2024 is the last year of our 7 year, 50 state road trip and we kicked it off by heading down to Florida.
Our first stop was St Augustine which we’d only heard good things about. Accommodation wasn’t very cheap, but we got lucky that a brand new Hyatt Place had opened up only months beforehand (on October 11, 2023) and was at off-peak pricing when booking with points on our dates.
It’s a lovely new hotel in a great location only a block or two from Vilano Beach and a short drive to St Augustine. Many rooms have balconies overlooking the ocean, there’s a rooftop bar and a rooftop swimming pool and it was a great place overall to stay.
Here’s a review of our stay at the Hyatt Place St Augustine/Vilano Beach in Florida.
Check-In
We’d stayed overnight in Charleston, SC the night before arriving in St Augustine. We’d gotten a late checkout from there so I could catch the Liverpool vs Arsenal game that afternoon. That meant we didn’t arrive at the hotel until after 7pm.
While I started unloading our car, Shae went inside to check on the parking situation (more about that in the ‘Parking’ section later in the review). There wasn’t any line at the front desk, so the friendly front desk agent Amber got us checked in quickly after we’d unloaded the car and we were soon on our way up to room 361.
Bedroom
When entering our room the bathroom was on the left, the living area a little further on the left and the bedroom area straight ahead.
Hyatt Places nearly always have a corner sofa and this property in St Augustine/Vilano Beach was no exception. Seeing as it was a relatively new hotel though, the couch was a slightly different, nicer design. As with the corner sofas at other Hyatt Place hotels, this also doubles up as a sofa bed if you need it.
In addition to the couch there was a small side table, as well as an ottoman that doubled up as a coffee table.
The only room type bookable with points when making our reservation was one with two queen beds. When taking into account the sleeper sofa, that means you could (somewhat) comfortably sleep six people in the room.
There were shelves next to both beds, as well as power outlets available if you want to charge your devices nearby overnight.
The room’s blackout curtains were superb. We’ve lived in hotels and Airbnbs for the past six years and we’ve had our fair share of hotels that had good blackout curtains. I’m pretty sure that these were the best ones we’ve ever had – it was pitch black in the room at night, to the extent that you can’t see your hand right in front of your face.
Opposite the beds there was a luggage rack, closet, desk and two sets of dresser drawers which could also act as a luggage rack for carry-on sized luggage on top.
Atop the closet was bedding for the sofa bed if needed, while inside the closet was an iron (the ironing board was in a narrow alcove to the left of the closet).
To the right of the closet was a coffee maker, drinking glasses and ice bucket.
On the bottom left side of the desk was a cupboard containing a mini fridge. This was set to extremely cold, so it ended up freezing much of the stuff we put in there. It did have a temperature control though, so we adjusted that the next day once we realized so that it would be cold, not freezing.
A lovely feature of the room we were assigned is that it had a balcony looking out over the ocean. That’s not the default for a 2 queen bed room when booking with points, so I think we were upgraded to that room type as I have Globalist status in the World of Hyatt program.
The balcony had a couple of seats available if we’d wanted to hang out there.
Bathroom
The bathroom was an OK size and had a walk-in shower. The shower’s water pressure was sufficient, but not amazing.
A slight downside was that the water was a little sulfur-y smelling. That seems to be due to the nature of the water in the St Augustine area, so it’s not something that’s a hotel-specific problem.
The shower had large bottles of wall-mounted toiletries rather than small disposable bottles.
Breakfast
The Hyatt Place St Augustine/Vilano Beach offers free breakfast for all guests (as do all other Hyatt Places). What I particularly appreciated about this property’s breakfast is that it was available from 6:30am until 10am. Many Hyatt Places end breakfast at 9am or 9:30am, so having until 10am was perfect for a late riser like me.
Breakfast included 3-4 hot items, cereal, fruit, hard boiled eggs, bread, bagels, juice, etc., as well as a coffee and tea station.
PESCA Rooftop Bar
The hotel has a rooftop bar called PESCA. It’s a very spacious area, with lots of seating available. The bar itself is undercover which is helpful in the event of it being rainy.
There’s an even larger uncovered area, with some tables giving you views of the ocean. The uncovered parts of PESCA are pet-friendly, so if you’re staying at the hotel with your pup, they can join you for a drink too.
In addition to beer, wine, spirits and cocktails, PESCA has a food menu with some tasty-sounding options.
We only went up for a drink though to check the bar out. I got St Augustine Distillery bourbon seeing as we were in St Augustine and had visited the distillery earlier that day. Shae ordered a Flor de Spina cocktail which she very much enjoyed.
Something worth being aware of with PESCA is that you can’t charge drinks and food to your room.
Amenities
Guest Laundry
On the third floor there are guest laundry facilities. There were two washing machines and two dryers, all of which charged $3 per load. We’ve stayed at many Hyatt Places on our road trip and very few have guest laundry, so we appreciated having this available as we stayed for a week.
If you don’t have your own laundry detergent with you, there’s a dispenser where you can buy that and dryer sheets.
Ice Machine & Water Dispenser
I forgot to take a photo of it, but also on the third floor there were machines that dispensed both ice and water.
Fitness Room
The hotel’s fitness room was on the second floor. This had a fairly good selection of cardio equipment and weights.
During our stay the air conditioning in the fitness room was broken and so it was extremely hot in there. The hotel had provided a couple of fans, but it didn’t really help matters.
Swimming Pool
Also on the second floor was an outdoor/rooftop swimming pool and seating area.
Business Center
On the first floor off to the right of the front desk is a business center with two computers and a printer.
Lobby Seating
There were lots of different table and chair setups in the lobby. That meant there was usually no issue finding a table at breakfast, plus it was useful when working in the evening after Shae had gone to bed.
Bar & Pantry
On the first floor of the hotel there’s a bar where you can get drinks if you don’t want to go up to PESCA. We didn’t get a drink here, but I’d assume with this bar you’d be able to charge drinks to your room.
There’s also a pantry area where you can get other drinks, snacks, microwaveable pizza, etc.
Pet Policy
The Hyatt Place St Augustine/Vilano Beach is a pet-friendly hotel. They allow up to two dogs per room, with a weight limit of 50 lbs per dog and a combined weight limit of 75 lbs.
The pet fee is $75 + tax for 1-6 nights and $175+ tax for 7+ nights. We stayed for a week, but I was hopeful we’d only be charged $75 + tax. Sadly not, as the full $175 + tax ended up being charged.
The hotel has some narrow grassy areas where you can walk your dog at the sides and back of the property.
The hotel’s general area is fairly walkable too if you want to take your pup for a longer walk. Vilano Beach – which is only a block or two away in each direction – is pet-friendly year-round, so that’s a great place to walk your dogs as well.
Service
Service at the hotel was very friendly, with Amber in particular being lovely and helpful.
I think we declined housekeeping for the entirety of our stay, so I can’t really comment on housekeeping. That said, our room was clean when we arrived, so no issues there.
Wi-Fi
Probably the biggest negative about the hotel was the quality of its internet. Shae and I both work online, so we tend to be a bit more sensitive to internet quality than your average guest. While the connection was reliable in that I don’t remember it ever cutting out, the speed was extremely slow at times.
Check-In & Check-Out Times
Check-in at the Hyatt Place St Augustine/Vilano Beach is available from 4pm, while checkout is at 11am.
Location
The hotel is in a great location for a few reasons. As mentioned earlier, it’s only a block or two from Vilano Beach in two directions, so it’s awesome being able to walk there so quickly from the hotel.
Opposite the hotel is a Publix grocery store, with a few other restaurants and bars being within walking distance.
As for downtown St Augustine, that’s less than four miles away. Not close enough to walk, but not a bad drive either. If you want to do a hop on, hop off St Augustine trolley tour, apparently if you buy the tickets from the hotel they can arrange for the trolley to pick you up from the hotel rather than from one of its official stops.
Parking
There are a couple of quirks to the hotel’s parking setup. First, there’s no self-parking available at the hotel – only valet parking which comes with full in/out privileges. The hotel’s website lists valet parking as costing $25 per night, but we didn’t have to pay that. That’s because one of the benefits of having Globalist status with Hyatt is that you get free parking on award stays. I have Globalist status and we’d booked our stay with points (more about that in the next section), so parking cost us nothing out of pocket other than tips for the valet.
When leaving your car for the first time, you’re given a receipt with a QR code on it. When you’re ready for your car, you can scan the code or text them and then it’ll be waiting by the time you come down. This was much more convenient than having to call down.
The other quirk is that there is – potentially, and sort of – free parking right outside the hotel. There are quite a few parking spaces on the street available which are, presumably, for day visitors, people shopping at the Publix store, etc. However, the front desk staff at the hotel stated that we could park there for free if we didn’t want to worry about using valet parking.
Be careful when doing that though. They did warn us that although Vilano Beach didn’t have any restrictions in place at the time of our stay, they might add them in the future. If you book a stay at the Hyatt Place St Augustine/Vilano Beach, it’d therefore be worth taking a good look to see if there are any parking rules in force by the time you stay.
Cost
The Hyatt Place St Augustine/Vilano Beach was, at the time of our visit in January 2024, a category 3 hotel in the World of Hyatt program. That meant it cost 9,000, 12,000 or 15,000 points per night depending on if it’s at off-peak, standard or peak pricing respectively. As luck would have it, the entire week we booked was priced as off-peak, so we only had to redeem 9,000 points per night.
That was excellent value because the cash cost was $241.51 per night including tax. That means we got 2.68cpp (cents per point) of value which is very good for Hyatt points.
Despite us booking this as an award stay, we earned 3,500 bonus points too. That’s because Hyatt has a feature where they offer 500 bonus points per night when staying at new hotels. Although it had been open for three months by the time we stayed, it was still classed as being sufficiently new for us to earn those points. Hyatt awards those bonus points regardless of whether you book with points or cash, so our award stay got us seven nights worth of 500 points.
Final Thoughts
Shae and I had a wonderful stay at the Hyatt Place St Augustine/Vilano Beach. Our room was new and spacious, had a balcony with ocean views and was quiet.
The breakfast was decent enough and was available later than many Hyatt Places, there’s a rooftop bar and rooftop pool and it was awesome being so close to the beach.
The slightly sulfury smelling water, broken air conditioning in the fitness room and sometimes slow internet weren’t ideal. However, we’d both be more than happy to stay here again in the future.
Truffles Approval Rating
Truffles gives the hotel four paws out of four – pawfect! Although the pet fee was higher than we might’ve liked, Truffles got lots of attention from the front desk staff which she always adores. The hotel is in a walkable area and she had a great time going for walks on the beach.
Our Rating
Room = 4.2 / 5
Hotel Amenities = 4.3 / 5
Food = 4.2 / 5
Location = 4.8 / 5
Service = 4.3 / 5
Overall Value = 4.4 / 5 (this is based on the value when booking with points; the cash rate was much more expensive)
Total = 4.37 / 5
Address
Hyatt Place, 117 Vilano Rd, St. Augustine, FL 32084
We were just there at the rooftop bar…. Looking for a venue for a party.
Cool! It seems like a fun space to have a party up there, although I imagine St Augustine has quite a few great spots like that. San Sebastian Winery had a nice rooftop bar as well.