Where to stay for St George 70.3

Triathlon Forum
1

Hey gang:
Doing St George for the first time, and I was hoping to get some insights on the best places to stay. My taste are usually to rent a house with friends. Since it is point to point staying close to the start would be best in my opinion.

Thanks,
Pete

2

If you want to stay close to the start, you’ll have to Wurtele it up in an RV. There are NO hotels near the start.

Get a hotel near the finish. There are at least a dozen within walking distance of the finish line, all very affordable. I think I paid 45 dollars and stayed at a Best Western.

That race is one of the best I’ve done as far as logistics go. Most P2P races are a nightmare but St. George really has their stuff together. You walk from your hotel to drop your special needs bags off near the finish on race morning, hop a shuttle (there are many), and magically appear at the swim start 20 minutes later. The volunteers are well-informed and helpful.

3

Take a look on VBRO for a house, there are tons in the area at great prices. Stayed in the Sports Village in 2012 for the Ironman and was a little ways out of town. For 2014 have a 3-bedroom house reserved just two blocks from the finish and at $150/nt (which works out $50/nt for the 3 of us going).

4

You have to take a bus to the start and the bus leaves from the finish line in downtown SG, so there is no point in trying to stay close to the start because they wont let you in the park to drive. There are lots of condo/VRBO housing options (I’ve done a sports village condo in 2011) and also stayed at the Best Western Abbey this year. For the money and convenience to T2/finish the Best Western was great.

5

We will participate at the 70.3 WC this year and it seems that there are no available hotel rooms or condos within walking distance to the finish line. Therefore we are thinking on booking a condo in the Sports Village.

Our only concern is the parking situation near to the Expo and Finish line and the traffic in this area… How was your experience during the race week and especially on race day morning

BR Rainer

BTW; were and how did you found/book your house in 2014? Was it with VBRO and if yes could you send me the link?

6

Parking downtown wasn’t too bad, plenty of on-street and surface lots. A WC event might be a bit different though!

As for the VRBO details, I don’t have them anymore but a look for the Sports Village on the map function will probably work.

7

My wife and I and family stayed a mile from the start in a VRBO. It was nice knowing we didn’t have to worry about the bussing in the morning, but you can’t park at the start, so you are stuck having your family drop you off or walking a mile or so to the start the morning of the race (and then finding a ride back). fwiw, if we qualify again, we’re staying downtown.

8

I was referring to your 2014 stay (3-bedroom house reserved just two blocks from the finish). In VBRO I found several options for staying in the Sports village, but unfortunately nothing near the finish area.

9

Ah gotcha…I don’t those contacts. It was through VRBO on 200 St just east of Main Street.

10

Has IM announced which day is the men’s race yet?

11

Congrats on your 70.3 WC Qualification, and digging up my thread from 9 years ago. Hahaha!

Since then, I have done St George 3x, 2x as regular races and 1x as WC last year so I have a good lay of the land so to speak. FWIW, I do not like hotels for races because I eat a lot and I like to cook my own food. So we condo / airbnb.

In my opinion where to stay depends on a few items:

  1. how many in your group, and do you have a sherpa who can Drive? (Driving is not an option for this race venue you NEED a car)
  2. Are you a morning person. Because you will have to get up an hour or so earlier if you stay in town.
  • In my opinion, the best route is to stay near the start at Sand Hollow. Lot of Airbnb’s and they also have Condos at the resort (but book early). it is a 1 mile walk to the reservoir. So race morning you get to get up 4 / 430ish use your bathroom multiple times and walk over and be in transition by 6 with a nice walk to start the warmup. The key on this is A) If you have a sherpa or a group you need a designated Driver B) BEST OPTION if a group with 2 vehicles (one of them being a mini van or SUV with a bike rack, Drop the larger vehicle in town at Packet Pickup the night before. We did this 2 of the three years we raced. Made things SUPER easy. Especially if EVERYONE is racing.
  • Next option stay in town, last year for WC it was me and my Significant Other as sherpa. We stayed in the Las Palma sports club condos a few miles from Downtown so we still had to Drive to the start race AM. The shuttles start early, but it is about 35 or 40min shuttle ride + the line. So the 4/430 wake up ended up being 3 / 3:30AM 5 min drive to the shuttle. Since we still had to drive back to our race home from the race the 5 vs 35 min post race drive change was zero factor.

Last item “protip”, when you do your warmup run at the reservoir there is a public bathroom in the bldg. by the gate. If you stay in town you will definitely want to know this.
Pete

12

I wasn’t aware that your post is so old. I just googled and find this post :-)))

Thank you for your detailed information and suggestions.

We are only a group of 2 (my girlfriend who is already qualified and ne as the sherpa or also as a starter (let’s see what this session bring)) so the 2 car option isn’t really an option. So we will probably rent a condo, because I wasn’t able to find a hotel in walking distance to the finish line.

How was your experience with the Las Palma sports club condos? And how was the parking situation near the finish line on race day morning but also during the expo times the days before at last years WC event?

BR Rainer

13

The condo community was very nice (and ours was very nice as an individual unit as well).

I cannot speak for parking on race morning as I never did it. But there are lots of lots available within a 5 min walk to finish / expo. But I do not know how long it would take to find and get to one of the spots based upon race morning road closures.

14

Maybe I understood something wrong, but I thought you toke the shuttle to the start in the year you lived in the Condo? So where did you parked your car and where did you entered the shuttle?
My assumption was that the shuttle was starting near the finish line because after the race you probably want walk back to your car!?

15

I am sorry I was not clear.
The year I stayed in the Condo, my other half dropped me off at the shuttle in the AM (She was NOT racing only sherpaing for me and race volunteering).
She did not park as she went back to the Condo after sending me on my way in the morning.
She did not go to the swim either, (That shuttle line was a nightmare it was 2 blocks long for non athlete’s).
After she dropped me off, I got onto the shuttle. For athletes the shuttle line was pretty quick maybe 5 or 10 minutes.

Post race, she was parked about 3 or 4 blocks away from the race finish. I do not know what it took for her to get to that spot as I was racing still.

Where we parked we were able to leave and get back to the condo’s pretty easy even though the race was still going on (Bike and Run Courses).
**** Note the WC full run is on the road that we took to get back to the condo I think, so you may have to go in a different direction. But the good news is the bike course will be closed by then so you will not be trapped*****

I hope this helps.
Pete

16

We will participate at the 70.3 WC this year and it seems that there are no available hotel rooms or condos within walking distance to the finish line. Therefore we are thinking on booking a condo in the Sports Village.

Our only concern is the parking situation near to the Expo and Finish line and the traffic in this area… How was your experience during the race week and especially on race day morning

BR Rainer

BTW; were and how did you found/book your house in 2014? Was it with VBRO and if yes could you send me the link?

I did the Sports Village for 70.3 WCs last year. Worked out really well. Can swim there. Can bike/run from there. I wouldn’t stay near the start. There isn’t much out there & they shuttle you to the start on race day.

17

Digging this thread up to ask a question

How closed are the roads for the 70.3 WC? I see on the map that the course goes north on hwy 18 and then south again on Snow Canyon. My parents are also coming and are avid golfers and want to stay at the fairway oasis golf course that’s tucked in just off of hwy 18. They’re happy to drive me where I need to be race day but I’m wondering how hard it is to get around from there given that both ways out are part of the course for 2 days.

Or should we just find another place?