Lafayette Hotel, Marietta, Ohio, Surprise, Fun, Elegant and---Get this a Room for $45!

Contrary to what you might think, you do not have to get in an airplane and fly thousands of miles to some exotic destination to really have a good time.
No, you can do like I did not too long ago and have a lot of fun just enjoying something close to home.
Fun!
I always like to have fun, and what always seems to be the most fun to me is to find something totally unexpected.
The Lafayette Hotel in Marietta, Ohio is one of those totally unexpected experiences that is fun even now as I think about. The hotel is located downtown and right at the junction of the Ohio and Muskingum Rivers and about two hours by car south east of Columbus, Ohio.
I’d gone to Marietta to attend one of the events associated with the town’s annual celebration of its founding on April 7, 1788. I’d looked forward to that event because I’ve read a lot about the “first 48 men” who founded the town and all they went through to do it. But, that will be another whole topic, maybe two or three. Before moving on, though I will say that all those “first 48” were from New England, and they named one of the boats they took down the Ohio River to found their new town was the “Mayflower,” of course!
Back to the Lafayette and why it is so much fun.
First of all, I’d heard about the hotel located on the very spot or very near the spot where those “first 48 men” stepped ashore in 1788. Generally, the reports about it were good. Although, one friend said the rooms were awfully small, even to the penthouse he and his stayed one night.
I decided on the Lafayette sight because because I wanted to stay in something besides the typical motel, the Holiday or Comfort Inn, type place, something put together by marketing firm or focus group.
And, the Lafayette turned out to be a wonderful choice.
First, when I called to make the reservation, the clerk offered a standard room at $65 per night and then when I hesitated just the slightest, she quickly offered a “cabin room” for $45 per night. Now that was my kind of price, though I did not know what a “cabin room” was and had never heard of anything like that related to a hotel or motel. The clerk might have told me it was small, but since I did not plan to spend much time in the room, size did not matter.
Well, as it turned out, the “cabin room” was perfect—no not just perfect, but fun! So was everything else about the Lafayette Hotel in Marietta, Ohio.
So, what is a cabin room?
It was a room just barely big enough for a double bed, and by that I mean the space between the walls on each side of the bed is small. Yet, seeing the bed itself, with a headboard that looks like a steamboat with two smoke stacks is coming right at you, made up for the size of the room.
So did the bathroom which was large, clean and even sparkled as light sparkled off all the tile on the floor and walls and the mirror!
What a nice room and bathroom they were and how clean, too!
Then there was the rest of the hotel, a really spacious lobby with furniture that looked brand new. From the lobby was a view right onto the Ohio River where the temptation was great just to sit in one of the comfortable chairs and just watch the river and the occasional towboat go by! Oh, what a nice past time to think about, again even now.
The lobby, my, what a nice lobby the Lafayette Hotel has.
The dinning room is a typical hotel dinning room, and I paid a bit more for breakfast there than I like to pay for breakfast. It was a good breakfast, though.
There also was a small room with a computer right off the dinning room that I conveniently used to check emails.
The hotel is named for the famous French general who helped the Americans win the American Revolution. He stopped at Marietta when he made his famous tour of the United States in 1824 and 1825 at the invitation of President James Monroe.
The French connection goes beyond the General Lafayette in Marietta, though. Marietta was named for Marie Antoinette the Queen of France who’d been particularly supportive of the American cause during its war for independence.
So, again, you can go way off to some exotic clime, or you can go some place like the Lafayette Hotel in Marietta, Ohio—and be really surprised at what a nice time you can have there.
And, by the way, there are several excellent museums in and around Marietta—in case you get tired of sitting in the lobby of the Lafayette Hotel and watching the towboats pass by on the Ohio River.