TravelWright

Bryce Canlon Lodge - Hotel Review

Our last two nights in Utah were spent at the Bryce Canyon Lodge in the heart of Bryce Canyon. The Lodge dates back to the 1925 when tourists first started to appreciate the splendors of the natural formations in Utah's  national parks.

The Lodge is located around 5 miles from the entrance to Bryce and site a few hundred yards from the edge of the canyon itself. It consists of the main lodge building itself which houses the restaurant, shop and theater, and is surrounded by a number of log cabins which form the rooms for the hotel. The facility is operated by Xanterra Parks & Resorts which seems to run many  of the in park facilities within Utah.

The log cabins have an old-world feel to them and the one we had had two queen sized beds, a bathroom with bath and shower and a separate dressing area with sink, mirror and hanging space. The room was heated with a gas log fire which when we arrived didn't work but we got it fixed for the second night. 

We ate at the main restaurant both nights we stayed there, as there wasn't really any option other than to drive the 10 - 15 mile round trip to the park entrance and hope to get something there. The food was better than we expected and the service was friendly and efficient - on the positive side they served a good glass of beer! There is a small grocery/gift shop on site which sells various packaged food - sandwiches etc. which we did try but only once as they were very 'processed' and pretty tasteless.

The location of the lodge and its proximity to the canyon and all that is there is superb as we were less than 200 yards from the rim and about 500 yards from Sunset and Sunrise points. As you would expect the place was very busy and there were a number of coach parties which tended to swamp the lookouts.

On our second day we ventured down into the canyon and did an 8 mile walk which was great as there were few people and some amazing rock formations - highly recommended. If you do decide to follow in our tracks make sure that you take plenty of water with you and it would be a good idea to take a trowel as the the only toilet in the canyon is locked for some reason!

If you are visiting the canyon this is a great place to stay if you can get in - we had to book several months in advance to get in.

Zion Mountain Lodge - REVIEW

Our second and third nights of the trip were at the Zion Mountain Lodge which is located around 3 miles from the east entrance to the National Park. This 'ranch resort' actually reminded me of a caravan camp in Wales I once stopped at - although the caravans weren't as luxurious and didn't look out over a Bison meadow!

The site is built onto a hillside and consists of around 200 cabins split across Route 9 - some, like ours, were on the edge of the bison pasture and others further up the hill and then a second grump were on the other side of Route 9. I am assuming that the closer you are to the bison meadow the more expensive they are.

Our 'caravan' was a luxury log cabin, number 150, which consisted of three 'rooms' - a main lounge, kitchen and bedroom, a separate bathroom with a separate toilet off that. The furnishings are of high quality and there is plenty of room to spread out - although there wasn't much storage space if you wanted to empty your suitcase.

In the Lounge was a three seater sofa, coffee table, large flat screen TV with DVD/CD player and cable TV - there are also gas log fires in the corner of the room to provide some localized heating. The king size bed was very comfortable and the kitchen has a hob and microwave as well as a sink and fridge. There was a dining table to seat four and I guess the sofa doubled as a bed if you really had to squeeze people in.

The best thing for me was the bathroom which contained a large jacuzzi tub - I know its sad but I do like a tub and I get fed up of the standard American tubs in hotels which, if you are lucky, fill to about 4". Anyway, enough of my idiosyncrasies, the bathroom also contained a large shower area and course a sink etc. and the only hanging space in the cabin. Off the bathroom was a separate toilet.

This was a real contrast from the Days Inn the previous night and was a welcome contrast. We paid $230 per night which although nearly double the Days Inn for me was worth it - if not for the tub alone!

The 'resort' is a little remote and although it has a restaurant on site I wouldn't recommend it unless you have plenty of time. Although it is called a Grill it doesn't seem to grill anything as some of the customers found out when they tried to order a burger. I think it hadn't been trading long - if it had there really was a problem - and although the food was OK the service was unacceptable. Most of the staff seem confused and there didn't seem to be any order to what they did. I ordered a blue cheese and walnut salad as an appetizer and Pasta as an entree - the salad arrived after the entree and had no blue cheese or walnuts on it!  OK if this was a large busy restaurant I could maybe understand it but there was three service staff and maybe 10 - 15 tables. It also took nearly 90 minutes from entering the Grill to leaving - hence my comment about having time to spare!

Needless to say we didn't eat there again and chose to have breakfast either in Zion Park or at the Thunderbird Resteraunt at the junction of Utah 9 and U.S. 89 in the Best Western East Zion Thunderbird Lodge. This establishment offered good American food with friendly staff and resonable prices. The resteraunt also serves a good range of beers - but not for breakfast of course!

So back to the Zion Mountain Lodge - this is an excellent play to stay and the location and cabon facilities are excellent - highly recommended! Just remember to find eat before ou get there or plan to travel to Mount Carmel to the Thuinderbird or travel back to Zion.

Days Inn, Hurricane, Utah - REVIEW

Our first night in Zion National Park, or so we thought, was to be at the Days Inn at Hurricane in Utah. The web site quotes "Gateway to Zion National Park" - what it doesn't tell you is that the park is 26 miles away!

Anyway, the hotel is located on the approach to Hurricane on Highway 9 which we took up from Las Vegas. The hotel is located on a corner and surrounded by scrub land which on one side was filled with trash of various types including mattresses and pallets and on the other it looked as though the ground was being cleared for further building. Across the road is the Comfort Inn which seemed to look a lot more welcoming!

After checking in and finding a room that wasn't being cleaned - this was 4:30pm in the afternoon, we started to unpack. Although I am sure the room was clean it had that slightly grubby feel to it which was compounded by a damp musty smell and bare wires hanging from the ceiling where a light used to be.

There were lots of family groups there and children running up and down the corridor from the pool to the room, although it wasn't too intrusive. The staff were friendly and approachable and provided information about the area when asked. We decided to look for some food and were told that other than McDonald's there wasn't really anything in Hurricane and the staff suggested we went further afield.

We had read a good review of a Pizza/Pasta place in called Pizza and Noodle which was in Springfield at the south gate to Zion National Park so we drove up there. The food was excellent and the beer was heavenly - real beer with some taste and not chilled to death! This was a place we would visit again later in the holiday - just to taste that beer!

Back at the Days Inn and settled in for the night I found it was somewhere I couldn't really relax in for some reason and the result was a very restless night. In the morning the complimentary breakfast of bagels, cereals, muffins and Danish with either coffee or orange juice was welcome if not little frantic as guests 'fought' to get the last of whatever it was - not a hugely pleasant experience!

Check out was uneventful and I must admit I was glad to be on the road.

This was my first stay at a Days Inn and I guess you get what you pay for - I probably wont try this chain again unless I have to.

We paid $116 for the night in late May 2008

Cleanliness    4 out of 10

Convenience    7 out of 10

Services        6 out of 10 (Pool, Laundry, TV but no Internet!)

Value            5 out of 10

Overall            5 out of 10

Would I stay there again or recommend it - probably not!

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Hyatt Regency Boston

I had to go up to Boston on Friday for a meeting of the ILO (Institute for Innovation in Large Organizations (more of this later) and we stayed in the Hyatt Regency in Boston. I had reasonably good expectations as I had stayed in this chain before - but boy was I wrong.

We checked in OK and had a room on the 19th floor - great I thought. As we got out of the lift and started to walk down the corridor to our room an aroma of 'retirement homes' hit us - the smell of stale urine was quite strong. Luckily my wife had hay-fever so couldn't smell it. When we opened the door to the room the smell was even worse. I rang down and asked to change rooms but was told that the hotel was full so we would have to put up with it. Luckily the window opened slightly and we could get some fresh air into the room.

Once unpacked we went down for dinner. The restaurant was small and airy and looked OK - I ordered pasta with mushrooms and asparagus and my wife ordered potato gnocchi. After about 20 minutes wait the food finally came and we both decided that this was probably one of the worse meals we had had in a hotel. The sauce for the Pasta was bitter - it tasted as if the cream was off and the Gnocchi was served without a sauce which made it very dry. The two meals with two glasses of wine came to $80!
Anyway we ate what we could and then retired to our smelly room.

The following morning neither of us felt too well as we had had a bad night and I went down myself and ordered French Toast - I thought they can't ruin that. What I was served was a Cinnamon Bun dipped in egg beater and fried and then drenched with Syrup - the thing must have had a million calleries - I could feel my arteries furring up as I had a couple of mouthfuls and then felt sick it was so sweet.

So definitely a hotel to miss and I wont be staying in a Hyatt Regency again if I can help it!