| lisa |
Sep 9th, 1999 01:18 PM |
I was just in St. Louis for two nights last weekend (Labor Day) for a friend's wedding and can recommend a lovely, historic, newly-refurbished hotel in the West End neighborhood. It is called the Chase Park and it is located on Kingshighway Blvd on the corner of Lindell. It may be larger than what you had in mind, but it is in a great location, across the street from the park (with the zoo, the science center, and miles of trails), and in the lovely West End neighborhood so you can walk to tons of little restaurants, galleries and shops around the corner down Euclid Street. There is an old movie theatre next door showing a good selection of first-run movies. The hotel is very pretty and almost all the rooms are suites with fully-equipped kitchens and a separate living area, walk-in closets, and all the rooms have just been redone (in fact, we were only the second guests to have stayed in our room since the remodeling -- and you could tell, as everything looked brand spanking new and shiny). Our room was a suite with a very comfy king bed and we paid $119, which was supposed to be the rate for a studio, but the studio wasn't ready so they gave us a complimentary upgrade (this may have been a special rate though, as we were part of a large group attending a wedding which had reserved a block of rooms). There is a beautiful pool with lovely chaise lounges where you can relax. I wish we had had an extra day to stay there, and would definitely recommend it. Even though we had no real need for the full kitchen, it was nice to have, because there is a gourmet food store next door (Straubs) where they have a great selection of wine and beer and deli items (we picked up some cheese and crackers, kalamata olives, pistachios, locally-brewed Schlafly pale ale, wine, etc. and had a great little cocktail hour in our room, and it was nice to have real glasses and a corkscrew and plates, knives, etc., and be able to store everything in the refrigerator for the next day). The hotel is also very quiet and we never heard any noise at all. In the interest of full disclosure, it seems they may still be working out a few kinks. The rooms are supposed to have washer-dryers, irons and ironing boards, and hair dryers, but ours did not as of yet, and when I requested an iron and ironing board (to iron our wrinkled formalwear) it took several requests before we finally got them two hours later. That was not a big deal, but was a minor service problem. Also, they have valet parking that seemed overpriced to us, but we dealt with this by parking at a meter across the street and had no problem. <BR>I don't know if you're familiar with St. Louis, but be aware that it's pretty spread-out, so if the wedding you're going to is in another neighborhood that's far away, it could be a little drive. For example, the church where the wedding we went to was held was in Ladue, which was about 20 minutes or so away by car. The hotel is also about 20-25 minutes drive from the airport, east on 70 to the Kingshwy Blvd. exit and then 3.5 miles south on Kingshighway. It worked out well for us because the wedding reception was at the Racquet Club which was a short walk a few blocks down the street. Good luck. <BR>
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