u/ChaptainAmerica12

Just got back from a 2 week trip where we visited Montenegro & Croatia and then spent 5 nights in Rome. Truly a beautiful city and honestly insane to think about all the places I grew up learning about (the Colloseum, Pantheon, etc.) that I got to experience for myself! Couple of big takeaways:

1. TRY AS HARD AS YOU CAN TO GET A NIGHT TOUR OF THE COLOSSEUM!!!!!! It’s simply the best way to experience it without a shadow of a doubt. We managed to snag a spot when they released a week before and it was one of the best experiences we’ve ever had. There was only 15ish people in our group + the tour guide and we never saw another group throughout the tour. Tourguide was excellent and it was surreal to have one of the 7 wonders of the world to yourself for about an hour and 15 min with pleasant weather. The tour takes you through everything including the underground section so you get to see the entire structure as well. I can’t stress enough that it’s worth spamming refresh to try to beat all the tour operators at release.

2. Fully expected the Vatican museums to be crowded but whoever designed the security lines before your time is called outside of the museum should never be in charge of anything ever again lol. It’s a madhouse with no real gates or structure and everybody just pushing and shoving their way to the front. The experience inside was obviously amazing but the initial security was just a complete and utter disaster & it’s got to be fixed.

3. Trastevere had by far and away the best food + prices during our stay. Great atmosphere with a lot of delicious food without any of the high prices found near most famous places (this one is probably extremely obvious but just wanted to mention how much fun we had here).

4. We went during the last week of September and 1st week of October and I can’t even imagine how bad peak season must be as we still experienced massive crowds at several major sites. Obviously Rome is a very busy city, but the amount of tourists were truly unbelievable at different points (obviously I know we’re part of the same problem just pointing it out as an observation). It didn’t put a damper on our trip and just like anywhere else you can escape the crowds pretty easily if you just go a few blocks from the major tourist sites.

All in all it was a fantastic trip and a great opportunity to see a beautiful city and a beautiful country!

As an added incident to the current high volume of Paze issues I tried setting up my account today entered my completely correct CVV one time and Paze proceeded to deem it incorrect & locked me out for 24 hours lol. Guess I won’t be using it for the united purchases I had in mind. Kind of insane that they would offer a bonus yet have an an absurdly buggy login/activation system.

Currently trying to decide between Japan (Tokyo+kyoto+ Osaka etc.) vs Paris in February of next year as a final send off before the deval. Haven’t been to either destination before so wanted to see if anyone could provide some insight as to which would be better during this time + if you have stayed at the hotels I’m considering, what’re your thoughts on them & which would you prefer. Whichever we don’t do we’re likely to the other destination later in 2027 just not with globalist (May post Golden week for Japan, September for France) so definitely not basing our stay off of a hotel, more focusing on maximizing/figuring out which stay to do before deval/globalist expiration.

Currently I have 120k Hyatt points & the hotels I’d stay at in both would be

Paris: Park Hyatt Paris (70k points x2 nights), Hyatt regency Paris etoile (cash rate) Hyatt place Rouen (15k points x 3 nights), potentially Hyatt centric reims (undecided between cash rate or points)

Total: 85k points +15k points for Hyatt place rouen + (potentially Hyatt centric reims)+ $380 for 2 nights @ Paris Etoile (35k points leftover)

Japan: Park Hyatt Tokyo (70k points x2 nights) Hyatt regency Tokyo Bay (18k points x2 nights), caption namba Osaka (13k points x 2 nights)

Total: 101k points with the potential of adding 2 nights at Hyatt place Kyoto for 19k points to use all points.

Main things I’m thinking about:
- Park Hyatt Paris Vendome vs Park Hyatt Tokyo: which would you want to stay at and which would provide better globalist benefits/potential suite upgrades (both stays in offseason)
- Japan is considerably cheaper than Paris obviously, would it make more sense to use points in the much higher cost area @ places that I’m unlikely to pay cash post globalist expiration (Vendome @ $1800 a night is insane lol)
- If we do Paris I’d likely aim to do Japan in May post golden week for 2 weeks. This would allow me to book Tokyo bay (for Disneyland), & either caption osaka or Hyatt place Kyoto for 2 nights. My thought is this is the best way to do this to maximize globalist benefits in an expensive city/region like Paris/champagne/normandy & still subsidizing stays in Japan where free breakfast/club lounges really isn’t a big deal since food outside of the hotel is amazing and comparatively cheap.

Would also be open to Hotel Du louvre in place of Park Hyatt Paris to save 20k points to add to Japan.

Would love some insight if you have the time and if you have any other suggestions please let me know!