Freeway Free in California: Cool Stays in SLO
If my posts have you thinking about a stop in San Luis Obispo, you’ll want a place to stay. Here are three very different choices:
For families: Quality Inn Suites (qualitysuitesslo.com) – Located well off the freeway and only a few blocks from downtown. This is a great value. TQuality Suites in SLO is a beautifully laid out establishment with lots of outdoor shady sitting spots for contemplation. One courtyard adjoins the breakfast cafe and the Lobby and contains the spacious swimming pool as well as plenty of outdoor seating for patrons of the Cafe or the evening Manager’s Reception (one generous pour of wine or one beer.) The second, quieter courtyard hat has a gazebo, a fountain, and several tiled tables with benches for sitting as well as a gazebo and a fountain.). Behind the hotel is the river with several nicely situated benches for even quieter contemplation and perfect fend shut.
The complimentary hot breakfast offers a variety of egg dishes, pastries, bagels, cereals, and the usual trimmings. In the evening along with the complimentary wind and beer, an evening barbecue grill on the swim deck offers hamburgers, hot dogs, cheese steak sandwiches, and grilled chicken sandwiches along with help-yourself salad fixings and cole slaw. If you want something fishy, I can recommend the Splash Cafe for takeout fish tacos and wraps just down Monterey Avenue.
The rooms are large and well equipped. W, C and I rented a Suite, which has two double beds plus a comfortable sofa bed. If you are traveling with children, the pool and the barbecue are easy entertainment and eating options if you have had a long traveling day or a strenuous time getting a student settled at Cal Poly.
For couples or BFFs on a girls’ weekend who are into kitsch – The Apple Farm Inn is up the street from the Quality Inn, a little further from downtown, and offers floral decor and chintz galore, with poster beds, ruffled pillows, overstuffed chairs, and a gift shop full of china in traditional patterns and knickknacks. It’s a new establishment that is trying to be quaint, but with modern gas fireplaces in the rooms. D and I stayed here years back and remember that the breakfast, though not complimentary, was to die for (or die after from surfeit). Current pix look less ruffly and chintzy than I remember.
For couples who want genuine vintage without the kitsch and don’t mind stairs, the Garden Street Inn is a quaint and charming B&B located in a historic Victorian within easy walking distance of downtown. It has stained glass windows, a library with a ladder to help you to the top shelves, clawfoot tubs in the bathrooms, and a sunny breakfast area for enjoying a different creative breakfast every morning.
Allyson Johnson 