Convenience in a Boutique Hotel in Santa Rosa
Long having implemented a one-night-luxe, one-night-budget approach to travel, the Brawny Sherpa and I find ourselves briefly in Santa Rosa, Calif. for an overnight that is going to be on the cheap. But will it be pleasant?
We book a stay at the Hotel Azura. People often ask, how do you choose where to stay? Well, of course, sometimes work assignments decide where we stay. And sometimes the budget does. We quickly learn that a stay in Sonoma County on the weekend in the summertime will not be quite as low-priced as we would like it to be, but we are in wine country when the weather is good. On this leg of our journey, we are really just using Santa Rosa as an overnight pit-stop on a journey that will be taking us farther north. Because we are not here for a romantic getaway or for any real luxe activity, we select the modest and definitely not imposing Hotel Azura.
The exterior and the lobby have us wondering about our selection. The hotel has more of a motel feel—in the sense of the old-time nomenclature referring to motor hotels, or lodging that is just feet away from a guest’s car in the parking lot. The open-air staircase and access to rooms possibly is a California trend about which we security- and weather-minded Easterners are unaware. The hotel sits across the street from a diner. Key in hand as we make our way up to our room, what we are really wondering is how bad the room is going to be.
And it is not bad at all! In fact, it is quite nice, seemingly newly renovated with an invitingly comfortable bed, soothing décor, cool cool air-conditioning, and a little balcony that we might have made use of were our stay something more than functional. We like it! In Santa Rosa again under similar circumstances, we would gladly stay here again.
Hotel Azura, 635 Healdsburg Ave., Santa Rosa, Calif. 95401
—Lori Tripoli
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