Can somebody tell me where is the best place to stay for IM Arizona?
I reserved a room at the AmeriSuites on Rio Solado. A friend did the research and found out that the hotel is about 1/2 mile to the start/finish, provides a shuttle to/from the airport, is a few blocks from restaurants, rooms were recently renovated and has free breakfast. All this sounded good enough for me and the rate was less per night than the official hotel.
If anyone anyone who has actually stayed there can confirm that this is a nice hotel that would be great. If it sucks there’s plenty of time for me to switch hotels.
I have not stayed there since I live about 25min from race site, but I believe the hotel was built in the last 3 yrs or so.
I stayed at that Amerisuite about 3-4 years ago for Soma. It was new at that time. Rooms were nice. Had a sleep area and a small living room type area with a microwave and small refrigerater. The rooms were specially priced back then for $45 a night : ) I know they are about 3 times that now. Nice hotel though…fun getting you bike in the elevator!
The “best” place, in terms of hotels, would be the Mission Palms. It is a little nicer than the Courtyard by Marriot and these two are the best locations. The AmeriSuites is good, there is another hotel right next to it, maybe Springhill Suites? These are not in downtown Tempe anymore so not as close for eating out, etc. There is a Best Western just off Town Lake and some other hotel just north of it that I can’t remember the name of. There are many that are an easy 1-3 mile bike or bus ride to the start, best to just surf the web and find something that appeals to you. If you want specifics on any particular hotel, I live near the start and can at least let you know how they look from the outside and what’s around them…but there is really no bad area nearby nor any hotels I would be reluctant to stay in. There are many 4 star hotels within a short drive if quality of the hotel is more important to you than being close to the race.
Most of the downtown Tempe hotels are nice and very convenient, just a short walk from Start/Finish.
For SOMA I stayed at the Courtyard by Marriott. It was OK, but the beds were kinda hard, as in no shoulder sink, but otherwise it was fine. Interestingly, it has a flume in the lap pool, but I didn’t use it.
Last year I stayed at the Mission Palms, the host hotel.
If you have the $$, stay here1 It is very nice, great hot tub outside on the roof which we made use of before and after the race, walking distance to race site (if you stay elsewhere and have to drive to the race, this is where you have to park), decent breakfast buffet open at 4 am the day of the race, and lots of pro sightings if you like that- one of the first people I ran into when I walked in last year was PNF.
Ah, you’re lucky, I would love to go back!
As far as airports - where is the closest major airport to IM AZ racesite?
Phoenix Skyharbor - the one thats in the news right now with the full body xray dealio
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I stayed at the AmeriSuites on Rio Salada for IM AZ this year and it was FANTASTIC. 95% of the hotel was triathletes, and instead of being overwhelmed by us, the staff was TERRIFIC. They extended their breakfast hours and had tons of food, and all around, they were just awesome. We had two rooms on the first floor (I’m a Hyatt gold club member though).
I’d recommend you call and ask to get on the waiting list for the first floor rooms - saves you the hassle of the elevator. Last year they had something like 75 requests for their 14 first floor rooms.
Anyway, the location is great and the staff was great. We also stayed there during our training weekends and it was always good.
Have fun!
== niki
Thanks for the info. Was the first floor loud or located right next to the parking lot? I’ve always avoided the first floor because of those reasons.
We stayed at the TownePlace Suites next to the AmeriSuites. Both are new and nice. TPS had a shuttle for us on race morning, which was nice because both hotels are at least a mile from the start…a long walk from the expo/start/finish area. The walk back after the race sucked, BTW.
We have a room reserved at the Quality Inn just east of downtown this year. It was a lot cheaper than the other two and probably closer.
how about the embassy suites…is that decent and close?
The first floor never seemed noisy to us - I think there is parking around the bottom of the building, but nothing directly outside - if that makes sense? It’s more at a distance away - the pool/lobby/etc block the immediate building from the parking lot. Besides which, since 95% of the hotel is athletes, there wasn’t much noise after 8:00 anyway. But no, I never once remembered hearing any distracting noises. The rooms in general seemed very quiet and private.
We had 2 or 3 athletes per room - I’d recommend 2. The “bed area” is separate from the sitting area and kitchen, which is really nice for being able to spread out all your gear and stuff. I think we actually stacked a couple tables in the corner so we could have more floor space to get all our gear organized and sorted into gear bags. All in all, it had enough space for us and our bikes, and it was quiet. And having a frig and microwave were great too!
Enjoy!
== niki
I’m staying at the Choice Hotel - from the maps it appears to be within a short walk of the start.