On the homeward bound leg of a 19 day driving tour we found out we would be in the Salt Lake City area for New Year's Eve. I wanted a hotel room where we could enjoy the lights and the fireworks and the festivities from the windows in our room and waffled over staying here (which seemed the prime location) based on some earlier reviews that were less that stellar.

WOW! Were we surprised and pleasantly so! Check in was handled by two young men who were happy to recommend restaurants and to give us the lowdown on the TRAX/lightrail system in front of the hotel. Parking was in the adjacent deck for $5.00 for the night and the lower two levels had direct access to the hotel as long as you were in by 11pm. On the back side of the hotel is the LDS Genealogy Center and Genealogy Packages are available from the hotel.

I asked for a Deluxe King room on the front of the hotel as high up in floors as possible. We ended up on the 11th floor with full length double doors and a spectacular view of the Salt Palace Convention Center and eventually the New Year's Eve fireworks. The room was spacious with a couch and a small table with two chairs as well as all the usual amenities. Had I been there to work on my Family Tree instead of eat Mexican Food and enjoy the celebration it would have also been a perfect room.

Coming in to the hotel through the basement door from the parking deck did remind me a little of a hospital or dormitory basement - sterile white walls and lots of rooms with doors that had glass in the top half and a curtain for privacy. Not at all creepy, just a little odd. And they do mean 11pm for locking that parking deck door. After dinner we did have to park and walk out to the front door for entrance to the lobby and our rooms.

We plan to come back to Salt Lake City for more than just an overnight and will definitely stay here again. Temple Square is just across the street east to the left of the front door and restaurants and shopping stretch out down the street toward the south. I hate paying more than $100 a night (base price) for a hotel room and this lovely gem with a AAA discount fit that budget quite well.

Got up and out Sunday morning in time to hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra perform their weekly radio broadcast live and in person. A quick walk to the Tabernacle (or in the summer or holidays to the LDS Convention Center) is also a pleasant one in the clean, well kept city by the Great Salt Lake.