Hello,

My wife and I will be stopping in Aspen for one night during our trip to Colorado in October. I have been looking online at places to stay and many of the hotels are rather pricey and set up for skiers. We will not be skiing that time of year. We are looking for a clean, reasonably priced hotel, in a nice/scenic part of town that is walking distance to shops and sights. It would be great if the hotel has free parking and a good breakfast.

I look forward to the suggestions.

Thanks in advance.

Hotel Aspen is very well located, $135 for a king for weeknights in October. Nice heated pool/hot tub, free full breakfast buffet.
Molly Gibson is similar, across the street (don't know about breakfast or parking).
For price and location, those are very good options.

Aspen is very glitzy and probably the most expensive place in CO so you will pay higher prices. However, October is the change over season between summer and skiing so you should find some deals. Skiing in Aspen doesn't state until mid-November. Be prepared for cold weather and snow.

Vail is more 'glitzy' in my experience.

We love Aspen for it's gorgeous wide-open setting and it's history. It's not a fake place plopped down next to a highway. Blech.

Enjoy it there!

This placed has everything you are looking for:
http://www.mollygibson.com/

My wife and I stayed there last September for 3 nights at ~$150 / night. But a few days later the price had gone up to $200-250, so you have to catch it right. But October is off season, September still has the aspen colors, which are usually gone by October.

The parking is free, they give you a hang tag, but you have to find a spot on the street. At worst it might be a couple blocks away but they have a loading area for when you arrive and leave.

Have a great trip, though one night doesn't seem like enough!

Hotel Aspen is across the street, and has dedicated parking. Either should be a good choice, depending on price (and breakfast and parking). A few blocks walk to downtown.

BTW, I've found the Gant for a steal in the fall; check when your dates are closer.

Aspen is one of my least favorite places, but I will be taking visitors from out of state for two nights in July . Was excited to see the recommendation for the Molly Gibson, but for our dates the cheapest room is over $350/night! Guess we'll be staying in Snowmass again unless there are any other recommendations?

The Gant is a very nice condo-hotel, a couple of blocks from downtown Aspen. Also has a free shuttle. Great place.

You might try VRBO for your dates; lots of reasonable places:
http://www.vrbo.com/vacation-rentals...ate=2014-05-01

@Gabriele - You are bumping into the Aspen music festival which runs from Jun 26 - Aug 17. That tends to draw a lot of people which impacts availability and prices. And I agree that the current Aspen is not the Aspen of 20+ years ago. It has changed a lot.

Every place on the planet has changed in the past 20 years.
The OP is visiting in October.

I've stayed at Molly Gibson and am again in a couple weeks, and am paying about $300 a night, also. That is one of the cheapest decent places in Aspen, actually, as I've looked. Two years ago I only paid about $225 a night, at the same time of year, not sure why it has gone up so much.

They have a small parking area next to it, as I recall, along the side street. I didn't have a car, though, so can't remember exactly. I'm surprised it is so expensive in October, though, would think the ski season was the peak (or that summer festival).

It was cheaper than the Hotel Aspen across the street, also. There was a cheaper place in the middle of downtown when I looked, though. It wasn't as convenient for me as I know the Molly Gibson is right on the ski shuttle line. I just used the usual Aspen tourism website to find prices, though, they are all there.

I learned to ski as Aspen about 30 years ago, talk about changing. I was just a poor college student and the Hotel Jerome was just a dumpy old hotel.

And some would like to pretend that Aspen has not become glitzified and over priced. Still a great place to ski but you pay the price.

I still bitch at the spouse for not scraping together his pennies to buy in Aspen in 1969, when he was a ski bum working nights at CityMarket (was getting pricey, but still doable).

There are still deals to be had, just play with Priceline, keep an eye on Hotwire and hotels.com, etc.

sylvia, we all have those stories! DH's parents wanted to buy a little place in Vail a gazillion years ago. aaaarrrgh.

fmpden, give it up already. Everytime I recommend Aspen, you are right there to bad mouth it for being "glitzy" and over-priced.

Sing along with me: When I say "Aspen", you say "glitzy".

We can debate till the cows come home. It is my personal experience that Vail is the nouveau riche glitzy place, overpriced place, plunked down next to the freeway.

Aspen is definitely high-end, but we feel it has more authentic character than Vail, by many miles. Much more to do in October.

I agree, Tabernash, I was there for the music festival this summer (first time in years and years) and was pleasantly surprised by how nicely kept the historic little Victorians were, the many gardens, the general lack of glitz. Sure, there's lots of money, but folks there demonstrate that they also love their town. It's not all about 10,000+ square feet of palace on Red Mountain.

Merci, sylvia. Aspen does feel like a place where there are people who actually live there. Maybe that summarizes my liking for it: it's a real Colorado town, with real history. And so much gorgeous country around it to investigate.