Lovely rooms, great historical venue - but VERY noisy (Hotel Monte Vista (Flagstaff, USA))

Member Name: flodombey

Product:	Hotel Monte Vista (Flagstaff, USA)
Date:	03/04/09 (104 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Wonderful period furniture, good staff

Disadvantages: The noise.

My friend and I stayed here for one night in May last year whilst travelling along Route 66. In all the guidebooks it was listed as a lovely, historic building and it was indeed just that. First impressions of the room were good - we were completely wowed by the antique furniture etc, it felt very swanky (notably this was the most expensive room we stayed in our whole trip) and we liked it.

We had some drinks (after VERY strict IDing - we are both 28) in the bar/lounge downstairs and the staff seemed friendly enough once they accepted we were old enough to have a beer.

Unfortunately, what none of the guidebooks say is that you will not be able to sleep for more than 20 minutes without being woken by the loudest train noise I've ever heard, it literally sounded like it was going right past our windows! Not only that but they seem to be incredibly long freight trains so take forever to pass with continuous horn blowing. It was only the next day as we were checking out that we noticed the signs in reception offering ear plugs, I dont think they would have been much help though with that volume of noise.

Anyway, finally, in the early hours we both fell asleep and then I woke and wondered what my friend was doing stood in between the TV stand and the window, I was half asleep and rolled over to get a better view of what she was doing, only to find my friend fast asleep next to me, the woman stood at the window had vanished! I was so frightened this ruined any chance I had of further sleep even without the continuous trains.

Next morning I asked the guy on reception whether anyone else had seen anything in our room and he very calmly told us that the hotel has a number of ghosts that are frequently reported, I wish we had known this when we checked in! They are actually documented on the hotel's own website.

This is a nice hotel but the noise (and supernatural activity) ruined it somewhat for us.

Summary: Take ear plugs and be warned about the ghosts!