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Sacramento has plenty of full-service hotels, budget motels, and small inns. Larger towns along Highway 49—among them Auburn, Grass Valley, and Jackson—have chain motels and inns. Many Gold Country bed-and-breakfasts occupy former mansions, miners' cabins, and other historic buildings.
A basic two-story motel with a touch of style, this Ascend Collection property less than a block from the UC Davis campus has nine spacious cottages (the best choice) that families often book. Guest rooms are done in muted tones, though candy-apple-red accents brighten things up. Each room has a flat-screen TV, microwave, refrigerator, and coffeemaker. A few suites have whirlpool tubs.
Rich accents of gold and cobalt blue add boutique flair to the spacious rooms of this dependable choice for business and leisure travelers. The congenial staff who aim to please and the convenient location near shops, restaurants, and UC Davis are the biggest pluses.
Just off Highway 49 and superbly run, this Ascend Collection property provides a comfortable experience, with art and artifacts reflecting the area's mining heritage gracing public areas and guest rooms. All the rooms are equipped with microwaves, refrigerators, Keurig coffeemakers, and flat-screen TVs. Accommodations in the Grass Valley Suites category, good for families or other small groups, contain these amenities plus sleeper sofas and wet bars. A generous full buffet breakfast is served in the lobby.
A full-service hotel right on campus, the Hyatt distinguishes itself with an enthusiastic staff and well-designed rooms and suites furnished with mahogany desks, headboards, and built-in nightstands, as well as pullout sofas with beds already made up for extra guests. King rooms and suites have spacious showers; book a queen room for a bathtub (with shower). All rooms have small refrigerators; suites also have microwaves. Amenities like the pool, fitness room, café, and bar make the Hyatt more than just a place to hang your hat. The generous, crowd-pleasing breakfasts include eggs and other hot items.
The lobby's full-size, taxidermied bear poised to pounce and wolf on the prowl hint at a decorative sensibility that dissipates upon entering the boilerplate rooms at this motel-like property a few blocks southeast of downtown. The red-carpeted, 500-square-foot guest accommodations—all called suites but only some with two rooms—are furnished with microwaves, refrigerators, coffee pots, flat-screen TVs, and combination tubs and showers. Staff members deliver free mini-doughnuts each morning. A coin-operated washer-and-dryer stack occupies one corner of the fitness room, which also contains a sauna; the pool and hot tub are just outside.
It looks like a typical one-story motel, but the Outside Inn offers a variety of accommodations inspired by nature or activities in nature. Each room is unique; ask about kitchenettes, full kitchens, suites, patios, or the stand-alone cabin off-property. One room honors the town's Nevada Classic, the nation's second-oldest bike race, once won by Greg Lemond. Others pay tribute to wildflowers, river rafting, and fishing. There's a climbing wall in the rock-climbing suite. Enjoy homespun hospitality with plenty of inspiration to get you out of the room and into nature.
