Travellers' rest (Bed and Breakfast of the Rockies)

Member Name: ermintrude

Product:	Bed and Breakfast of the Rockies
Date:	06/06/01 (47 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cheap and cheerful, fairly central

Disadvantages: a bit tatty, some odd people!

The Bed & Breakfast (and associated Hostel) of the Rocky Mountains is a good place for travellers visiting Denver on a budget. It's pretty much ideally situated, being a few blocks from downtown, on a regular bus route towards the airport, and next door to a pizza place. It seems like a pretty friendly, easy-going hang out for young travellers, especially if you stay in the hostel, but I didn't really get to experience the full ambience, as I arrived in Denver with a nasty head cold/case of tonsillitis and felt the need to nurse it. (Had I been slightly more able to do stuff, I would have done a review called "Things to do in Denver when you feel like death warmed up", but I didn't really do enough to write about, so I'll just mention the title here for kudos...)

Right, sympathy ploy over, on with the review :) The B&B part of this establishment comprises two adjacent Victorian townhouses, with the (slightly) newer, purpose-built hostel being across the car park. I won't say much about the hostel as I didn't see the dorms or any of the facilities except reception and the map/reading/internet room (more of which later). Yes, confusingly, the reception for the B&B is in the hostel building - confusing because the website shows a picture of one of the townhouses, which is where I, exhausted and poorly, dragged my bags, only to find no obvious way of checking in. When I finally found the reception, I took an instant dislike to the guy there, who smirked at me, told me I was out of breath (yes, thanks, I know, I'm at 5,200 feet for the first time in my life, now where's the oxygen?) and called me "doll". Urgh. Thankfully he showed me to my room without forcing me to kill him, and I never saw him again.

The room was a bit small, most of it taken up by a double bed with some kind of pointless four-poster style frame around it (no canopy, just plastic plant garlands). There were also two kitsch high-back
wicker chairs, and a dressing table thing which held a large TV/cable box, and a big lamp. I hate harsh ceiling lights, and it took me 20 minutes of fiddling with the table lamp, swapping bulbs with the ceiling light, before I realised the reason it didn't work was that there was no cable attached, and even if there had been, there was nowhere to plug it in. Defeated, I turned on the ceiling light, dragged out the necessary stuff from my backpack (wondering how two people would fit their luggage in the room), and crashed out on the bed, after a struggle with the venetian blinds to get them to shut out as much light as possible and close my room to any prying eyes from the neighbouring house, mere inches away. Neither was completely possible, but I was too tired to care.

In the harsh light of day (well, twilight, I woke up at 5am thanks to the mail-sorting depot over the road), the room was revealed to be a bit shabby (chipped paint, dented furniture, that kind of thing), but kept reasonably clean and dust-free. True, my door couldn't be latched, and would only stay closed if locked, but that wasn't really a problem. The bathroom was pretty much the same - mould lurked in the farthest corners of the shower, and the floor was a patchwork of carpet remnants, but it wasn't that bad. (At least the place has character, unlike the sterile, standardised atmosphere of a motel.) It did take me another 20 minute session, and help from another resident, to figure that you had to turn the shower to "cold" if you wanted hot water, and that there was a choice between hot, very hot, and human casserole. But by then I was so desperate for a shower as to be past caring, and at least the steam helped my sinuses.

Breakfast is certainly a low-key affair, but none the worse for it - back in reception, you help yourself from an assortment of fresh bagels, scrambled eggs, waffles or pastries, fruit, juice, tea and coffee, and take it with you.
If eating on the hop is not for you, newspapers and maps are available to peruse over breakfast (or any other time) in the map room along with tourist information leaflets, and an internet connection is available for the very reasonable rate of $1 per 10 minutes. (While on the communications theme, I'll mention that there is a vending machine selling cheap-rate phonecards - I got 80 minutes to the UK for $10, which is a bargain.)

If you want a DIY breakfast, or any other meal, the B&B houses both feature clean, well-equipped kitchens (microwave, hob, pans, plates, etc.) and cosy dining/sitting rooms. Plus, if the full cable TV (everything from Disney to the Weather Channel, not just HBO/ABC as in many motels) in your room isn't enough, there's a small, eclectic assortment of books, games and puzzles on offer. The B&Bs seemed relatively quiet when I was there, and I never saw anyone else in the sitting rooms, but the front of the hostel is apparently a major hangout, with people just chatting, playing music, and so on until the wee small hours. As I said, I didn't take advantage of this, and can testify that it's not a disturbance at all, although I was in the house farthest from the hostel!

The only other thing I can think of to mention is accessibility and booking. There are free pickups from the rail and bus stations, but not the airport (it being about 15 miles away). However, from the airport, bus AT will take you to Fitzsimons Park & Ride, where you can pick up a number 15 to take you to the corner of Colfax and Downing, just feet from the B&B. It'll cost you $4, and don't forget to get a "transfer" from the first bus to ensure you free passage on the second. As for booking, you can do it on the internet at the "official website" listed above - no hassle.

If you're looking for a cheap, convenient place to stay, and you don't mind a bit of chipped paint and mould in the shower, t
hen this could be just the place.

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