I have stayed at a lot of hotels for a lot of marathons and this one is BY FAR the best hotel to stay in for a road race! For my 2nd year in a row, I chose to stay here when running the P.F. Chang Rock n’ Roll marathon in January and if I’m lucky to be in town again in 2013, I will definitely stay here again. I found this hotel to be extremely runner friendly and highly recommend it to runners.
The hotel offers a free shuttle on Friday to the light rail station so that runners can get to the expo. On Saturday, the hotel offered 5 different shuttle times direct to the expo and returning back to the hotel. On Race morning, there were 3 different shuttle departures that you had to sign up for to take runners close to the half marathon start. It was a 10 minute shuttle ride. If a runner was in the marathon, then they just had to board the light rail (free before 7am) at the half marathon starting point to downtown Phoenix which was 8 stops away, about a 22 minute ride. The Hampton also opened breakfast up at 5am, which is way earlier than usual on a Sunday morning. The Hampton also offers shuttle rides back after running the races, picking up at 11am on the southeast corner of Packard Drive & Rio Salado Parkway. If you chose to walk back to the hotel after the race, it is only a 1.7 mile walk, which is a nice walk across the river if you want to rid your legs of residual lactic acid.
I really like this Hampton Inn. They have free parking, laundry facilities (change & detergent available at front desk), an ice machine for icing knees, a pool, and a jacuzzi for sore muscles. Their lobby looks more like a Homewood Suites and their breakfast seems more Homewood Suites-like. I had a kitchenette this year which had a refrigerator, microwave, sink, 2 flat screen tvs with HBO and coffee maker. Last year I just took a basic room and was fine with that as well during my stay. I did not eat any breakfast here but the only difference I noticed from other Hamptons was that they had a pot of oatmeal made, instead of instant packets.
- Hampton Inn Tempe
- Tempe Hampton Inn
- Hampton Inn Asu
