Rocky Mountain Park Inn

"Cheap Estes Park Lodging"

I’ve given up judging quality based on the “hotel star system” as I’ve found there is no consistency with these star ratings.  Rocky Mountain Park Inn Estes Park is advertised as a 3 star hotel, but I would consider this a 2 or maybe a 2.5 star hotel.  It does have 3 outstanding attributes though: location, location, location.

I booked this hotel through Expedia’s unpublished rates, advertised as a 3 star hotel in Estes Park for $53 on a Friday night during high season.  Now that rate is absolutely unbelievable for Estes Park so I figured that this hotel really wouldn’t live up to 3 stars.  We were travelling through the area with one night to spare, looking for cheap accommodations so we booked it.  I’m not disappointed, we definitely got our measly $53 worth at this hotel, but I just had a couple of issues.  First, the hallway smelled strange – it may have been coming from an individual room so this may not be a recurring issue.  Second, the hotel is a little dark.  Lighting needs to be updated.  Third, the room had double beds – a little small for me (5’ 11”) and hubby (6’ 5”).  Finally, there is an extra charge for cribs (only $5, but still there is a charge).

On the positive side, our room was clean and the beds were actually pretty comfortable.  Plus we were only a few miles to the entrance of Rocky Mountain National Park, our destination for the next day.  Kids enjoyed the indoor pool that evening although the pool room was a little dark.  Note that the pool is one of those 9’ deep pools which make parents with toddlers quite nervous.  There was a nice hot tub (too hot for the kiddos) and a pretty nice fitness room (treadmill was out of service though).

I would return to Rocky Mountain Park Inn Estes Park for $53, an unheard of rate for this awesome location.