Favorite Best Western/any recommendations for hotels/resorts
Mar 30, 2017, 6:02 pm
#2
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: home = LAX
Posts: 25,933
No balcony rooms AFAIK, no great view, but my favorite is the Best Western Grand Hotel Bryce Canyon City (the newer of the two BWs just outside the entrance to Bryce Canyon National Park). It's a high-rise hotel, but it's got the most fabulous free-to-all-guests breakfast buffet I've ever seen in the USA.
Enter the park down the road and you'll have fabulous views which you could never get from any hotel. Who cares that there are no views from the hotel itself in a case like that?
I'm not sure if you have the right expectations from Best Western. They generally don't have resort hotels AFAIK.
And I don't remember ever being in a Best Western that was tall that had balcony rooms (anyplace other than perhaps in the middle of some ugly city). Yes, lots of two-story Best Westerns have balcony rooms, but you typically don't see very far from those. If the grounds are nice, maybe you consider that a nice view?
In case you're not aware, Best Western has a motto that "every hotel is independently owned and operated". But the corollary is just as important: Every Best Western has been individually built, and so no two look quite alike.
But having looked at other posts of yours, I see you're into travel photography (like I am). Well, that's the great thing about Best Western: They often are the only chain (and thus points) hotel near several National Parks in the US. (There are some other National Parks, like Olympic, where Choice has the only points hotel nearby. And still others, like Grand Teton, where WyndhamRewards with Super 8 might have the only hotel available for a reasonable number of points.) That's why I belong to all 3 of those "budget hotel" programs.
So use the "major" chains when you want a hotel with a view of Niagara Falls (I liked Embassy Suites for that), or a resort hotel, but use Best Western for hotels near national parks and other remote areas where Hilton/Marriot/IHG/Hyatt don't reach.
Enter the park down the road and you'll have fabulous views which you could never get from any hotel. Who cares that there are no views from the hotel itself in a case like that?
I'm not sure if you have the right expectations from Best Western. They generally don't have resort hotels AFAIK.
And I don't remember ever being in a Best Western that was tall that had balcony rooms (anyplace other than perhaps in the middle of some ugly city). Yes, lots of two-story Best Westerns have balcony rooms, but you typically don't see very far from those. If the grounds are nice, maybe you consider that a nice view?
In case you're not aware, Best Western has a motto that "every hotel is independently owned and operated". But the corollary is just as important: Every Best Western has been individually built, and so no two look quite alike.
But having looked at other posts of yours, I see you're into travel photography (like I am). Well, that's the great thing about Best Western: They often are the only chain (and thus points) hotel near several National Parks in the US. (There are some other National Parks, like Olympic, where Choice has the only points hotel nearby. And still others, like Grand Teton, where WyndhamRewards with Super 8 might have the only hotel available for a reasonable number of points.) That's why I belong to all 3 of those "budget hotel" programs.
So use the "major" chains when you want a hotel with a view of Niagara Falls (I liked Embassy Suites for that), or a resort hotel, but use Best Western for hotels near national parks and other remote areas where Hilton/Marriot/IHG/Hyatt don't reach.
Last edited by sdsearch; Mar 30, 2017 at 6:23 pm
Mar 30, 2017, 7:25 pm
#3
Join Date: Mar 2013
Programs: IHG Spire
Posts: 163
Kind of feel like I'm wasting my time but, whatever-- I'm no photographer, but BW Plus Island Palms bay view doesn't necessarily suck. I travel all around the country for work, vacation almost always lands in San Diego.
Apr 28, 2017, 2:53 pm
#4
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: FAT
Programs: AA mm, Hilton Dime, Hyatt Xpl.& PC Plat, Miracle Fruit-su club
Posts: 1,694
BW Island Palms
Great choice for a balcony view (and their cash rates may be reasonable as well), and also some Partial Ocean View balconies are available on points up in Carlsbad at the BW Plus Beach View