Spending 15 nights free at Ocean City, Maryland thanks to Hilton Honors Rewards Program!
Back in December 2023, my wife and I were planning our American South road trip, and we were looking for a place to stay near Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. We were members of Choice Hotels rewards program then, so we had initially booked a 5 night stay near Hilton Head Island, about 30 miles away.
As soon as we booked this hotel, and started to read the reviews of the hotel, we had this bad feeling that we had made a big mistake! Most of the reviews were bad to worse, with many comments saying the same things: bad customer service, poor maintenance of the hotel, bad breakfast, and iffy safety near the hotel.
That same day, we cancelled this hotel, then I started my search for a better place. I found one, right in Hilton Head Island, called Home2 Suites by Hilton. This hotel had much better reviews, was right in the heart of town near the beaches, had better customer service, and had cleaner rooms!
As soon as we booked this hotel, we immediately signed up for Hilton Honors Rewards program and also signed up for their American Express credit card that can multiply those Hilton stays for free nights! We knew we had made the right choice after we actually stayed at the hotel.
Home2 Suites by Hilton was just the perfect place for us: it was new, clean, modern, spacious, with fantastic free breakfast. We were definitely impressed by this hotel, and also by Hilton hotel chain in particular, especially after coming from the value-oriented hotel chain, Choice Hotels.
Ever since then, we had been staying mostly at Hilton Hotel chain to take advantage of the loyalty points that can turn into free nights. We had something like 400,000+ points by the time we were ready to book free nights at Hilton Hotels, thanks to introductory free points (130,000 points), several promotions (double your points), and using this credit card as our main credit card for most of our purchases.
Points really racked up after a year or so. We were ready to finally use these points toward free nights!
We chose Ocean City, Maryland as our travel destination, as there are bargains to be had in January/February, two of the slowest months for travel. We used something like 220,000 points to book a 15 night stay at Home2 Suites Ocean City.
Upon check out of our Homewood Suites Williamsburg, we headed northeast, heading towards one of our favorite destinations on the east coast, Ocean City, Maryland. The familiar drive, which would take us over the beautiful and impressive Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel (with a hefty toll price of $18 to boot), would take roughly 3 1/2 hours.
We always like driving over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel, because it drives over what looks and feels like right in the middle of the ocean. When the wind blows and the waves are getting stronger, there’s this little trepidation forming in the back of my mind that the water would overtake the bridge.
It is an unsettling feeling during daylight, but I’m sure it’s doubly scary when our sight is limited, like say on dark, moonless nights. That, sounds very scary…
We knew our hotel room wouldn’t be ready by the time we arrived near Ocean City, so we decided to make a quick detour over to Chincoteague Island, Virginia. Chincoteague Island is a small town famous for free roaming ponies in nearby Assateague Island.
Although we had visited Assateague Island several times before, we had never visited Chincoteague Island. We felt it was time to finally do just that, especially when we were so close to it.
By the time we crossed over into the island, it was lunch time. We had scoped out a local favorite restaurant called Famous Pizza & Sub Shop, and we were definitely in the mood for some good sandwiches.
We walked inside to a welcoming aroma of Italian food, especially the smell of pizza baking in the oven. We grabbed a table right in front of the order counter, and we ordered couple of sandwiches: chicken parmigiana and eggplant parmigiana, with sodas.
Breads were awesome, chicken and eggplant patties were crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, with tasty tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese generously added on top. A good sandwich for me is a perfect meal, full of complimentary ingredients that all work together to create a delicious work of art! Ok, ok, I’m a foodie…
After our satisfying meal, we braved the cold and the biting wind of the east coast in January, to check out the island. The town, despite being middle of January, still had decent traffic. People (local & visitors) still needed to eat, still needed to sightsee, and still needed to buy from shops.
We headed towards Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge area, hoping to drive the popular Wildlife Loop. Unfortunately, the loop was inaccessible thanks to heavy snow along the drive. Oh, well. Maybe next time…
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| On a beach, Chincoteague Island |
We wrapped up our quick lunch & tour of Chincoteague Island, then headed north towards Ocean City, about an hour away. We drove on the US-113 North after crossing into Maryland, then arrived at our temporary home for the next 15 days, Home2 Suites Ocean City.
The front desk staff was really friendly and helpful, and she even mentioned the room we had selected via the Hilton App, is one of the best rooms at the hotel. We got our room keys then took the elevator to our room.
We opened the door then was greeted by the familiar setup of a Home2 Suites hotel room: modern, spacious room, clean, full kitchen, with plenty of storage space and a sofa bed. On top of that, we loved the views of our 5th floor room facing north.
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| Spacious room |
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| Nice view of the bay |
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| Peek of ocean, on right! |
After checking in, then settling in, we relaxed the rest of the day, lounging on the comfortable sofa with some decaf coffee in our hands, compliments of the hotel lobby. Using this hotel as our home, these are some of the things we did during this trip:
- Did some grocery shopping
Even if we’re staying at an apartment-style hotel like this one, we still want to get some groceries so we can prepare foods to be eaten at the hotel. Two of the main reasons why we do this are as follows:
- We like to eat healthy foods: we like eating salads with tuna or shrimp, soups with whole wheat bread, make our own turkey sandwiches, or whole wheat pasta with tomato sauce. If you’re wondering how we cook pasta at a hotel, it’s actually easy. We use a large pot provided by the hotel, then just add pasta and water. We then microwave it for something like 17 minutes. Voila! Pasta is ready.
- Buying takeouts can be very expensive at times: we noticed something like 40-50% increase in takeout prices since 2019, a year before the pandemic. We do takeouts, but only like once per week.
- Opened a library card
Anytime we’re spending close to a month at an area, we like to open library cards so we can do some reading. We started to do this when we spent 3 months in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina back in 2020.
This has continued since, and we’ve opened up a library card in Ocean City at a cost of $10, good for a year. This has allowed us to add some reading in our lives, which we find to be very fulfilling. We managed to read something like 3-4 novels during this time. I consider it money well spent!
- Hiked Holts Landing State Park
Located in Dagsboro, Delaware, Holts Landing State Park is a beautiful 205 acre park, situated along the Indian River Bay. We picked a cold but a sunny day to do some hiking at this park as we were getting a bit antsy after few days inside the hotel room.
We headed north towards Delaware via DE-1/Coastal Highway, passing the Atlantic Ocean on our right. No matter the time of the year, we always love looking at the ocean, any ocean for that matter.
There’s something special about the wide open body of water with its ever changing colors throughout the day. Feeling content, I day dreamed, thinking of the time we lived in Hawaii.
The drive only took roughly 30 minutes, and we arrived at the empty parking lot. Thanks to it being the middle of winter, the usual parking fee was waived, which is always nice!
We strapped on our hiking boots, then started towards the beginning of the hike trail. The many parts of the park was covered with snow, and it was absolutely stunning.
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| Cold but beautiful day! |
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| Beginning of the trail |
The Seahawk Trail, a 1.3 mile trail meanders along salt marsh, maritime forest, and freshwater habitats. This was the one we definitely wanted to hike.
We hopped on the trail, which started off with a nicely maintained wooden boardwalk with expansive views. We were clearly alone on this vast park, alone with just nature and our thoughts.
We made good progress until the we came upon a maritime forest covered with snow. We expected a tougher road ahead, so we slowed down so as not to fall and stumble.
Well, we did stumble couple of times, but we didn’t fall. It was actually so much fun to be walking on almost fresh snow. I love the sound the boots make when it hits the snow, that crunching sound that is therapeutic when done in rhythm…
We made it to the river’s edge after about 10 minutes, and we loved the views. Floating ice blocks on the river made for an interesting viewing experience, while the cutting, howling winds were making themselves known to us. It was chilly, making it difficult to stay out there for longer than few minutes at a time.
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| River’s edge |
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| Gorgeous homes in the distance |
We saw some gorgeous homes in the distance, wondering who lived in those expensive houses. We put that thought aside as we needed to get back inland to shield ourselves from the winds!
We headed back towards the other side of the trail, with more snow to walk on along the way. We made slow progress, so we decided to cut our hike short, not wanting to get lost among the woods. *We didn’t see trail markers inside the maritime forest…
We played it safe, and why not? Nothing should take priority over our safety!
We finished our hike rejuvenated. That’s the beauty of a good hike.
- Rackliffe House Trail/Assateague Island National Seashore
We had visited the Assateague Island National Seashore in the past, and we really enjoyed hiking some of the trails there. This time, we decided to do another trail, the Rackliffe House Trail. At just around 1 mile loop, the Rackliffe House Trail is a popular hiking trail that starts at the National Park Service Headquarters near the Verrazano Bridge.
We left our hotel on a sunny morning and drove roughly an hour to arrive at the trailhead. The day was beautiful, and not windy like the other day at the Holts Landing State Park.
After parking our car, we found the trail marker easily, then started our hike. Within couple of minutes of hitting the trail, we came upon some of the most pristine maritime forest we had ever seen. It was absolutely stunning to walk among the trees, some of which were creating a canopy of sorts, for several hundred yards.
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| View of the Verrazano Bridge, Assateague Island National Seashore |
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| Gorgeous hike! |
At water’s edge, we took few detours to watch the bay and the Verrazano Bridge on our left. Wind was nonexistent, day was actually pretty warm, and we no doubt savored the views along the beach.
We continued our hike, eventually hitting the Rackliffe House, where we finally saw other hikers. It had been a very quiet hike at first, with no one around except for soothing sounds of nature.
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| Rackliffe House |
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| Gorgeous walk among the trees |
From the house, we completed our loop, continuing in a clockwise direction for another half a mile. We traversed through more of the pristine maritime forest with towering trees. Awesome hike!
The entire hike took less than 45 minutes even at our leisurely pace, as we were busy stopping and going constantly trying to take in all of the new sights, smells, and sounds. Highly recommend it!
In conclusion:
Ocean City Maryland has become one of our favorite destinations on the East Coast. Thanks to the ideal location sort of half way between New York and North Carolina, Ocean City has provided a sanctuary for us during our travels up and down the coast.
All the nights we stayed at Hilton hotel chain finally paid off on this trip. We got a 15 night stay for free thanks to their generous rewards program that feature promotions throughout the year.
Now that we’ve become a part of Hilton Honors program members, we are excited to use this hotel chain primarily for our lodging needs (along with Airbnb and VRBO). Of course we still have to watch our budget.
We will use Hilton hotel chain whenever possible (probably not if they’re too expensive), but it doesn’t mean we will break the bank just to get extra points from Hilton. That, is stupidity.
Balancing the budget is something we all should do, whether that’s during the accumulation phase or during the drawdown phase. Knowing what you spend vs what you bring in as income is a great idea no matter the situation!
Thank you for reading and happy trails!
Jake
Wandering Money Pig
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