Hotels in Cincinnati and Detroit

[bunny nose]

I am trying to plan our roadtrip next summer. It will take us from home in NY to Cincinnati, Detroit, Cleveland and Pittsburgh. We are planning to see baseball games in a four cities. I have a few hotels that are in our price range and would like to ask for comments about them if anyone knows. What we are looking for basically is a safe place to park our car and rest our tired heads. I don't need a 4 star hotel, just a place to feel safe and that is relatively clean. Also, we don't care if the hotel is real close to the stadium we are visiting as we like to drive around a find things to do. We like to just head out a see what we can find.

With that said, here are the hotels that have peaked my interest so far:

In Cincinnati:

Quality Hotel & Suites Central
4747 Montgomery Road
Norwood, OH 45212


LaQuinta Inn & Suites Cincinnati
350 Meijer Drive
Florence, KY 41092

LaQuinta Inn Cincinnati North
12150 Springfield Pike
Cincinnati, OH 45246

And in Detroit:

Comfort Inn Plymouth
40455 Ann Arbor Road E
Plymouth MI 48170

Barley Inn
34952 Woodward Avenue
Birmingham, MI 48009

Days Inn Downtown Detroit
3250 E Jefferson Avenue
Detroit, MI 48207

Fairfield Inn by Marriot Detroit Auburn Hills
1294 N Opdyke Road
Auburn Hills, MI 48326


Hilton Inn Southfield
26000 American Drive
Southfield, MI 48034

Comfort Inn Livonia
29235 Buckingham Street
Livonia MI 48154



Any advice, good or bad would be appreciated! Thanks so much in advance for any help you can give!


Karen

[TerpsFan]

My entire family is in Northern KY so we stay at hotels there all the time (we like our own space if you know what I mean)...Anyway, our favorites:

Embassy Suites Covington/Rivercenter
10 East Rivercenter Boulevard
Covington, Kentucky, United States, 41011
1-859-261-8400

Cincinnati Marriott at Rivercenter
10 West RiverCenter Boulevard
Covington, Kentucky 41011 USA
Phone: 1-859-261-2900

We are Hilton loyal, so we've stayed at the Embassy Suites more times. It's a great location, right on the water, easy access to stadiums and on the KY side. Newport on the Levee not too far away and Main Strausse (bars and restaurants) within walking distance.

[bunny nose]

Thank you so much! I will check those out.

Karen

[boilermaker]

in regards to Cinci, I'm not from there, but I know you can very easily walk from the hotels in Covengton Kentucky over the pedestrian bridge to the baseball stadium. It is more convenient than most of the Cinci hotels...and there is a nice restaurant/shopping area (Newport on the River) right there as well. I beleive there are aout 10 hotels in that area, so you should be able to find one in your price range.

Florence is a little far from Cinci..about 40 min or so. I believe the hotel in Norwood is up by Kings Island, which is on the complete other side of Cinci.

As for Detroit, I'm not too familiar with it. I do know most of the areas you have picked are suburbs, so you'll have a little bit of a drive into the stadium.

I do however, live in the Cleveland area, so if you need help with that one, let me know.

[cantwait]

I live in Louisville and whenever we visit Cincy, we Priceline it and get a GREAT room downtown for the same price as the hotels you are thinking about. It ends up saving you money on parking, too, and it's so much fun to walk to the stadium. Check out www.biddingfortravel.com to see the latest bids for the cities and go ahead and put in a bid for a 3* or 4* room downtown. I just got my parents a room at the Milennium for $40 + tax.

[bunny nose]

Thanks for the awesome tips. I will check that all out.

I do however, live in the Cleveland area, so if you need help with that one, let me know.

Thanks! As soon as I check out those hotels I will be back for help with those.

Karen

[nylons73]

It may be more than you want to spend, but my favorite hotel by FAR in Cinci is the Cincinnati Netherland Hotel (a Hilton property.) It's a renovation of a 1920's marvel and it is truely marvelous!! DH and absolutely loved our stay and are looking for a reason to go back! It overlooks the stadium, so you will likely be close enough for baseball! :)

As far as Detroit, I would definitely stay in the suburbs! Auburn Hills is a good choice. Yes, you will have a drive to the games, but I wouldn't personally spend a night in downtown Detroit. Detroit has been going through some rough times, and there's not much that's appealing about downtown. I love Greek Town, but that area is mostly nightclubs/restaurants, not really hotels.

[krbb]

I live near Cincy now and am originally from Detroit.

I would also suggest staying in Northern Kentucky. You can walk to the stadium from either Convington or Newport. My FIL owns a Country Inn and Suites in Wilder KY. It is off 275 (the loop which goes around 75) about 10 minutes from Newport. There is Newport on the Levee which has shops, restaurants, and an aquarium. The hotel you have listed in Norwood (is between Cincy and Kings Island) is probably about 20 minutes from downtown Cincy. The LaQuinta with the Cincy address I believe is actually in a city called Sharonville which is off of 75 near the top of 275. Florence I would say is 20 minutes from Cincy.

Auburn Hills will take a while to get downtown to Comerica Park, especially during rush hour times. Plymouth, Southfield, and Livonia are on the west side of the city and I am not too familiar with them. Birmingham has a cute downtown area. What type of things do you like to do? Maybe I can help think of a city that would be near those things. The city of Royal Oak is close to a lot of things, not sure what hotels are there.

Sounds like a fun trip, my DH would love!! When you are in the Cincy area be sure to try some Cincinnati style chili!

[krbb]

As far as Detroit, I would definitely stay in the suburbs! Auburn Hills is a good choice. Yes, you will have a drive to the games, but I wouldn't personally spend a night in downtown Detroit. Detroit has been going through some rough times, and there's not much that's appealing about downtown. I love Greek Town, but that area is mostly nightclubs/restaurants, not really hotels.

I agree with this. There isn't a whole lot to do in downtown anyways, so you would be heading out to the suburbs.

[bunny nose]

but I wouldn't personally spend a night in downtown Detroit

I've heard this before, so that is why I was looking for something a little further out.

Thank you all for your input. Another site I visit also said we should stay where we can walk across the bridge to the game in Cincy. So I think Iwill head back to Expedia and start looking there. Covington sounds like a good place to stay.

What do we like to do? Well, we usually like to find a sports bar or two to visit. Yeah, we are boring. Other than that, we like to visit any local tourist spots. We like going to zoos also, so we try to see one whenever we go someplace to see a game.

Thank you all again. When I have time I am going to have to go back and check out the other hotels.

Karen

[endymion411]

As far as Detroit, I would definitely stay in the suburbs! Auburn Hills is a good choice. Yes, you will have a drive to the games, but I wouldn't personally spend a night in downtown Detroit. Detroit has been going through some rough times, and there's not much that's appealing about downtown. I love Greek Town, but that area is mostly nightclubs/restaurants, not really hotels.

i'm from the suburbs of detroit, and i'll be one to disagree with this--there is plenty to do downtown! dh and i got married at and spent our wedding night at the downtown marriott (on the river across from canada). there are great places to go for music (jazz, house, etc), there are great museums (detroit insitute of art, museum of african-american history, etc), it's a short drive to henry ford museum/greenfield village, to the detroit zoo, you'd be near sports stuff like hockeytown cafe. there are theaters downtown with different shows going on and an improv comedy club. great places to eat many different kinds of food--from sushi to soul food to hard rock cafe to really fancy places and everything in between. dh and i have explored so much of downtown, and one of the reasons behind getting married there was to expose our family and friends who fit under the too afraid stereotype to go exploring, too, and see what they're missing out on!

i've personally gone downtown alone so many times to attend evening events at the museum or to meet up with friends at various places without any problems at all.

[Delaney21]

i'm from the suburbs of detroit, and i'll be one to disagree with this--there is plenty to do downtown! dh and i got married at and spent our wedding night at the downtown marriott (on the river across from canada). there are great places to go for music (jazz, house, etc), there are great museums (detroit insitute of art, museum of african-american history, etc), it's a short drive to henry ford museum/greenfield village, to the detroit zoo, you'd be near sports stuff like hockeytown cafe. there are theaters downtown with different shows going on and an improv comedy club. great places to eat many different kinds of food--from sushi to soul food to hard rock cafe to really fancy places and everything in between. dh and i have explored so much of downtown, and one of the reasons behind getting married there was to expose our family and friends who fit under the too afraid stereotype to go exploring, too, and see what they're missing out on!

i've personally gone downtown alone so many times to attend evening events at the museum or to meet up with friends at various places without any problems at all.

I just wanted to ditto this!

Detroit has changed a lot in the past couple of years and there is quite a bit to do down there now. Yes, there are areas that aren't nice in Detroit, but every major city has areas like that. The downtown Marriot is nice and a great location. I live in the suburbs of Detroit, but we get a room at the Marriot once a year and then we walk to some of the bars in the area. We wouldn't be walking around if it wasn't safe.

As far as Auburn Hills, I think its too far away. If you really don't want to be in Detroit, try Royal Oak, Bloomfield Hills or Troy. They are nice areas, but closer than Auburn Hills.

[bunny nose]

OK- I did reply to this- don't know where it went.

But thanks for letting me know that the area has improved. Now we are going to see about doing more in the area. We had planned on just a night to see the game and then move on. Very good to know!

Karen

[nylons73]

I just wanted to ditto this!

Detroit has changed a lot in the past couple of years and there is quite a bit to do down there now. Yes, there are areas that aren't nice in Detroit, but every major city has areas like that. The downtown Marriot is nice and a great location. I live in the suburbs of Detroit, but we get a room at the Marriot once a year and then we walk to some of the bars in the area. We wouldn't be walking around if it wasn't safe.

As far as Auburn Hills, I think its too far away. If you really don't want to be in Detroit, try Royal Oak, Bloomfield Hills or Troy. They are nice areas, but closer than Auburn Hills.

Interesting comments. I will just say, that in my long history with Detroit, I did not find anything to recommend save the aforementioned Greek Town and hockey games at the Joe. That's it. Furthermore, working in Congress (as I did) for the man who represents much of Detroit, I had access to crime statistics, home values, dealings with the corrupt mayor, etc. With all of this in mind, I could never, in good conscience, recommend someone 'visit' Detroit.

[endymion411]

Interesting comments. I will just say, that in my long history with Detroit, I did not find anything to recommend save the aforementioned Greek Town and hockey games at the Joe. That's it. Furthermore, working in Congress (as I did) for the man who represents much of Detroit, I had access to crime statistics, home values, dealings with the corrupt mayor, etc. With all of this in mind, I could never, in good conscience, recommend someone 'visit' Detroit.

while i would certainly take crime stats, home values, and what kind of mayor is in charge into consideration if i were moving to a city, i think it's a bit of a stretch to not consider somewhere to visit as a result of those things. a lot of places i have visited in my travels are not necessarily places i would want to settle down to live, but i would be sorry to miss out on the things that they do have to offer

[PG-rated]

Just wanted to mention that if you're going to Cincinnati, you should be sure to visit the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. It's really moving, and I believe it's also walking distance from the stadium.