101 S. El Paso St., El Paso, TX, 915-534-3000, 800-769-4300, caminoreal .
Rates: Start at $93 per night for a standard room with two double beds; two-room, king-bed “junior” suites are available starting at $139. Look for online deals. Parking is $5 per night; you can get that waived by filling out an annoying questionnaire about your stay that asks for a lot of personal information.
Stay here if you’re: A business traveler who isn’t especially picky, or a tourist longing to stay at a 1912 property with issues.
It’s close to: The convention center next door and the rest of downtown; the airport is a 15-minute drive.
The rooms are: Spacious, especially the reasonably priced junior suites, which offer a loveseat, coffee table and small, round dining table and chairs, while the bedroom features a king bed and armoire. The furniture is shabby and not particularly comfortable — the seating seems to have the least amount of stuffing possible, and the bed was hard and topped with thin linens that were the opposite of luxurious, and we felt compelled to wipe things down. Also, the plug next to our loveseat had the wiring just hanging out of the wall from behind the socket (did someone say fire hazard?).
They put all of the money into: The lobby remodel, and the Dome Bar, the most appealing thing about the place.
The bottom line: The reason to come to this hotel is to have a drink and an appetizer (recommended: the house margarita and the tortilla soup) at the Dome Bar, with its Tiffany dome above a circular bar set in the middle of a vast room with great acoustics and a classy feel.
Kyle Wagner
