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Where to Eat: Moab, UT   Red Rock Lodge Kokopelli Lodge Center Street Hotel Rustic Inn Entrada Ranch Up the Creek Denver, CO Fruita, CO If you live in Denver and need a ride to Moab, I often drive my bus there on weekends in the spring and fall.

Moab, Utah

A sad thing has happened to Moab. It has lost it's most valuable man-made resource: The Hotel Off-Center was simply the best. It was the friendliest, cheapest, most fun place to stay. There was nothing even close.

I don't know details, but supposedly, Tim, the owner of the business, and the owner of the property had an argument shortly before the lease ran out, and it was not renewed. I have left my description, and the pics I had, at the bottom of this page, for nostalgic reasons.

Now I have to make some tough choices. No other place seems good enough. Here are several small hotels in town. All of these are bike-friendly hotels (i.e. bikes allowed in rooms) that are more rustic, and aren't huge chains that have built vinyl eyesores on your way into town from the north. All are also within a two block walk of downtown restaurants.

The Red Rock Lodge is right across the street from Rim Cyclery
51 North 100 West
Moab, UT 84532
435-259-5431
www.red-rocklodge.com
Hot tub, pool, coffeemakers in rooms. Our room was $65, I forgot to ask for the full range of prices.

The building has kind of a wild west look to it, and you can almost picture people having hitched up their horses in front of the rooms, not that long ago.

Kokopelli Lodge
72 South 100 East
Moab, UT 84532
435-530-3134
888-530-3134 (reservations only)
www.kokopellilodge.com
rick (at) kokopellilodge.com
Hot tub, deck, refridgerators, microwaves, coffee pots.

A quaint row of rooms in a semi-shaded quieter area, still close to downtown. Dried peppers and exposed wood columns give the building a bit of a southwestern feel.

The same people now also manage the former Hotel Off-Center, but it's now called the Center Street Hotel. They have kept the theme rooms and common kitchen, and have added wireless internet. It's lost Tim and Irene, the friendliest people in the world. Rooms there are still around $40. I would still highly recommend this place for anyone staying longer, or for groups that want to cook together.

You have to go to the Kokopelli Lodge to check-in and check-out.

Rustic Inn
120 East 100 South
Moab, Ut 84532
435-259-6177
800-231-8184 (reservations only)
www.rusticinnmotel.com
rusticinn (at) rusticinnmotel.com
Heated pool. Kitchen and microfridge units available.
Catty-corner from the Kokopelli Lodge, this two-story brick shoebox is the least attractive of the bunch I'm recommending, but is, at least, privately owned.

Westwood Guest House
81 East 100 South
Moab, Ut 84532
435-259-7283
800-526-5690 (reservations only)
westwood (at) moab-utah.com
The office was closed when I stopped by, and I've never stayed here. It looked like it wasn't a chain. There was a kids bicycle hanging on the wall below the sign, so it seemed like the management might have some personality. Inside, it was 70's wallpaper and it smelled kind of 70's, if that means anything. The building was barely more attractive than the Rustic Inn, which ain't saying much. Anyways, sorry if that sounds pretty negative for a review of a place I haven't stayed.

I think that, in conclusion to this treatise on Moab domociles, I should rank them in my preference. Stay at the Red Rock Lodge for groups of two or fewer, the Center Street Hotel for two or more that want to cook. If one is booked, check the other, if both are booked, check the Kokopelli Lodge (conveniently the same office as Center St. Hotel). If all three are booked, check out the Rustic or the Westwood. If they are booked too, maybe it's Jeep Safari weekend, and you wouldn't want to be there then anyway. Go somewhere else, or camp out, to avoid the vynil hell of Microtel and the other chain monsters.

Dagmar (from Germany) laughed for days about this Utah ranch's German translation: http://www.entrada-ranch.com/german.htm. That was in 1998, and it doesn't appear to have been fixed at all! It just had to be done with software. It was so literal that no human that spoke German could have touched it. If you want to stay at a resort-style place outside of town, check out their English page. The place looks beautiful from the outside, but I've never stayed there.

Camp at the tent-only Up the Creek campground in Moab for $10. 435-259-6995. Camping is also available up Sand Flats Road just beyond the Slickrock Trail parking lot, all the way up to the Porcupine Rim trail parking lot. See the Park people at the entrance booth to reserve and pay for a site there.

Note:

The following description is for a no-longer-existant hotel. I have left this here for nostalgic reasons

Ever since I discovered it, the Hotel Off Center (96 E Center street, Moab, UT 84532, is the only place I'll stay in Moab. I read about it in the book Bike America: Moab, or something like that. It is a controversial book and I have plenty to say about that, but you'll have to talk to me live. The hotel was great. Each room had a different theme and was all done by hand, mostly with found objects. The people that run the hotel couldn't be nicer. After 5 days there I felt like one of the family. Rooms were around $40/night. Bicycles are allowed in the rooms and it's quite common. The rooms don't have bathrooms or showers, there is a male and female set, and they are always clean, even if they aren't too classy. There is a kitchen with fridge, and an eating area. So you can save money by cooking meals there, a great idea for groups.

Ocean Room	Cowboy Room	Frilly Room
Note: These are what I called the rooms. I'm not sure if they have official names. There's also a dorm room, a theatre room, and more!

There are a lot of other hotels in Moab, but I won't have any reviews for them, because the Hotel Off Center is the only place I'll stay. I guess if they're ever full, I'll have to find a second choice, but that hasn't happened yet.