we met that had a jam-packed schedule, was going to be there for a week.

Alex: Which is so much money.

Jess: Well, A, so much money, but also like I would, I would go stir crazy if I was there for a week. I think I would be like, “I need to get out of here.”

Alex: Well, and she’d been there like 14 times. There was women there who go every single year with their girlfriends, and I think for a lot of them, it’s a very like healing time to go. A lot of people go there with a specific purpose, like this happened in my life and I’m going here to like reconnect and work on healing and all of that. Like that was very apparent. We even heard some women in one of the dressing rooms being like, everybody that comes here has a story and is here for a reason.

And they were saying, yeah, we don’t like the one in Austin because it’s all these influencers. And Jess and I are like, uh, oopsie, maybe we should have gone to Austin. I’m just kidding. I, but I, yeah, it’s people are really big fans of it. That’s what I’ll end with on that. But yeah, what did, so we, you think 3 nights would be ideal?

I agree with you. I think 3 nights would be ideal. What I do think is really nice though is we got there and we got to the resort what, around noon. And as soon as we got there, it’s like we could start classes, we could start, we went and ate lunch. So there’s no like, yeah, our room might not be ready, but as soon as you get there, you can start enjoying the resort. It’s not like, oh, check-in’s at 4, so you can’t do any activities until 4. You can do stuff as soon as you get there. And then when on your last day, if you’re flight, like there was a flight, we left, like I said, at 11, but there was a flight I could have left at like 5. If I left then, I could have stayed all day. I would have had to check out of my room, but I could have enjoyed the food, I could have enjoyed all the classes.

So if you take an early flight and a late flight, you can get almost 3 full days at Miraval with a 2-night stay. I think like when you arrive, you can, I think it was like 10 a.m. that you can start, like at starting at 10 a.m. the day you arrive, you can enjoy the facilities. And I’m sure there’s a time, a similar time on your departure day. I’m guessing it’s probably 4 or 5.

Jess: The other thing, though, is we met someone that was there on the Miraval friends and family rate, which is ridiculously low. So if anyone is listening and works at Miraval and wants to hook us up with the friends and family rate, send us a DM on Instagram.

Alex: Yes, please.

Jess: We’d greatly appreciate it.

Alex: We’re like, one of the girls we met, that girl that told us she was there on her friends and family rate. She’s like, “Oh yeah, I went to one of the classes and I was the only person in the class and got talking with the instructor and the instructor offered me their friends and family, but I already have it.” And we’re like, “We need to go to that class.” And she’s like, “Oh, that instructor’s not working today.”

Alex: So, yes, if anybody has a connection to Miraval, please reach out. Anyway, we had a great time. I for sure, when while we were there, I was like, “Okay, I want to come back with this person. And this person I know would love it, and so and so would love it.” So I have like a lot of, I really loved it. I wish it was fewer points, but I also get the value you get out of those 65,000 points. And if you share it with someone, it’s not too bad. It’s actually really reasonable, I think, for 32,500 points a night.

So if you are listening and you’re like, “Man, this sounds really awesome. I’d love to do this,” send this podcast episode to a family member or a friend, tell them that you are booking a trip to Miraval, they’re going with you, get some Chase Ultimate Rewards® points to book a stay like this or some Hyatt points, and you could enjoy a nice relaxing getaway.

So if you liked this episode, please leave us a review, and we will catch you next time.

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