Who Needs Peace and Quiet?
Written: Sep 17 '06
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Close to Rocky Mountain National Park
Cons: Paper thin walls, mice
The Bottom Line: Estes Park and the Rocky Mountain National Parks are beautiful. I would have enjoyed it more if I was able to get my sleep.
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| hamburgerman's Full Review: National Park Retreats, Estes Park, Colorado |
My girlfriend and I stayed at the National Park Retreat in Estes Park, Colorado, the week of Sept 3 through Sept 8. We wanted to get away for awhile and enjoy the Rocky Mountain National Park, and this motel/campground was as close as you could get to the park without actually camping in the park. It is walking distance from the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park.
When we arrived at the National Park Retreat, we were greeted by very friendly and helpful staff members. The property looked clean and really was close to the park, our ultimate destination. We booked the Timber Room, number 10, for the duration of our stay, the only room they had with a kitchen.
When we entered the room, we found it to be very cramped. The bedroom wasn't much bigger than the bed, and we kept bumping our legs on the side of the bed. My girlfriend had a huge bruise that lingered for the stay. After only a few minutes, we heard something banging on the closet door from the inside. I carefully opened the closet door and found a mouse stuck to a sticky mousetrap. Apparently this mouse was banging the mousetrap against the door. We called the front desk and they immediately came to remove the mouse. The apologized, mentioning the building is old and they haven't been able to seal all openings.
Shortly after that, I took a shower and found the drain was broken, so the shower wasn't draining at all. We had to call maintenance, and they came and temporarily fixed the drain.
We tried to relax that night, but we had to constantly step over our luggage because both the bedroom and living rooms were very small, and we didn't want to put our luggage in the closet for fear of more mice.
The next morning, I found another mouse, this time dead, by the refrigerator. We chose to ask the front desk to relocate us. Again, they were very friendly, and put us in another available room.
The room they moved us to was the Spruce room, number 8, for two nights. This room was very cute, and more spacious. It even had two full size beds and a deck/patio, and didn't cost as much (they refunded the price difference.) We were much happier here... until night fell.
We wanted to go to bed early so we could go hiking in the morning. Well, it was very hard to sleep because the walls are paper thin. We could hear every little move our neighbors would make. We could hear their television and their conversations, almost as if they were in the same room with us. Luckily these neighbors were moving out in the morning, and they didn't make too much late night noise.
After two nights in the Spruce room, we had to move again because the Spruce had been previously booked for one of our nights. We were moved to the Aspen room, number 7. Smaller, but still cute, and somehow still more spacious than our first room. BUT...
Our new neighbors that took over the Spruce room were very noisy. I mean ridiculously noisy. Loud talkers, loud laughers and late night television watchers. And to make things even worse, the husband was the loudest snorer I had ever heard. Remember, these walls are paper thin. It sounded like he was in the room with us. We did not get any sleep that night.
It could have been a wonderful four days at the National Park Retreat, but the mice and paper thin walls left a bad taste in our mouths. I cannot recommend the NPR motel to anyone who needs their sleep. You probably won't get any here unless you take sleeping pills and wear ear plugs.
Recommended:
No
Best Suited For: Couples
Best Time to Travel Here: Dec - Feb
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Epinions.com ID:
hamburgerman
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Member: Brazil (Joe) Grisaffi
Location: Houston, TX
Reviews written: 38
Trusted by: 26 members
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