Cool Hotels

Chisos Mountain Lodge

I’m not one for camping or RVing or anything too rustic. After all, I wouldn’t be so obsessed with hotels if I had any inclination to sleep or pee outdoors. I do neither. However, I adore nature, sublime vistas and leisurely hikes through the wilderness- just as long as I don’t have to run into thousands of other hikers with the same idea. This is why I adore the Chisos Mountain Lodge inside Big Bend National Park. Tucked away in the park’s gorgeous mountain range, the motel-style Lodge offers a few motel-style rooms and a few cabin-style rooms, as well as a restaurant, rangers’ station and convenience store. Note: the convenience store helpfully sells flashlights, since there is little in the way of artificial illumination. I also prefer the motel rooms since some of them sport views of the spectacular Chisos Canyon. You won’t find anything icky or silly like plasma screen televisions or telephones in your room. Just a comfy bed that feels good after a day of communing with bears, javelina, mountain lions, road runners and coyotes.

By the way, Big Bend National Park remains one of the least visited, largest of America’s national parks. And it is totally worth the trip.

Marathon Motel & RV Park

Just outside the sublime Big Bend National Park, with its mountains and mesas, desert flowers, roadrunners and coyotes, lies the small West Texas Town of Marathon. Artists and wanna-be cowboys make their home in Marathon, which is appropriate since the sunsets and star-scapes here outdo anything ever seen in an old western film.

On the edge of Marathon sits the aptly named Marathon Motel & RV Park. You can can’t miss it because its terrific, 1950s vintage motel sign appears on postcards throughout Big Bend Country. My favorite is the black-and-white photo of the sign being struck by lighting.

The motel itself is cozy and comfortable, with rooms spread across the property in little cabins. The adobe courtyard (and garden) makes an idea spot for star gazing, and there’s a little cabin where breakfast is served in the morning. Eggs and bacon, just like a cowboy would like it. There's also a little cabin from which the very local radio station, Basin Radio, broadcasts. This is a great service, since most commercial radio stations don't reach this remote area.

The Marathon Motel isn’t expensive at all, but its views are far better than anything I’ve ever seen at any Ritz Carlton, and I guarantee the company of the other guests is better, too. In fact, whenever I run into a travel writer that sniffs at me that they “only cover luxury properties” – I think of the Marathon Motel and feel terribly sorry for them.

La Colombe d'Or

Houston may be more known as a town of glass skyscrapers and oil men, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have its share of culture. Okay, oil funds whatever culture there happens to be, but that’s neither here nor there. La Colombe d'Or is still a great boutique hotel.

Built in 1923 as the private residence of a founder of Humble Oil, the Mediterranean-style villa now houses once of Houston’s oldest and well thought of small hotels. Located right on one of Houston’s hippest streets (Montrose Avenue), the oasis-like complex is right in the heart of the museum district, where most of Houston’s scenesters like to be seen. The building itself is surrounded by lovely gardens, which provide much needed shade on those blistering hot Houston days, and the courtyard even has a lovely fountain and wrought iron tables.

La Colombe d'Or is also interesting in that the hotel is not nearly as famous or as well known as the on premises French Restaurant, popular with potential grooms as a location to pop the question. Ask a Houstonian about La Colombe d'Or and they’ll likely tell you all about the food and not even know there are lovely, plush Franco-centric hotel rooms. Think thick floor-length curtains and flowery bedding.

The Gage Hotel

I’ll wager Texas is a state with as many myths and legends as all other states combined, including Alaska and Hawaii. It’s a big, sprawling state of cowboys and desperadoes and, if you are out west, panoramic sunsets that Hollywood would have had to invent, had they not existed in Texas.

And no hotel fits better into the idealized, epic story of Texas than The Gage Hotel. Built in 1927, the old-fashioned ranchers' hotel is located in Marathon (pronounced Mar a then), a tiny little town on the edge of the sublime Big Bend National Park. This desert town really sits in the middle of nowhere, residents and visitors alike would not have it any other way. The Hacienda-like hotel, fully renovated with a Tex-Mex flare befitting the ranchers who still love to come here, is the social center of the town and transports its guests to the days when cattle, not oil, ruled the Lone Star State. Especially cool is the garden and its flowers, fountains and rustic ornamentation. Cooler than that? Those aforementioned sunsets and later, skies filled with more stars than you’ve likely ever seen.

The Gage is always mentioned on those “Best Small Hotel” lists, has been featured in more than one Hollywood film and even hosts New Age-y Yoga events. In fact, it’s so pretty and elegant, that a vegetarian I know overlooked its cattle ranching history and held her wedding here.

The rooms in the original hotel are small, but larger, more modern rooms can be had in some of the newer, adjacent buildings.

The Indian Lodge

Walking around The Indian Lodge's immaculate grounds was one of the loveliest surprises of my travel writing career. I knew the state-owned hotel for under $100 a night would be a bargain. The white adobe complex sits nestled in the Davis Mountains and has welcomed generations of Texans since it was built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corp. But the peaceful mountain views, Spanish fountains, flowering gardens and quite a few birds’ nests (some with baby birds inside) all created some kind of near perfect alchemy. With every five star resort on the planet promising guests an escape, this modest little lodge seems to effortlessly deliver an escape. There’s even a little swimming pool with mountain views that is so inviting, that my water-phobic companion went for a dip.

The lodge is located in Fort Davis, home of the McDonald Observatory, and local residents and astronomers call it the darkest town in the lower 48 states because it is so far from any major city. So if you want quiet you will find it at the Indian Lodge.

The southwestern flavored rooms are comfortable and clean and welcoming. No more, no less than anyone needs. Located inside Davis Mountain State Park, the lodge offers guests easy access to the park’s trails and nearby attractions, including the observatory and the Fort Davis Historic Site.

The Austin Motel

Slackers, poor musicians and frugal hipsters who don’t happen to live in Austin stay at the funky and safe Austin Motel. Right across the street from the pricier Hotel San Jose, the immaculate and restored Austin Motel offers a cheaper and more colorful alternative without any loss of cool-cache. Built in 1938, every individually decorated room evokes the classic motel experience - unpretentiously. There’s even a pool to stay cool on those hot Texas nights, and the hotel has some of the best vintage motel signage outside of Route 66.

The Austin Motel sits in the heart of the South Congress Avenue neighborhood, which overflows with independent dining and shopping establishments. The staff at the Austin Motel will always direct you to whatever nearby coffee shop or gallery that suits your fancy. The whole stretch of road represents the best of Texas, and you’ll be reminded that this is the state the produced Willie Nelson, Bill Hicks and Richard Linklater.

Photo by Jim Rees

The Hotel San Jose

Every year, when the hipster town of Austin, TX hosts the hipster music festival of South by Southwest, all the music hipsters clamor to stay at a renovated motel on South Congress Avenue. The Hotel San José is an “ultra modern motor court” built in 1936, redesigned and renovated into an ultra modern, Zen garden-like oasis with polished concrete floors, Asian-mod furniture and a lovely little eco-pool by the bar.

South Congress Avenue itself is one of the better non-chain shopping and dining areas anywhere. And not just anywhere in Austin. Anywhere in the world. So the San José is just steps away some of the city’s best independent shops, local restaurants and the legendary music venue, The Continental Club.

The San José also pioneered some of the chic details that all of the boutiques are doing nowadays. They will sell you a disposable bathing suit, there’s a painfully Texas-hip music and video library, bike rental and on-call massage services.

However, this is still Texas and occasionally there’s a little bit of a culture clash. The desk clerk told me that several little old ladies, and it’s always the little old ladies, have taken one look at the bare concrete in the rooms and called the front desk to inform them that the room is still under construction. One even checked out in disgust. Too bad, because those concrete floors sure are cool on a hot Texas afternoon.

photo by Sasha Weleber

The Hotel Paisano

Marfa, Texas may be a tiny town and several hours away from an international airport, Wal-Mart or even a Burger King, but its multiple claims to fame draw everyone from ultra-hip art scenesters to film geeks to UFO enthusiasts. The town itself is home to Donald Judd's Chinati Foundation, was the place where James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson filmed Giant and is home to the mysterious, possibly supernatural Marfa Lights.

Right smack in the center of town, The Hotel Paisano isn't just a place to stay. It's part of the fabric of the town. The lobby, chocked full of enough leather furniture and Mexican tile to make any cattle baron feel at home, runs Giant on a loop and sells all sorts of ufo, art and James Dean memorabilia. There's a gorgeous, tiled swimming pool, a courtyard and a fountain and best of all, a sense of history. The rooms may not quite evoke the same sense of luxury as the lobby, but they are comfy. And my room had a balcony that was perfect for having breakfast. From there, I watched a group of black-clad art collectors head off through the courtyard to see Donald Judd's work and heard a couple of guys in the next balcony bemoan not seeing the lights.

There is a restaurant, Jett's, named after James Dean's character in Giant, and the food isn't bad and isn't overpriced. And dogs can say, if you negotiate properly.