Where best to stay in DesMoines?

just did some googling. i see the embassy suites dont have free parking. is this an issue. going back and forth thruout the day could cause some probs with finding/paying for parking. odd to not have free parking imo. oh well. did you check the websites of each of these places? more info on their own websites i'd think, also some pix to see what the rooms etc are like.

i love the idea of a c>A group of friends are planning to spend several days at the AQS show

Jeanne's right, Susan. You will want to give very careful attention to their websites. DH and I recently attended a wedding in an unfamiliar town. One of the hotels advertised that private baths were available. That bit of information threw up red flags right away. Another hotel had free parking but made no claim as to 'convenient'. You'd need a taxi to get to it unless you were in really excellent shape. Sometimes 'continental' breakfast only means last week's doughnuts and instant coffee with fairly warm water. The hotel we chose claimed convenient fine restaurants close by. They were, but only if you had a death wish or rented a helicopter. . . driving south in the north-bound lane of the interstate might have worked. DH and I love to travel but looking carefully is worth the time. Polly

Hi Susan, I will do some checking on this with my local friends.

The downtown area has many wonderful places to eat, again, I will ask my friends for recommendations. I love Spaghetti Works, but there is so much more available.

Much of downtown is connected through skywalks, so maybe you will want to check to see if you can get a hotel that connects via skywalk to the Event Center.

Susan, we've stayed at both the Marriott and the Renaissance - both are very nice, but neither have a continental breakfast (at least as far as I can remember). Both are several blocks (okay, maybe a few more than several) from the Iowa Events Center, but it would be walkable if you didn't want to hassle with a car. On the other hand, driving in Des Moines is no big deal. The Renaissance doesn't have on-site parking, but it wasn't a problem for the valet to bring the car around for us.

Within about 3 blocks of the Renaissance is a restaurant called Splash. As you might guess, it's a seafood restaurant, and DH and I really enjoy it. It's a little pricey, but if you want to splurge some night, it's a great place to try.

Like Lisa said, many of the business down town are connected through the sky walk system. The Marriott (IIRC) is connected and I would say the others should be too. If they aren't there are several places where you could get off the sky walk and walk to the hotel. They are all in the area, and would not be too far (at least IMHO) to walk outside if needed be. Oct. is fairly nice here (again IMHO) so it may be nice to walk outside, but that is just me. If it is a concern for you, I would call the hotels and ask if they are connected to the sky walk.

I've never stayed in any of the hotels, so I can't offer a critic on any of them.

As for food, as Lisa said, there are several places downtown to eat that are either on the sky walk, or a very short walk from the sky walk. It has been forever since I've been downtown so I don't know what is there anymore.

i checked and both the Embassy Suites and the Quality Inn have a full cooked breakfast. whewwww, the thot of the place i stayed in phx with coffee/tea and donuts, they were fresh tho, Polly, lol, didnt impress my poor stomach but i wasnt about to go out on foot in the a.m. to find food so that had to do and hells bells i paid for it.

the skywalks in DesMoines is interesting tho. must be cuz of the winter weather they get up there. must go double check that again later. j.

"Polly Esther" wrote...

Thanks for all the replies. I plan to check their web sites when I have a minute to think. We don't want to move the car so will want to be within walking distance if at all possible. I haven't seen a schedule so don't know if there will be evening events we will want to attend. Usually we all make our own schedules as far as classes, etc but try to eat together a few times. The car trip from Chicago to Des Moines and show and tell in the room are the best parts.

Don't want to put off making a reservation because the good rooms might fill but am pushing deadlines on samples for the Rosemont show. The shop where I teach, The Quilt Merchant, will have a booth at Rosemont again this year. I promised I would have my Civil War Love Letters quilt finished for display so need to make at least three blocks a day---every day---for the rest of the month. Someone else is making the February and March Jo Morton samples for our Jo's Little Women's Club I coordinate. This gives me a little extra working time. I still need to make the sample for the 30's club but that is only one block.

The friends going with me to Des Moines are also involved at the store and are also working hard preparing for Rosemont. Having a successful booth at a major show is a lot of work. On top of everything else, the store is on the bus tour this year. And starting this week is Web Sampler Celebration II. It is a web shop hop with one block kit available from each of twelve stores. The blocks were designed by Bonnie Blue and are wonderful. Each store has its own setting for the same twelve blocks. If you like traditional quilts you might want to check it out.

Susan

Oh Polly. You brought up one of our FAVORITE Family Hotel memories. It was a Dark and Stormy night and we were the only ones on the road for what seemed like hours. We were traveling home from a Family Reunion and MIL was with us (kidlets were fairly little--7/9 if I recollect correctly) We drove and drove--no hotel in site......came round a corner and there was a lil Roadside Inn... DH said they had ONE cabin left. We took it. You walked in--there was a small bed (DS slept there), small table and one chair-- next room was a double (MIL and DD slept there) and then a bedroom with bath (Bath had a door). DH and I slept there. Got inside and closed the door--wind was howling under as there was a 2" gap under it--we put blankets there to warm the room up. Kids got the giggles--we ALL ended up giggling. Next morning, we asked if there were any restaurants---fella said about a mile down the road on the left side. Off we went...down the road on the LEFT SIDE were a string of hotels, motels and restaurants!!!!!! We were that close to a town and the INN Owner never said a word. MIL said she thoroughly enjoyed herself. That alone made the inconvenience worth it.

Butterfly (Sometimes I miss her)

Howdy!

My goodness, Susan, you are busy!

Des Moines: we stayed in a nice chain motel along the river, 2 years ago (too far for your purposes); they included a big, made-for you breakfast buffet, w/ a cook making waffles to order, and fresh fruit. Down the street were some night-dives, clubs, jazz & blues bars. The October weather was splendid.

The Quilt Merchant is in a good cycle; lots going on, tours and magazine display (Q Sampler) and the Rosemont Show. Good for y'all!

Bonnie Blue-- I haven't seen Paula Barnes in yrs; she used to bring her patterns to the LQS when I worked there & she lived in Dallas.