I imagine that most people who stay in an airport hotel have probably used a plane recently… we were no exception.
We had been awake for almost 21 hours and we were really tired. The Junior Freaks had done really well, but were now desperate for some sleep. We enquired at the information desk as to where we could catch the hotel bus from and were told to flag it down outside (the whole US-anything-goes has much less structure than us British).
We hauled our 13 bags and 3 Junior Freaks to a spot on the curb and waited. We then waited some more. And waited some more still. The bus eventually arrived (after a 45 minute wait) and stopped… about 50ft along the kerb. A sudden rush of people appeared and it became apparent very quickly that all these people (and all the bags) were not going to fit.
Now (as the name suggests) Mr and Mrs Travel Freak are used to travelling – we do it often and when things like this happen we simply laugh about it later over an extra cocktail. The Junior Freaks however are not and they REALLY needed some sleep. Mrs Travel freak soon sorts out the numerous businessmen who are scrambling for the bus and bags 2 seats – enough for Mrs Travel Freak and the 2 youngest Junior Travel Freaks (TF). I throw her my wallet (I did say I was very tired) and off they went.
I was left with the eldest Junior TF, a few bewildered tourists, a nice chap who had offered his seat to one of the Juniors and a coupla grumpy men in suits. And a huge mass of bags.
We waited about 15 minutes for the next bus (bringing our total wait to more than an hour) and were delighted that it was empty and the driver was happy to load the luggage.
The journey took less than 15 minutes (!) and of course Mrs TF had the bag with my cell phone so I had no idea where they were. A nice lady at check in soon sorted me out with an extra room key (but only after calling upstairs to check with Mrs TF that I was who I said I was) and off I went.
Room was fine for the one night but probably not suitable for much longer (not for five of us anyway). As Diamond HHonors we had some breakfast coupons and a voucher that gave us 2 drinks and 2 appetisers from the bar.
After some minor tantrums it was agreed we would try and find some food for the Junior TFs (as quickly as possible). We went to the bar (which looked like far-too-many other hotel bars I have stayed in) and ordered our free drinks and appetisers. I managed to convince the barman to let us order some room service and have it delivered to the outside tables (it may have been mild and late in Miami but we don’t get to eat outside often). We ordered some mozzarella sticks (served with a Marinara sauce) and a Caprese salad to use the voucher (or “coupon” as we kept being told) and some macaroni and cheese for the kids (which at $6 a pop was just what we needed). Mozzarella sticks were as expected, the sauce was pretty tasty. The salad was better than average Mrs TF explained (in between mouthfuls) and the Junior TFs managed almost all the pasta – all in all a pretty good effort. My saviour of course, was the ice cold beer we had… it may have made my top ten list, although I am unsure if the beer is exceptional or if I was just particularly thirsty – perhaps we will never know.
We retired after this with me managing to squeeze only one more Landshark in (the beer)!
The following morning the Junior TFs had us up at 4am local time – as you can probably imagine we were not really very amused, however we did see a few planes take-off and land at the airport; our room had a runway view.
What to do at such an early hour you may ask? We jumped on the (first) airport shuttle and then changed buses to get to the Car Rental Centre at the airport – we made it back just in time to be the first guests served for breakfast.
We were very impressed with the selection:
- Cereals
- Meat and Cheese selection
- Fruit Salad selection
- Tomato and Mozzarella Salad
- Cakes
- Huge and really tasty bagels (with everything)
- A selection of juices
- Freshly cooked omelettes / waffles etc. were available too at extra charge
Having had “airplane food” for what seemed like the last few days, we all tucked in. I have never seen the Junior TFs eat as much as they did here – breakfast is not often as good as it should be (particularly at many UK Hilton hotels) however the Hilton Miami Airport was spot on.
Check out was seamless and I even managed to get a coupla hours parking compe’d. We enjoyed our stay here and will no doubt return as part of our next American adventure.
Rate paid – $0 – Delta Skymiles booking (12,000 miles obtained for a recent HHonors promo!) Cash rates were around $100 – $150 depending on dates.
Hilton Miami Airport, 5101 Blue Lagoon Drive Miami, Florida, 33126. Website
