Hotel Review: Red Lion Inn Stockbridge, Mass.

 The Red Lion Inn is exactly what you would picture the quintessential New England Inn would look like. Actually, it is picture perfect. A long front porch with rocking chairs for enjoying a cup of coffee, a good book or just people watching. It is no wonder that this is the place I chose to spend our 50^th wedding anniversary.

I booked a king room and we were given a beautiful room at the end of a corridor on the third floor with a porch overlooking the pool area. It had flower boxes and chairs to sit and enjoy. Part of the porch also overlooked the street on the side of the inn but in the late afternoon, the traffic was tolerable.

Parking at the Inn is interesting and not necessarily in a good way. You can I suppose if you are really lucky to get one of the spots in front of the Inn. Unfortunately other than that for a first timer, it is challenging to figure out where to park. '

Traffic is heavy, you need to make a decision rather quickly and we ended up driving around the block twice before figuring out that there was a parking lot behind the buildings near where we thought the side entrance to the building was. As it turned out, we did very well, we were parked right next to the pool which is a great area to be in and we could see our car from the porch off our room.

Once you are inside, it is a maze of halls and it is evident that the building has been added on to over the years. It took me no time at all to figure out my way around and by the time we left, I was quite familiar with everything.

Coming in from the rear as we did, it is a long way from the front desk. You will pass a modern elevator and the dining room on your way to the check-in desk. When in doubt, just ask one of the friendly staff members for directions.

We checked in and then were escorted to the birdcage elevator for our trip up to the third floor. This is a charming way to be introduced to the hotel.

The room was lovely, sheer drapes at the corners of the four-poster, a lovely bay window with two chairs for reading, a fireplace and that porch, what more could we have asked for.

Two large bottles of Saratoga water were on the desk along with the place of chocolate covered strawberries that I had ordered. In addition, there was a happy anniversary note and a lovely dishtowel which was a total surprise.

Turndown service stopped by our room before we went down to dinner and dropped off two delicious chocolate mint patties.

On the third floor, we got the modern elevator in the library where there is also a rather antiquated computer. I didn’t mind, I had my laptop with me and Wi-Fi was strong and reliable. I will detail our dinner and breakfast in a food post but I will say, we were not displeased.

The room has its own thermostat so you are in control of the heat. The bed was very comfortable and I had a wonderful night’s sleep. The bathroom was roomy enough and met all of our needs. Plenty of towels and amenities were provided and the shower had excellent strength and plenty of hot water.

I have to admit, I fell in love with the Red Lion Inn. The room rates are not prohibitive and I thought that our package which included the 2 tickets to the botanical gardens was actually a good value. I can’t wait to come here again.