Sunday, March 25, 2007

Best Western Marina Grand Hotel

For the past three trips to Corpus Christi I have stayed at the Best Western downtown. This is the fancily-named Best Western Marina Grand Hotel.

There are cheaper hotels and more expensive hotels in Corpus, but this one has a few nice features:
  • plentiful free parking
  • recently-renovated rooms
  • nice view of the marina
  • across the street from several restaurants and bars
  • across the street from a nice walking trail along the seawall
  • across the street from a good coffee shop (Aqua Java)
  • free continental (i.e. sugar-high) breakfast
For directions, use the address 300 N Shoreline Blvd, Corpus Christi, TX 78401. The hotel takes up the entire Lawrence St, Shoreline Blvd, Water St, and Williams St block.

The main disadvantage of this hotel is the distance from Worldwinds and Padre Island. As you can see from these directions, they are about 1 hour away from each other. However, I personally like staying downtown where I can easily walk to everything I need.

1 comment:

xsmuscle said...

This is definitely a good choice. It seems questionable until you stay there. It's recently remodeled (so it's not one of those hotels that smell like Grandma's house), pet-friendly, has a great staff, and is walking distance to some fine drinking establishments.

A downside is that there doesn't seem to be a good beach nearby (although there is a beach nearby), but you can't have it all.

Random comments that don't fit well anywhere else:

Everyone we ran across in Corpus was very friendly. We got lots of good suggestions about places to eat and where to experience the Corpus nightlife, a discounted meal, and some free dessert coupons.

Also, a handful of the bars there seem to go with the multiple-bars-in-one style (examples: Pat O's, Bob Popular), which is a little different from Austin's bar-style. Most people dressed pretty relaxed as it looked like jeans and t-shirts were welcome just about everywhere.

All-in-all, everything adds up to make for a fun, relaxing vacation.