Best Western Carmel's Town House Lodge

The balcony upstairs is a nice spot for a sunset or a picnic, with the ocean visible in the distance. Linda's Store is right across from it and handy for picking up picnic food or a light meal. The hotel also has free parking, which we really appreciated in Carmel. Breakfast runs from 7-10 a.m.; the selection isn't as broad as at some larger Best Western Hotels, but there were plenty of hard-boiled eggs, toast, yogurt, waffles, cereal, and juice. (Yogurt was listed twice, but there was plenty of it.) Our room was one of the recently remodeled ones, thanks to our Best Western rewards membership. We checked in after 3 and the process was quick and easy. The kind gentleman at the desk gave us a downstairs room, which made hauling our bags easier since the two-story building has no elevator. For the price and location, this place is hard to beat. Lots of restaurants and points of interest are a five-to-ten-minute walk away, including Tuck Box, Alvarado Street Brewery, La Bicyclette, Napoli, Carmel Bistro Giovanni, Carmel Plaza, the Secret Garden, and Carmel Library. The TV remote started muting itself, and neither my husband nor I could fix it. When he went to the lobby after 9 p.m., he found it locked, with no one working after hours. That's not totally surprising given the feel of the town, though I did wonder what would have happened if the brief power outage in our room hadn't resolved itself. A lovely woman replaced the remote the next day and had a worker recalibrate the original. It wasn't a big deal since we don't come to Carmel to watch TV. We had a great stay and would come back or recommend it to friends planning a visit in a couple of months.