Why Hiltonhop

Hilton Honors allow you to build up points while travelling. Earn enough points, you get free hotel stays. I’m currently working on hotel stays to move from Gold to Diamond status. It eluded me last year, but this year I will achieve it.

This requires a lot of work.  The quickest way to earn the Diamond status is to change hotels every night. This is tiring and for a five night working engagement, I change hotels four times. This also requires packing the luggage in such a way as to be able to pull out a new set of clothing for work and entertainment each day. This also requires packing in such a way as to prevent clothing from wrinkling.

I usually travel with a small duffel back or suitcase. My wife graciously taught me how to fold my cloths into crisp little bundles that maintained their shape through the duration of travel. My shirts, pants, ties, shorts, shoes, workout and exercise clothing, and etc all have a place.

Also, when I get a set of clothing, I carefully unpack and repack everything just to get the clothing out. It is a most inspiring ceremony the first few times, but soon, it becomes routing. The key is to make sure the suitcase is packed every night before the morning checkout. You never know when you might oversleep.

To prevent oversleeping, set all alarms as soon as you get into the hotel room. All Hilton hotels have alarm clocks, wakeup call service and you should also use watch or telephone wakeup alarms if available. Sometimes it’s hard enough to sleep on the road. If you do finally fall asleep, you want to be able to wake up and get moving in a timely manner.

During the week of 1-5 August I stayed in four great Hilton Hotels in the Crystal City, Arlington, Washington, DC area. 

The first night, I stayed at the Hilton Crystal City at National Airport, 2399 Jefferson Davis highway, Arlington, VA 22202, 703 418-6800. This hotel offered a small swimming pool, a fitness center and had an office space for public use. As a gold member, I received free internet and complimentary breakfast. The room had  a large bed, desk and couch. I was able to work for a few hours in relative peace and quiet.

That night I met friends to eat at the

The second night brought me to Double Tree Hotel 300 Army Drive, Arlington, VA 22202, 703 416 4126

The third night I stayed at Embassy Suites 1300 Jefferson Davis Highway, Arlington, VA 22202 703 979-9799

The last night I stayed at Hilton Arlington 590 North Stafford Street, Arlington, VA 22203 703 528-6000

We ate lunch at the Hamburger Hamlet in the Crystal City shopping complex. That’s the key here, where I live everyone drives to work. In this metropolis, everyone commutes and spends of good deal of time walking from public transportation areas to their places of work or pleasure. So, the choice is walk in the open air during good weather or navigate the underground walking routes packed with shopping and food vendors.

Hamburger Hamlet was a delicious restaurant complete with a professional staff and competitive menu. True to it’s name, Hamburger Hamlet did have gourmet and regular burgers. However, it offers other wonderful meals. I had the Stella; a three piece meal. It comes with a sandwich of choice, salad and soup of the day. I had the open face veggie sandwich with tomato, olive, onion, reduced vinaigrette on a sourdough bread face. The soup was a great chicken gumbo.

We ate at Union Jacks in the mall by the Bolston Exit in Arlington. My meal was a Grilled Salmon with rice and seasonal vegetables. This meal was tender, fresh and just a perfect way to end a long day. The bar featured about 15 European (mostly British) beers on tab and twice as many in bottles and many non-alcoholic choices. The DJ took requests and kept the dinner alive with alternative hits from the 80’s, 90’s and early 2,000s. Shortly before my bedtime, they moved tables and built a dance floor.