Harmony In Chaos Travel

After spending the weekend in San Diego with friends and family, we jumped on an airplane and headed to Denver, Colorado where we were going to be staying four nights at the Hyatt Regency Denver at Colorado Convention Center.

View from our room

Taking the last flight of the day is always a little bit of a gamble. In this case, we were flying direct from SAN to DEN and we were already prepared for a late arrival. After our flight was further delayed, we ended up getting to the hotel around three in the morning.

For what it is worth, the Denver International Airport is not close to downtown. Since we were arriving so late, we went ahead and arranged for a van to take us to the hotel. It took just under 40 minutes for the drive.

Google Maps - Directions from DEN to Hyatt Regency

If you know you will be arriving to a hotel late at night (or early in the morning), it is a good idea to give them a heads up. If you don't, the hotel may figure that you aren't showing up for your reservation once it reaches a certain time and they may release the room to another guest.

Comfortable bed and a tired Miss R

For this reservation, we used one of our Diamond Suite Upgrade certificates to upgrade into one of their Pinyon Pine Suites. For those who don't know, if you reach Diamond Status with Hyatt Gold Passport, one of the benefits you receive each year are four Diamond Suite Upgrade certificates that can be used at the time of booking to guarantee an upgrade into a suite. It's a perk that really keeps us coming back to hotels because the extra space is necessary when traveling with kids.

Television and a few drawers across from the bed

The Pinyon Pine Suite is essentially the size of two standard guest rooms. I was honestly a little underwhelmed when we walked into the bedroom portion of the suite. The room felt very sparse and I was surprised that there wasn't even a chair in the bedroom portion of the suite. I found myself bothered by that a few times as I just wanted to sit to put my shoes on or work on something while the kids napped in the other room.


The two rooms are connected by a sliding pocket door which doesn't provide much sound protection. We travel with a sound machine for the kids to help filter out any noise but we still didn't feel like we could watch TV very loud after they went to bed.


The parlor portion of the suite was much better decorated but still felt a little odd. The decor made me feel like we were back in Seattle and seemed a little bit more costal rather than what you might expect to find in the middle of the Rocky Mountains.


I think a lot of what added to the odd feeling of the parlor portion of the room was this large wet bar area. It's a little tricky to get a good perspective of the area but it was HUGE! I would say it probably took up 1/3 of the space in the room and was larger than the bathroom in the suite. I do appreciate having a wet bar in a suite because it provides a great place to clean out bottles and sippy cups as well as an area to prepare really basic lunches. This specific area is also where we put Little A's crib. It was nice because the bar area kept her brother and sister out of sight while she was falling asleep.

If you are planning on doing a lot of work in the room, I would suggest going with a different room type. The only real places to work are at the bar, where there are a couple of bar stools, or on the couch at the coffee table.


This particular room had a full size refrigerator and freezer which was great for keeping milk and juice from the Regency Club in the room. It also connected to another standard room so it could be made into a two bedroom suite.


I love when hotels have a list of items that they will provide in case you forgot to pack them. I've had to take advantage of this many times as I tend to forget something when I'm packing for the whole family. One thing I hadn't seen before was the card in the middle with information about Nurse Line Services. I think this is an interesting idea and although we almost had to use the service (more on that later), I don't know a whole lot about how it works.

Large fitness center

The hotel does have a large fitness center with quite a lot of equipment. There were a number of people using the facilities so I wasn't able to get any other pictures. As large as the fitness center is, I would imagine that it could get pretty full when there is a large convention going on. Also to note, there is a spa on property and it's entrance is also the entrance to the fitness center.

Pool at fitness center

There is a pool at the property but it is more of an exercise pool intended for lap swim instead of a good pool for family play time. I suppose it could be possible to play in the pool but it even felt awkward taking our kids just to look at the pool.

I unfortunately didn't get any photos of the Regency Club but I was incredibly impressed with the service we received there. The employees were kind and had plenty of suggestions of things we might enjoy doing with the kids. My husband came down with a stomach bug while we were there and one of the people who regularly staffed the club offered to make him some tea and grabbed a variety of crackers from their stock so that I could take them back to the room for him.

I would probably consider staying at the Hyatt Regency Denver at Colorado Convention Center again if we were going to Denver. I would be interested in trying out the Grand Hyatt or even the Hyatt Place, both are only a block or two away from the Regency.