Review: Homewood Suites by Hilton San Antonio Riverwalk-Downtown

Photo Credit: Homewood Suites

We recently went on vacation to San Antonio and stayed at the Homewood Suites by Hilton San Antonio Riverwalk-Downtown . For those of you not familiar with San Antonio, let me just tell you it’s one of our favorite travel destinations! I think mainly because it’s far enough away to truly feel like a vacation, and yet close enough to home so that we don’t feel homesick or like we have to spend a week to get our money’s worth!

It’s been awhile since we have gone on vacation (or at least a vacation that wasn’t forced due to hurricane evacuations and broken air conditioners!), so we were a bit nervous leading up to the date. However, I knew I really wanted to do a frugal travel series here on Family Friendly Frugality (more on that later) this summer…and well, to write a piece on travel, actual travel is kind of required.

So we set off for San Antonio one Thursday afternoon and got to our hotel at around 4pm.

The hotel was easy to find and my son loved that there was a cute duck on the old time-y sign outside (the building used to be the San Antonio Drug Company building which is listed in the National Directory of Historic Places).

Valet was required, but we knew that ahead of time and it actually made the whole check in process much easier!

The Lobby

The first thing we saw when we walked in was the wide wall of windows overlooking the riverwalk (the San Antonio Riverwalk is famous and pretty much the #1 attraction in San Antonio!):

My kids love bridges for some reason.

This is the hotel's shot of the view in the opposite direction.

This hotel has a “light dinner” on Monday’s through Thursdays and being the frugal family we are…you know we weren’t going to miss that! So we hurried upstairs to unpack and check out our room.

The Room

To say this is the most awesome hotel room we’ve ever stayed in would probably not do this room justice.

First when we walked in, we walked into the “living room” area. There was a nice sized couch, a comfy chair, a desk, a TV, a dining room table and a working kitchen. Not to mention the huge floor space. Our kids were ecstatic to run around a bit after being cooped up in the car for hours!

I spent several hours laying on that couch and reading one day! Now THAT'S a vacation for this mama!

They all loved the room!

A frugal family friendly hotel room always has a kitchen!

The blog must go on....

The second room (!) includes the vanity, the bathroom and of course two queen beds. There was a dresser and an enormous closet in this room with more then enough storage space for our family of 4.

When you open the door to the 2nd room this is what you saw straight ahead

Good sized bathroom. Kids had fun bathing in the tub here with the free tub toys the hotel provided!

Such comfy plush beds! The kids passed out within minutes each night, while Mommy & Daddy hung out in the other room!

After we stopped walking around with our jaws gaping at the size and awesomeness of our room (I promise that’s a word), we decided we wanted…no needed…to check out the roof top pool! So we got suited up and hiked it to the elevator to head on up!

It was a bit windy, but we hung out in the hot tub!

After swimming, we headed down to a light dinner of hot dogs with potato chips and pasta salad. It was just what we needed after a long day of travel!

The next morning (and each morning after that) we woke up to our free breakfast and filled up our bellies with eggs, sausage, cereal, yogurt and toast (there was a bunch of other great food, but we were stuffed!).

My Thoughts:

I’m pretty certain I’ll never stay in another hotel when I travel to San Antonio in the future. This was the perfect family friendly hotel for my frugal family. The price is honestly excellent for being right on the riverwalk (although  you do have to walk a bit to get to the *hot* part of the riverwalk…it’s perfect for families who want things a bit quieter). The hotel is situated in walking distance to just about everything in downtown. We walked to the Children’s Museum (the Children’s Museum in San Antonio is amazing!), to the Alamo and to the Riverwalk Mall and back to the hotel again in 1/2 a day.

I usually have at least some negatives, but I can’t say there were any negatives to our stay at the Homewood Suites by Hilton San Antonio Riverwalk-Downtown. The cost of valet is a bit steep (we paid $23 a night), but we knew our car was safe and there really didn’t seem to be many free options for parking there in downtown San Antonio.  They make it clear you will have to pay for valet, so it’s an expense you’ll need to account for when you make your vacation budget.

Being able to make our own food in our own hotel room (they have a grocery service, but we did not utilize it. Opting instead to bring things from home) and cook it right there was a major cost cutter. The free breakfast AND free light dinner (we only were able to take advantage of that one evening, but it was a great money saver!) were fantastic and above and beyond what many other hotel chains provide. Speaking of hotel chains, this is not the first Homewood Suites I have stayed in, and it won’t be the last. They are a company that does it right and they know what families need and what they are looking for!

The employees are knowledgeable and helpful whenever they can be (they even gave me a coupon for Sea World! You know that made my heart flutter!)

Our stay was absolutely a wonderful experience for our entire family and I do not have a single complaint. In fact, my kids are still begging to go back (um…me too!)!

Are you interested in staying at the Homewood Suites by Hilton San Antonio Riverwalk-Downtown? Check out their website for a full list of amenities and prices and book your room today! You won’t regret it.

Note: Our room at Homewood Suites was provided to us free of charge. I received no compensation to write this review and the opinions are 100% my own. If I hated the hotel, trust me, you’d know it. Luckily, I didn’t! See my disclosure  policy for more details