Miraval. It used to sound like a faraway land only accessible in your wildest dreams. It was one of the first "aspirational" properties I heard about when I started my travel hacking journey three years ago. This week though, Miraval Austin became a reality, and not only for me but for my two daughters too.
Booking
Miraval can be booked using Hyatt points. It is an all-inclusive property so prices are based per person. It is 45,000 points for one and 65,000 points for two. They have single king bed and double queen bed rooms. For cash priced rooms you can put up to 4 people in a double queen room. My original plan had been to book a double queen for myself and my two daughters. Using the one and two person point logic I had figured it was 20,000 points for each additional person so it would be 85,000 for the three of us. Point bookings can only be made by calling the Miraval reservation line. When I called I discovered that, for point bookings, they cannot put 3 people in one room. I therefore had to book two separate rooms - 45,000 points for a single king for myself and 65,000 points for a double queen for my daughters - so it ended up costing me 110,000 points per night rather than the 85,000 points per night that I had anticipated. All told, even with points, it was a very expensive booking but we had our hearts set on going at this point so I just went for it. I ended up booking only two nights rather than three because of the unanticipated increase in points.
Cash price for the least expensive king and double queen rooms for our dates came to $6253.94.
I paid with 220,000 Hyatt points.
Both of our rooms were upgraded on check-in to third floor rooms with nice views.
Getting There
I used Southwest points for our flights. I earned a companion pass last year. With a companion pass your companion flies for free on the same flight you fly as long as there is any seat available when you book your ticket. This means that even if I book the last Wanna Get Away fare (the least expensive seat) but there are still higher priced seats available to book, then all I have to do is click "Add Companion" to my ticket and my companion will get a free seat. You can switch your companion three times a year. I designated one of my daughters as my companion so I "paid" for two tickets using 7,371 Southwest points per ticket. The three of us flew on a direct flight from Indianapolis to Austin for a total of 14,742 points + $16.80 ( 3 x $5.60 tax per ticket). Cash price for these tickets would have been $473.94.
Tuesday June 15th
My husband dropped the three of us off at the airport and our flight left Indianapolis without incident. We were able to secure three seats together in the exit row. Yay!! The plane was completely full and the mask mandate was still in place. We did get a choice of soft drink and a snack during the flight.
We landed in Austin 10 minutes early. Yay!!
We were then told that Southwest was suffering from a systemwide computer malfunction which was preventing the planes that were currently at the gates from leaving. We had to wait parked out on the tarmac until a gate was available for us to deplane. I then saw online that the FAA had grounded all Southwest flights. Flights were being canceled. People were stranded everywhere.
Miraval offers free airport pick up and drop off. We had a driver meeting us at baggage claim at 1pm. At 12:50 pm I called Miraval transportation to let them know we had landed in Austin but our plane was still out on the tarmac and no one knew when we would be able to deplane. At 1:30 pm we were still on the tarmac and I started getting worried that we wouldn't get to Miraval in time for our first scheduled activity. G had a free activity scheduled for 4pm; while it was free, she would be charged a $45 no show fee if she missed it so I called the resort to let them know we were still stuck on the tarmac. Finally, shortly after 2pm we were finally able to deplane. The ride to Miraval took about 40 minutes. We arrived a little after 3pm (4pm Indy time) and by then I was hot (temperatures were in the 90's), hungry, and nauseous (I get motion sick at the drop of a hat).
Our driver dropped us off at the Arrival Center. Once we were checked in and given a quick overview of the property we were driven by golf cart to our rooms.
Our Rooms
Both rooms were upgraded to third floor rooms with balconies which gave us nice views. Our building was Serenity 9. I loved the location as it was right by the Serenity Pool which is the infinity pool where we had planned to spend most of our time. It was also very close to the spa and the food. It was a bit of a longer walk to our other activities but I absolutely loved our location.
The other thing I absolutely loved about the room was the bed! I called it the marshmallow bed. It had an incredibly thick fluffy mattress topper that you just sank into, covered by an equally fluffy duvet comforter and soft squishy pillows. The bed literally swallowed you when you laid down in it and I loved it! My husband, who is a fan of hard mattresses, would have hated it.
my king size marshmallow bed
We arrived after the dining room had closed for lunch so we picked up grab and go snacks and smoothies from The Nest before heading off to our planned activities.
I took a free Tex-Zen Yoga class. It was a very basic yoga class set to music by musicians with Texas roots that ranged from Willie Nelson to Beyonce.
One of my daughters went to Kintsugi:The Beauty of Imperfection. This was a paid class where participants put together shattered pottery and highlighted the breaks with gold lacquer to highlight rather than hide the areas that were broken and repaired and discussed it's analogies to life.
My other daughter went to a Radiance spa treatment which consisted of a clay body treatment and wrap.
We also had time to sit by the infinity pool and later had a wonderful dinner at Hilltop Crossing.
The Food
The main restaurant is called Hilltop Crossing. All meals are included however you have to make reservations at the restaurant. On Tuesday evening we had a 7:30 pm reservation to allow for all our activities beforehand.
One of my favorite things about traveling with my daughters is that we are all foodies. We absolutely love good food. The advantage of eating together is that we all order different things and then share all our meals so we each get to try everything.
We started our meal by trying all their mocktails.
This was followed by some small plates...
Entrees were hard to choose because everything sounded wonderful. We were informed that some of the menu items were constant while some were different every night. We finally settled on three of the nightly specials.
Wild Boar Bolognese
wild boar Italian sausage, onions, garlic, peppers, red wine, chevere, spaghetti squash
44 Farms Sirloin
caviar rice, sweet corn, okra, red bell pepper emulsion, jalapeno coulis
Seared Striped Bass
quinoa tabbouleh, carrots puree, spiced yogurt
Our only complaint with all of the entrees were that they were all incredibly salty for our tastes... but we ended up finishing them all anyway.
We ended with dessert. We had three options so of course we got all three.
Thankfully all the portion sizes were reasonable (as we were at a wellness resort after all!) but I was pretty much in a food coma after dinner and quickly collapsed into my marshmallow bed.
Wednesday June 16th
My day started with a free Morning Stretch class at 8am. G took the class with me. We then met J for breakfast at 8:45 am at Hilltop Crossing. We sat outside and ate from the buffet.
I spent the rest of my morning at the infinity pool, reading and swimming laps.
I met back up with the kids at noon for lunch.
G and I took a free Happy Hips class at 1:30 pm which was another stretch class. This was followed by Slow Flow Aerial Yoga at 3:30pm. This was a paid activity that I had really been looking forward to. It was a fun class as I had never done anything with silks but it was very basic and easy. We spent the last couple minutes just resting in our silks.
I went to my Ginger Healer spa treatment after yoga. It was fabulous! It's a 90 minute treatment that starts out with a deep tissue massage using ginger rosemary oil. I often worry that my massage therapist won't push hard enough as my shoulders are always in knots but this one knew exactly what she was doing. The massage was followed by a hot towel wrap and then a ginger salt glaze scrub. There is a shower in the therapy room to use after the salt scrub. This was the high point of my stay!
I met the girls for dinner at 7pm then all of us laid around in a hammock and talked about our day before going to our rooms.
G had gone to a free Food Meditation class before lunch and a free Crystal Meditation class with J before dinner.
J had gone to a free Aqua Barre class after breakfast and a free Vinyasa Yoga class after lunch.
Thursday June 17th
We ate breakfast at 8am because both girls had spa services at 9am.
J had a Relaxation Massage while G had a Abhyanga Ayurveda treatment.
My original plan had been to go to the pool while the kids were at the spa but at the last minute I decided to see if I could join the free Photography with Your Phone class at 9am. I wasn't signed up for the class but showed up to see if there was an opening, and there was, and I'm so glad I did this because it ended up being the most informative class of the whole trip. This class was not what I expected. I thought the class would consist of walking around the resort and taking pictures. I hadn't taken many pictures during my stay because Miraval is a digital device free property - meaning they don't want you to use your cell phone or other digital devices in the public areas. Using your phone for photography is allowed but since carrying your phone around was discouraged I simply hadn't been carrying it. So, no, we didn't walk around the resort taking photos. Instead, the class taught you how to use all the camera functions on your phone that I, at least, didn't even know existed. Mind blown. And yes, my kids laughed at me but I was incredibly pleased with my new found knowledge.
We had to check out of our rooms by 11am. Our airport shuttle left at noon so we secured our bags at the Arrival Center (guests can stay as late as 5pm on their departure day) and grabbed some food at the Nest before going to the airport.
Settling Up
Included in the Miraval package is a $175 per person per night resort credit. This can be used for spa services or paid activities. I was told on booking that the credit is cumulative per person for the stay. That meant that since we spent two nights, we each had a total of $350 to spend however way we wanted over the course of our stay. Spa services were very expensive, with most in the $200-$300 range, but that meant that in theory you could have a $300 spa service covered by your credit and have $50 left over to spend on other things.
There were a number of free activities available everyday as well as paid activities. The resort credit could be used for the paid activities as well.
It was briefly mentioned that the paid activities would also incur a tax charge. Looking at our final bill it appears that there was no tax charged on any of the spa services but there was a tax on all the other paid activities.
It also appears that the resort credit was cumulative for all the guests on one bill as myself and one of my daughters went over the $350 total credit but one of my daughters did not spend her entire $350 but her "leftover" amount was still credited to the entire bill as it was on one bill.
Miraval also accepts Spa Finder gift cards. Since I knew that J and I were going to go over our allotted resort credit I purchased a discounted $100 Spa Finder gift card from Raise.com prior to our visit. I was told over the phone that they would accept up to $300 in Spa Finder gift cards but since I wasn't sure how exactly they would be applied I only bought a $100 gift card. Turns out this is all I needed as we only went over by $148 when it was all said and done.
Restaurant charge is for the 2 glasses of wine we had on June 16th.
Spa/activities are for all the paid activities and spa treatments.
Spa Finder gift card was presented at check in on June 15th and credited.
My original bill had an erroneous charge of $21.65 (someone else's wine) that I discovered when I got home so I called and it was immediately credited back to my credit card.
Getting Home
Our original plan had been to fly to Charleston and stay a couple more days with family there. My husband was going to drive down and pick us up at the Charleston airport, then we would all road trip back home to Indiana after getting our fill of seafood and beach sand for a couple days. Our Austin to Charleston flight was booked with 17,818 Southwest points + $16.80 tax for the three of us. Cash price would have been $536.94.
Shortly after arriving at Miraval though my husband called about a family emergency that would require all of us to fly back to Indianapolis and cancel the Charleston portion of our vacation. Canceling tickets on Southwest is a non-issue. All the points are immediately refunded to your account and the tax is refunded back to your credit card. What was costly was getting our tickets back to Indianapolis on two days notice. I ended up spending a total of 37,924 Southwest points (ouch!!) + $16.80 tax to get us back to Indy. Cash price was $779.94.
Final Thoughts
All in all, I felt this was an expensive three day splurge on points but we loved it and the kids have decided they want to go back to Miraval every year.
I spent 220,000 Hyatt points, 52,666 Southwest points, and $172.60 out of pocket ($33.60 for Southwest ticket taxes, $91 for the $100 Spa Finder gift card, $48 for the final bill).
Cash price would have been $6253.94 for our rooms and $1253.88 for our flights for a total of $7507.82.
I think if we go back I will be spending my entire resort credit on spa services and may invest in more discounted or free Spa Finder gift cards. Also would probably want to go back some other time of year as it was in the high 90's every day we were there so it was a bit uncomfortable to just hang out outside during the day.
The hammocks await our return!
