I have managed to save up enough starwood hotel points to stay for free for 3 nights during our spring trip. I am quite excited as this will really help with our average per night hotel costs.

We are staying 3 nights in each of London, Athens and Barcelona where there are starwood hotels to choose from. In which city would you value the free nights most?

In all cases the hotels are very central and far beyond what we would ususally spend per night on vacation. Grand Bretagne - Athens; Le Meridian - Barcelona; Sheraton Park Lane or Belgravia - London.

I beleive all 3 cities are expensive for hotels, the only one of the 3 I have been to before is London, and I know hotel costs are sky high there, but with priceline, it can be done affordably . . . Athens sounds like a place which might be nice to stay in a smaller local hotel (our usual choice when in Europe), which is making me lean towards Barcelona, but I'm just not sure.

Salty:

I'd probably go for London and then Athens. The Grand Bretagne in Athens is a magnificent property and you will love it. It's location is great and its atmosphere does indeed fit into Athens. London is of course as we all know quite pricey( although deals can be found) and if you have a chance to stay at the Park Lane that would be nice.

For Barcelona though, I do not particularly care for the location of the Le Meridian, its right on Las Ramblas and while exciting, it is so noisy ( although I do know the windows have paning). Also in Barcelona the prices seem to be ok, so I think you can do better in Barcelona and not have to use the Starwood points.

Don't you just love Starwood though? It's our favorite among the memberships we have. I think their collection is superb and their rules are lenient. We cashed in some for a stay at the Hotel Kamp in Helsinki this upcoming summer and plan on about 5 nights worth next Dec in a luxury hacienda in the Yucatan.

Thanks tripgirl, I am so glad to hear from someone who is familiar with all three hotels. I actually started reading some reviews about the Grande Bretagne, and it does sound great!

Starwood is great. Thanks to points, we have stayed at some really amazing hotels that we never would have been able to afford. It is always nice to have a night or two of luxury on a trip.

ttt

My vote goes to London since I assume it is the most expensive city (is the only reason).

The Grand Bretagne would get my vote. We stayed there in July and are still raving about it. The hotel is outstanding in every way, and incredibly central for most of what you'll want to do in Athens.