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| Out for a drive in Maui, we stopped to walk along the beach. |
Today’s photos are from the post on this date in 2014 while we stayed at Maalaea Beach, Maui. For more photos and details, please click here.
As the long days and nights continue in this long-term confinement, we tend to dream about places we’ve visited in the past and places we’d like to see in the future. Have our criteria changed much over the years? From this post on November 11, 2013, we had outlined our measures for staying in hotel rooms throughout the world.
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| Maui has one beautiful beach after another. |
Now, on day #250 of living in a hotel room, we thought it would be interesting to see if our criteria have changed in the past seven years since we originally uploaded this post. Here they are:
- Free WiFi
- Laundry options in the room or the building
- A sofa in the room (it’s tough to sit on the bed typing on my laptop for hours posting photos and writing)
- Convenient location: to our next destination (when possible), for sightseeing (if time allows), and for local modes of transportation for dining out, grocery shopping, etc. (Not applicable now).
- Kitchenette or full kitchen for more extended stays (Not applicable now)
- Reasonable cost (in most cities, a decent hotel room will run from US $175, INR 12941, to US $200, 14790, per night or more with city taxes and fees. (Prices have increased in the past seven years from this original amount as mentioned)
- Air conditioning (we seldom, if ever, will travel in cold climates)
- A safe in the room
- Good view. For us, this is important. If we’re to pay US $200 a night, we want a good, if not great view. (Not applicable now)
- Great reviews from recent guests for a 4.0 rating or higher. Tom will read from 30 to 50 recent reviews to satisfy our objectives.
Many beaches are left in a natural state, with vegetation growing along the shoreline.
Newly added to this list based on our past and recent experiences include:
- Complimentary breakfast
- Complimentary coffee and tea
- Complimentary bottled water
- Comfortable bed
- Sufficient plug-ins for our equipment
The colors in these hills look more like a painting than real life.
At this point, we feel we’ve had enough hotel experience to last us a lifetime but, not knowing when we can depart Mumbai, staying put in this hotel provides us with the fulfillment of most of the above criteria. In the future, if and when we’re able to travel in the future freely, these same criteria will be applicable and to our standards.
For the time being, we had booked this hotel room until January 3, 2021, when by luck, we checked for future pricing and found, on our site at Hotels.com to discover this hotel was selling rooms for US $50, INR 3698 per night for the bulk of December and US $57, INR 4215 per night for the balance of December, all the way to January 3, 2021. We couldn’t get these prices booked quickly enough.
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| In a matter of minutes, the clouds began to disperse for a better view of the mountaintop. Notice the buildings at the top of the mountain. |
Now, we continue to watch prices to extend our reservations further as needed as we wait this out. As always, especially lately, we’ll play it by ear.
Be well.
Photo from one year ago today, November 28, 2019:
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| Upon arriving in Mombasa on Thanksgiving Day in 2013, we took this photo from the ferry as another ferry took off. Notice the crowds. For more photos from that day in 2013, please click here. For more of the year-ago post, please click here. |