About 2 weeks ago my husband and I took a mini vacation up to Altoona, Pennsylvania to escape the city for some R&R. We took the Pennsylvania Turnpike west until we hit Interstate 99 and took that north to Altoona. (
note: You can click on the photos in this blog post to enlarge them to see the details more clearly).
We made our reservations several weeks in advance and stayed at the
Courtyard Marriott in Altoona (it sits right on the fringes of the city so you are NOT in downtown Altoona). We were hoping for an early check-in (we did request it) but when we got there our room wasn't ready so we did have to wait until 3pm to check-in.
The Courtyard Marriott sits on top of a big hill and is right beside the convention center. We got the jacuzzi room since we were celebrating our 26th wedding anniversary and let me tell you, it was a beautiful room! Very spacious and extremely clean! We had a nice over-sized king bed, comfortable sitting chair with ottoman, desk with chair, flat panel tv, mini refrigerator, wireless internet, nice sized bathroom with shower and in the corner of our sleeping area was a 2-person jacuzzi tub. We loved that tub!!!
The hotel has a nice sized indoor heated pool and a large hot tub that was just across the hall from our room on the bottom floor. Right beside that is the fitness center which we didn't use. Our last night there we did enjoy spending 2 hours at the pool and in the fabulous hot tub! We had the entire pool and hot tub all to ourselves for over 2 hours! Gotta love that!
The Marriott also has a Bistro in their hotel where you can get breakfast and dinner. However, just a warning, we didn't find the food to be very good at all and it was extremely expensive! We had a basic eggs, potatoes, toast and Canadian bacon breakfast one morning (2 adult meals) and it cost us $30.00. Totally not worth it and it wasn't very good. The night before we had chicken wraps for dinner from the Bistro and we both thought they were just plain jane and not very good. Again, dinner cost us $30.00. We decided to not get Bistro food again and ended up the second night at TGI Friday's and got ribs and steaks which were delicious and for 2 adult meals with drinks it only cost us $41.00.
Other than their food being crappy and expensive, we really have no complaints.
Our room was spacious and extremely clean. The hotel staff was prompt in waiting on us (check in and check out) and the hotel was beautiful. My only suggestion is that they need to improve upon the Bistro food and they need to make it affordable. Furthermore, take your own bottled water! They charge you $2.50 per bottle of Aquafina that you consume from your hotel room. They had 2 bottles of water in our room which we refused to touch as that is just way too much money!
If you are heading to the Altoona Pennsylvania area, you should check out the Courtyard Marriott for your stay. It's a nice hotel especially for business travelers or for couples who just want to get away and spend some time together. Happy Traveling!
