Chula Vista Indoor Watermark - Wisconsin Dells

There are a variety of places in the Dells that advertise FREE passes to the Chula Vista watermarks (indoor and outdoor) with your stay. The place we stayed (Cedar Lodge and Settlement - will post about later) was one of those places. With Wisconsin Dells being the waterpark capital of the world it is crucial that hotels, motels, and campgrounds have a water park or offer passes  to one in order to entice customers. We drove by quite a few places that had free Chula Vista passes listed on their Marquis. I knew in advance that we were getting the free passes here from the place we were staying at we decided to stay at a different place other than one of the big water park resorts because we were planning to go to Noah's Ark for the water park.

Having access to an indoor water park was nice. We went to the Chula Vista Indoor Waterpark for 3 hours the evenings we checked in. Anyone traveling with kids should know the magic height is 48 inches and  they can go on everything.

Like most big water parks they have the customary huge bucket that fills and dumps on everyone playing in the climbing area with smaller slides. There is also a roller coaster slide and a couple of body slide a couple of tube slides and a couple of Matt slides as well. There is a hot tub indoors, a basketball playing area comma a smaller kids Splash area, and a lazy river.

Like a lot of lazy Rivers it really is not so lazy. They allow kids to be in it without tubes and they are pretty much running through the Lazy River the entire time. One of my favorite rides there was one that is like a toilet bowl where you circle around until you get flushed down a hole. I thought the roller coaster water slide was quite jerky and was not as fun to go on as some of the body slides and mat slides. I did not think the lifeguards here we were very attentive. They seem to let a lot of stuff go except for in the hot tub I noticed they would make sure anyone under the age of 12 wasn't in there unless they had an adult with them.

It was nice to have an indoor option 4 something to do when it was getting cooler. They do have other outdoor pool and water park areas at this hotel but we did not go to them.

Hotel Palomar Chicago

I am not sure I will always share my thoughts about a hotel on here, usually just attractions we visit, but occasionally I will share about a hotel especially if we stay at one that is really worth telling about and the Hotel Palomar in Chicago is just that.

Hotel Palomar is a Kimpton boutique hotel. There are Palomars in other cities and other Kimpton's in Chicago, but what you need to know, there is really where the similarities lie as they are all individual and unique boutique hotels. This was the 3rd Kimpton we have stayed in (also Vero Beach, FL and River Place in Portland, OR) and we hope to stay in more of them. We have been very happy with this hotel company.

Anyways, I wanted to point out a few special things about Hotel Palomar. First of all, we had told them we would be celebrating our son's birthday while we were there so they set out all the snacks & drinks you see pictured above for all of us to enjoy (wine for mom and dad), plus they had little gift bags with items (like a small beach ball) to occupy the kids.

On another night, the delivered milk and cookies to the kids, which was really awesome. We stayed here 3 nights and were very happy.

The pool is lit up blue at night and off from the pool is an outdoor terrace with lots of seating and the wonderful nightline sky view you see pictured above.

Also, every evening they have a FREE wine hour from 5-6pm (every Kimpton does this but will vary with what they include) that included wine, lemonade and flat bread pizza. The picture above is of my son sitting there eating a snack and lemonade from the wine hour.

You should check out the other Kimpton Hotels where ever you are traveling and sign up for their Karma Rewards, which gets you free wifi, a birthday coupon, $10 raid-the-bar credit plus more just at the beginning level and then if you stay enough nights/places/stays, over time you will earn free nights.