Hi, I’m looking into hotels both for Preview (April, definitely attending) and potentially for future visits if DS attends Princeton. Ideally, walking distance would be great, but the Nassau and Peacock are beyond our family’s budget by a considerable margin.
It seems like the Homewood Suites and the Courtyard by Marriott, which seem to share a parking lot (?) on googlemaps, would be a longish walking distance from campus. Both also get good-ish reviews on tripadvisor and yelp, and have reasonable prices and amenities including breakfast, wifi, and parking.
Does anyone on CC have experience with either the HS or the CbM and could speak to any of the above, or other, issues?
You’re looking at the ones out on Route 1, right? Never stayed there, but there are a pile of corporate office parks in the area, so that’s who the target clientele is. (In other words, these are not no-tell motels!) Those, plus the Hampton Inn and the Sonesta (2 of them) are a short drive – but not a walk – away from Princeton. In my experience, the rooms at these chains are identical at all locations, so you’ll be comfortable. There are parking garages in Princeton and metered parking on the street, and it’s possible that for such an event, you’ll be able to park in one of the University lots. Pretty sure you could rely on Uber as well to get around.
We usually used hotwire.com and typically got 3-4 star hotels at very reasonable prices, but never within walking distance. We stayed at the Nassau Inn once and can say that location is its only advantage.
We drive to campus so we stay within driving distance. Have stayed at the Sonesta, Holliday Inn Express and the Hampton Inn on rt 1. The Hampton Inn is the best with large rooms and comfy beds. The free breakfast is ok. If you won’t have a car maybe you can use Uber or a cab?
I think we’ll have a car, but for Fri night and Saturday we’d like to be walking distance for religious observance if possible… The Homewood also claims to have a shuttle, so perhaps that’s helpful if someone else were there without a car.
Hi, @fretfulmother. We’ve stayed at Homewood Suites (best night’s sleep I’ve ever had in a hotel, not sure why), Hampton Inn, and Holiday Inn Express.
I didn’t think it was possible to walk to campus easily from Homewood Suites, but I asked my husband (expert navigator and directions-provider) and his recommendation was that you could walk along the path alongside the waterway (Google Maps calls it “Delaware and Raritan Canal State Park Trail”) that is north of the hotel and then turn right when you get to the Harrison Street or Washington Road intersections. Washington Road would take you right onto the campus.
I can’t imagine walking along U.S. Route 1 (Brunswick Pike), but there are crosswalks at the intersections with the major streets.
Thank you! My current plan is to stay at the HS for Preview and try to have a look around in person when I do have a car with us. But I figured a lot of you probably have already BTDT too.
We have always stayed at the Homewood Suites in the four years our son has been at Princeton. They are currently completing a massive renovation of the hotel so I am looking forward to seeing the upgrades! Prior to the upgrades we found the staff very helpful, the facilities clean and well maintained, and the advantage of having a full kitchen in the room is wonderful. Highly recommend! Call ahead and ask them for their university rate which is typically lower than the rates posted on the Hilton site.
PS - book this hotel well in advance…you can always cancel but they are frequently full to capacity on special event weekends like the preview
@cantiger - thank you!! In fact, I’ve already reserved for Preview, freshman orientation, and the two potential Parents’ weekend dates that I can infer might be picked from for the October event.
ETA: thanks for the tip on calling re the P rate; I did this and saved $40/night for Preview over the AAA rate!
Thanks for the excellent question @fretfulmother and helpful answers everyone. I just noticed in the brochure that came with my daughter’s admission materials (Welcome to Princeton University) that Freshman Families Weekend is scheduled for Oct 7-9, 2016.
Thanks @srlilly! I had totally missed that. @fretfulmother, it’s in the catalog-y thing that has a big photo of kids sitting on the steps of a sundial. Look on page 1 under “contact information” and it’s on the right column in the middle. Guess my critical reading skills aren’t that great because I never noticed it until now.
You are exactly right @GnocchiB - and on the same page, I notice, it explains a bit more about the new freshman orientation program, confirming (seemingly?) that in fact kids are moving into “their” dorm rooms on that first Saturday 9/3 and then doing their week together. I believe that in previous years when not everyone did a week of orientation, that kids did not do their final move-in until later. Ditto for feeling like a not very good reader! In fairness to us, parents have to read through reams of stuff in this process. Good thing we have @srlilly and CC in general!
p.s. I do have something to offer! I was confused about the health insurance situation because we have a decent plan but it’s confusing how P offers both the student plan and the McCosh center - I talked to them on the phone yesterday, and learned that regardless of a student’s insurance, they can use the center at no charge, just for being a student. And in fact, one’s health insurance is not billed by McCosh for student health needs met there. The insurance comes up for things the student health services can’t handle, and then kids go into actual Princeton to someone in their network for care.
There’s something different for sports medicine for athletes, but since chess isn’t in that category, ha ha, I didn’t find out about it.
Our experience, in 2012, was that our daughter and her roommates moved their belongings into their suite on the Saturday morning/early afternoon and Outdoor Action and Community Action activities began later that day. There was minimal “set up” of the room that day. They left for OA/CA activities that evening (slept elsewhere on campus) and didn’t return to the room until Friday of that week.
One of her roommates was an athlete who had arrived a few weeks before, when team practices began. She was in a different room for those few weeks and then moved into the “permanent” housing on that same Saturday when freshman arrived for OA/CA.
We’ve also had experience with the McCosh Health Center, which has been very helpful. We hadn’t investigated who the Princeton-area in-network providers are for our health insurance and ended up with a referral to an out-of-network specialist. I recommend looking into that before you need to use a specialist!
“Starting in 2016 the OA Frosh Trip will be an integrated part of the orientation process for incoming freshmen. Next fall students will arrive on September 3 for two days of orientation in the residential colleges followed by either a 5-day Outdoor Action or Community Action trip. There will be a new program for fall freshmen athletes that incorporates some of the same trail-side discussions about campus life that happens on OA.”
