"No frills" says it all, or almost all. This hotel is in between aging and run down. In its favor, the linens and bathroom are clean and the continental breakfast is ordinary but adequate. Traffic volume and noise, vehicular access, and a rotten fitness room, however, mean there are as many Cons as Pros for this property. Not recommended for more than 2-3 days, and only if you need a "budget" (sort of) hotel in East Brunswick with good access to the NJ Turnpike and Newark Airport.
The rooms are basic, with a small fridge and a miniature microwave, and have poor lighting if more than one person wants to read. The room TV is an old Cathode Ray Tube model with poor picture quality and basic cable channels. If you want adult movies, though, you're in luck. The HVAC under-window units are hard to adjust to suit, and are quite noisy. You may welcome the noisy fan, though, once you experience the traffic noise that kicks in around 5:30 AM with truck and bus traffic. Traffic on Rt 18, on which this hotel is located, is extremely heavy Northbound in the AM and Southbound in the PM. Access to the hotel on southbound 18 is easy, so long as you signal well in advance and keep putting on your brake lights to keep from being rear-ended by NJ's aggressive and rude drivers. Access going northbound is more difficult, initially, until you discover the exit that takes you under the highway and brings you up behind the hotel and its attached Hooters restaurant. The hotel is, in fact, sandwiched between Rt 18 and the NJ Turnpike, and has an integrated conference center with Hooters attached.
We found eating well to be a challenge. Finding (and getting to) good restaurants can be tricky. The joints recommended by the front desk are not great, so you have to be prepared to fight the traffic and the NJ "All Turns From Right Lane Only" highway layout. If you want to avoid the ubiquitous chains with their ho-hum food and service, please see my recommendation for the nearby Perkins Restaurant and Bakery.
If you're a fitness buff, you'll be really disappointed. The so-called "Fitness Room" they advertise is a joke. It has one rickety treadmill whose belt slips and whose settings can't all be accessed; and a stationary bike whose mechanism squeaks with each pedal rotation. These "cardio" machines seem not to have been serviced, ever. There is, however, a 3-position weight station that is serviceable.
The East Brunswick/New Brunswick area seems to have a plethora of poor hotels. This one is firmly in the mid-range category, at which you're likely to pay more than you think it's worth, but you avoid the really bottom-end places and don't have to pay for the much better (but more pricey) accommodations off Rt 1 or in the Rutgers Univ. area. We travel to this area 2-3 times a year for family reasons, and are still looking for a fairly-priced motel we'd be happy to return to.
- Days Hotel East Brunswick
- Days Inn East Brunswick
