Originally Posted by
puchalskir
The wife and I are doing a stopover in Albany on the way to Vermont and need to choose between the TownPlace Downtown and TownPlace SUNY. [...] Which of these two have the best location?
Neither has an especially good location. The SUNY location is on the west side of town, in a cluster of hotels squeezed between the university and the highway. There isn't much of anything right there; you'll have to drive and your options are mostly suburban (chain restaurants, etc.) But it's very easy to reach from I-90.
The downtown location is right on the edge of a relatively "gritty" neighborhood - the kind that looks worse than it really is. Delaware Ave is toward the side of the hotel. If you make a left, in about 5 blocks Delaware turns into Lark Street and there's roughly 5 blocks of local pubs and restaurants. It's a well-known nightlife area of Albany ("Center Square"). If you turn right instead, there is a local independent movie theatre with (typically) a great selection of films and a GREAT old-fashioned ice cream shop.
I have stayed at the downtown Towneplace. It's fine; kind of a strange layout, a little noisy, but a lot of the rooms are oversized compared to the average Towneplace. Definitely good enough for an overnight stop. A little far from the highway (it will be closer if you are driving up from NYC, tho).
If you'd like more details/recommendations, PM me.
EDIT: A friend has informed me that the reason the layout of the Towneplace Downtown is odd is because the building used to be a nursing home. This also explains the unusually large elevators. Interesting trivia to note.