Carlsbad Cavern - where to stay
 

We plan to spend two nights in Whites City, NM to visit Carlsbad Cavern and then drive down to Guadalupe National Park. We would like suggestions on where to stay in Whites City and where to stay to see the park.
Thanks much.

We visited New Mexico, including Carlsbad Caverns, last October. After doing a lot of research about where to stay thru various guidebooks, these forums, tripadvisor.com, and elsewhere, we elected to stay in Carlsbad itself rather than White's City. Our research suggested the White City properties were not in the best of shape and that research proved accurate; the properties are quite run-down and I'd be hard pressed to give them any more than 1 star.

Although the town of Carlsbad is about a 1/2 hour drive from the park, it offers more (and better) options as well as a wider variety of restaurants. We stayed at the Comfort Inn (north side of town and thus furthest away from the park), but it appeared to be the best of the limited choices. The Best Western in Carlsbad, which we had dinner at one night, appeared acceptable as well although it was certainly not as new as the Comfort Inn. A brand new Holiday Inn Express has opened in Carlsbad. It was under construction when we were there, but I see it is open now from the Holiday Inn website. This would be my top choice if I were visiting the area again since it is so new. Good luck!

Correction to my previous post....the new Holiday Inn Express in Carlsbad is opening September 3, 2007.

A few years ago we stayed at the Best Western in Whites City. While it was no more than your basic BW, it was nice to be so close by. Be SURE you see the flight of the bats! Around dusk they make a mass exodus from a cave, and its really something to see (kinda creepy cool) A ranger or hotel people will have the times.

The Days Inn in Carlsbad is fine.

Keith

We stayed in the Days Inn in Carlsbad 2 weeks ago and it was quite adequate and clean.