We’ve nev­er done a stay­ca­tion. I’ve nev­er seen the point. Our house is fine. We have a pool. We have a grill in the back­yard. We have a great view of some pret­ty hills (ok, they’re often brown but they’re bet­ter than con­crete). We’re a 15 minute dri­ve from Zuma beach. WE are the stay­ca­tion. If we’re going to pay for a hotel, it bet­ter be in anoth­er won­der­ful loca­tion. Unless…we are hav­ing some stuff done to the house.

The day we got down to shar­ing one bath­room and one bed­room for five peo­ple — four of whom are male — we real­ized we need­ed to find anoth­er won­der­ful loca­tion. We were able to leave the dog at home with our old­est — who is not par­tial to shar­ing hotel rooms with broth­ers whose pas­time is invent­ing devi­ous ways to tor­ture each oth­er — although our cho­sen home away from home: the Hyatt Regency West­lake allowed dogs on the first floor!

Our room was love­ly with a bal­cony view of trees. The beds were super cozy and passed the jump­ing test.

a nice change from the mess we left behind

And imme­di­ate­ly, the pool beckoned.

pool play­dates

We are a very social fam­i­ly and would­n’t let the fact that we’re tem­porar­i­ly home­less stop us from hav­ing play­dates. We’re not quitters.

there is a glass of wine on the oth­er side of this picture

Plus the Hyatt Regency West­lake has a great hap­py hour. Many drinks are only $5 and apps are dis­count­ed. The per­fect anti­dote to being dis­placed in the mid­dle of hav­ing a mil­lion things that need to get done.

Since we know the area, I want­ed to go out for din­ner but the boys begged for burg­ers by the pool and the bar staff hap­pi­ly deliv­ered them to us. I got to sit, they got to eat, every­one was hap­py dur­ing the hap­py hour that goes from 4pm-7pm.

Once our friends left, we explored the area and found a cache of activ­i­ties on the lawn next to the pool.

hole in one

deci­sions, decisions

at least they’re hit­ting the birdie and not each oth­er with those rackets

We got to spend two nights at the beau­ti­ful Hyatt Regency West­lake and observed the hotel host­ing many meet­ings and buf­fets that were beau­ti­ful­ly set up. The next night, after din­ner, we used the s’mores kits offered by the gift shop at the fire ring next to the big lawn.

every great cam­pout ends with s’mores

I’d say they were a hit.

play­ing with fire

And we start­ed a trend.

One of the boy’s favorite parts, of course, was the break­fast buf­fet. There were many hot and cold options and the boys loved pick­ing out their own food. And mom­my loved that she did­n’t have to pre­pare it. I thought the buf­fet was rea­son­ably priced at $18 for adults and $10 for kids.

oblig­a­tory food shot

Prices vary accord­ing to the sea­son but it appears prices on the Hyatt Regency web­site ($229) beat Trav­e­loc­i­ty by $10 for rooms with two queen sized so check the hotel web­site first!

So while I was check­ing out, I start­ed chat­ting with a guy and told him why we were there. He fig­ured since we were locals we’d know the area and asked if there was a Den­ny’s around the hotel. Den­ny’s? I thought. Den­ny’s is for col­lege stu­dents at 3 in the morn­ing after drink­ing all night. I told him about an awe­some break­fast place and decid­ed to write up a lit­tle insid­er guide for folks who will be vis­it­ing the West­lake area.

INSIDER GUIDE

• Break­fast — Cici’s — you can go here every day for a year and still not eat every cre­ative thing on the menu. Well. Maybe you can but you’d have to real­ly commit.
• Lunch — JOI Cafe — organ­ic, gluten-free, veg­an — AAAAHMAZING! Every­thing is deli­cious. I don’t know how they do it. 2855 Agoura Road, Thou­sand Oaks
• Dinner/Dancing/Wine tast­ing — it’s all in the same area, owned by the same guy. Mediter­ra­neo for din­ner, Stone­haus for an out­door wine tast­ing expe­ri­ence (music on week­ends) and danc­ing at Bogies. After din­ner or drinks, tell your serv­er you’re going to Bogies to get free admis­sion (no cov­er charge, no wait­ing in line).
• Wine Tast­ing — Mal­ibu Wines — it’s gor­geous here. Out­doors and lots of trees. Check their cal­en­dar because some­times they have com­e­dy or music.
• Shop­ping — SOTO West­lake — super cute wom­en’s cloth­ing with­out the crazy price tag. 2899 Agoura Rd, West­lake Village 
• OR — The Oaks Mall
• Hair cut/style — Salon Coro­n­a­do — I used to have to dri­ve to Hol­ly­wood until a woman who works at SOTO showed me this place. Very hip and the own­er is super sweet and incred­i­bly tal­ent­ed. 2900 Towns­gate Rd Ste 116 West­lake Village