Where to stay while visiting Potsdam

Colleges and Universities A-Z SUNY - General
1

<p>Looking to do a driving tour of colleges in NY coming over from VT on the 23rd and trying to find a hotel room in the Potsdam area (+/- 30 miles) for one evening. Nothing fancy, as we are just going to arrive late, sleep, get up and head on out in the morning.</p>

<p>Our idea of decent... We've stayed at anything from a very good Red Roof to Hampton on the road.</p>

<p>Using Yahoo maps, there isn't much out there. Canton seems to have a Best Western and Comfort Hotel, but both are rather expensive ($169 per night and up). I see a Quality Inn in Masena (a bit out of the way) that looks like we could get a decent room around $109 (2 queens). The Clarkson Inn in Potsdam is quoting $149. </p>

<p>Any thoughts or Ideas?</p>

2

<p>I think there are a few choices if you go across the border into Canada. When we went to Canton from New Hampshire, we stayed in Plattsburgh, but that was still quite a drive from Potsdam.</p>

3

<p>Actually we are heading from the lakes region to NY and may stop through Plattsburgh on our way. We do want to get a bit further that night though as we will be doing drive-by tours in that region in the morning and on down to Central NY during the day on the 24th for a couple more in the afternoon. </p>

<p>Neither of us have current passports, so I'm not sure the Canada idea will work for us. Didn't the tighten up the passport requirement again?</p>

4

<p>You might want to look at SUNY Plattsburgh while you're in the area (you might be pleasantly surprised at what you see).</p>

5

<p>There is not much for hotels in that area as you know. For that reason alone we made D's Potsdam audition a day trip. This is coming from someone who A) Will not stay anywhere but a chain hotel (bad experience w/ a private hotel in Lake Placid one year) and B) Is a big cheapskate but expects a very clean room w. a complimentary breakfast. Anyway, considering there is not much between Potsdam and Plattsburgh would it be feasible to stay in Plattsburgh, leave very early the next day do the Potsdam thing and drive down to Central NY (I assume you are looking to visit Syracuse?). I am from the CNY area so I might have some suggestions depending on where your final destination is.</p>

6

<p>Wow. I didn't expect this many responses. </p>

<p>I'll throw out our goals/objectives and see if this helps the discussion.</p>

<p>Obviously goaliegirl is an ice hockey goalie who is currently in 10th grade at a boarding school in NH (I keep it general here to protect her identity). We will be leaving her school (with a van full of her earthly posessions) on Friday the 23rd in the early/mid afternoon. It is unclear right now whether she is likely D1 or D3 material at this point (there are quite a few who fall into this category), so we are looking to get her a feel for as many campuses as possible, so when it does become clear, she can say "I like this about this school or dislike that" and help her figure out the right school.</p>

<p>We are also road warriors, (hockey players from the south have to be) so drive time isn't a concern.</p>

<p>Continuing on, we were hoping to get to Burlington to see the campus there and Plattsburgh would be nice we can get there conveniently. Is there a ferry across the lake and is it faster than driving?</p>

<p>We were hoping to use the evening then to drive the couple of hours across to the Potsdam area and camp there, because we have a big day planned for Saturday.</p>

<p>Saturday would have us look at Clarkson and (since they are starting a new varsity program next fall) SUNY Potsdam, continue south past St. Lawrence to Syracuse, head east to Utica, and then shuttle across to Cortland and finish the day in Elmira. Will probably need a hotel someplace in that region as well.</p>

<p>Sunday starts us looking at Elmira, driving off to RIT and onto Niagara before leaving the state and driving south 10 hours (to get home late).</p>

<p>I expect to spend about 30 to 45 minutes on most campuses (based upon past tours in NE) and with some schools we may drive up and goaliegirl may say "uh, Dad, just keep driving". Kissing a few frogs is essential in finding princes.</p>

<p>Of course, I realize I risk burnout and campus confusion. So if it seems that goaliegirl has worn out, we can skip a few. </p>

<p>I just figure with an agressive day set for Saturday, it is probably better to start near Potsdam if possible.</p>

<p>I do share you distrust of independent hotels and tend to stay at Fairfields and Hampton Inns, MomOf3Stars. In a pinch, we will stay at a Red Roof. I'm not too sure about that Quality Inn in Masena. With the Clarkson Inn, it does seem to be the best hotel in town and Clarkson parents have to stay somewhere on parent's weekend, don't they? I just find $149 a night a bit stiff considering that we are going to spend 10 hours there.</p>

<p>Thanks again for all the help out there!</p>

7

<p>Oops! I left out Oswego. Goodness! So many schools to see. So little time...</p>

8

<p>Wow, goaliedad, that's pretty ambitious!!! </p>

<p>There is a ferry across lake Champlain that is not too far from Burlington. Check out Lake</a> Champlain Transportation and you would want the Plattsburgh ferry. </p>

<p>Don't forget to check out UNH, they have a great women's hockey team!</p>

9

<p>Hello, my husband and son stayed at the Clearview Restaurant & Motel in Gouverneur about 45 minutes away. He said it was clean and quaint. As a Mom,I was not along for this trip, so I can not give you the "mom" opinion, but they were happy with it. It was about $75 per night. Their # 315-287-2800.
Their site is Clearview</a> Motel and Restaurant</p>

10

<p>Thanks for the link on the Ferry jude_36! It would look to be quite convenient from the schedule.</p>

<p>I hadn't thought about overshooting Potsdam yet (going to Gouverneur - thanks for the link). It would cut down on the Saturday driving (about 1 hour) and reduce the number of tours that day. </p>

<p>But it would require checking out Clarkson, Potsdam, and St. Lawrence in the evening, as the total drive time appears to be about 7 hours (just over 6 to St. Lawrence). Now I tend to drive a bit fast, but I'd like to allocate an average of 45 minutes on each campus. Having 5 campuses (VT, Plattsburgh, Clarkson, SUNY Potsdam, St. Lawrence), we are looking at scheduling 3 hours of campus visit with 6 hours of driving. And I wasn't looking at leaving her school until about 2 PM. </p>

<p>That would put us in Burlington at 4:30 and looking at Plattsburgh at around 6:30 PM and possibly to Potsdam at 9 PM. Getting kinda dark (don't know when the sun sets locally - I know the sun sets later up north - used to live in Wisconsin) but perhaps a twilight tour might work. St. Lawrence would be a drive-by night visit or would probably leave the schedule. Knowing my D, (the practical type - not wanting to know the meaning of life) my guess is that St. Lawrence is probably the least interesting of the schools, being more of a LAC type institution.</p>

<p>How does this sound?</p>

<p>BTW, UNH is a great hockey school (my D's coach played for them). But the reality check here says she's got to get in line behind a few better goalies wanting to get in there. They can afford to be quite choosy about who they pick there.</p>

11

<p>SUNY Plattsburgh--2007, 2008 NCAA Women's Ice Hockey Champs! </p>

<p>Plattsburgh State head coach Kevin Houle is an assistant with Team USA that clinched the World Women's Hockey Championship with a one-goal win over Canada. He is a three-time NCAA Coach of the Year and has directed the Cardinals to the last two Division III championships. </p>

<p>Awesome Men's and Women's Ice Hockey program.<br>
Plattsburgh</a> State Women's Ice Hockey</p>

12

<p>Watched the webcast of the womens championship game against Elmira online, nysmile!</p>

<p>My screenname is goaliedad, and I am a hockey addict. Now back to the Detroit vs. Dallas game. lol</p>

13

<p>^^lol --I don't want to seem like I'm pushing Plattsburgh. It's just that I graduated from there years ago and enjoyed every moment (minus the cold). My son transferred there after spending his first year at a top tiered private college and absolutely loves it. He says that the students are friendly, the dorm rooms in the low rise buildings are big, food is good and plenty of places on campus to grab a bite to eat, can get away with not having a car on campus, good sports programs (Men's soccer, Men's Basketball, Men's Ice Hockey, and Women's Ice Hockey are quite competitive), besides having a bookstore-they have Campus Express in the Student's Center which is like having a convenience store right on campus (like a 7-11), and he likes his professors. He feels that the size of the school is perfect. The hockey games are a blast!</p>

14

<p>Geez, I would have never guessed. LOL My dad was an Oswego alum. Mother gradutated from Brockport.</p>

<p>I don't care where goaliegirl attends school as long as she find something she wants to study, works hard at it, and has fun (playing hockey). Well, the price has to be OK too. SUNY schools do have very inexpensive OOS tuition. </p>

<p>And looking at the merit money, it would seem that Oswego seems to have the lead for merit money for OOS... A 92 average and 1200 SAT (goaliegirl might just clear that!) will get you $10,390 in scholarship at Oswego (a screamin good deal) and only $5K at Plattsburgh. Wonder if they would match?</p>

<p>Of course, goaliegirl has to find the right place for her. Hence the tour. Right now she is in a small (understatement) town and is not wild about the idea of being isolated for college. What she doesn't understand is that just about all college towns have what the students need. We'll see what shakes out. I'm pretty sure that the hockey will win out over the size of the town.</p>

15

<p>Oswego alum, and mom of Cortland student here.
Even though Cortland is fairly typical of an upstate town ( there is a Wal-Mart and Applebee's in town), it's not as isolated as some of the other areas. As cortland is on route 81, it's a quick and easy drive (within 45 minutes) to Syracuse, Binghamton and Ithaca.
I don't know much about the cortland hockey team, but it is a big sports school as there are alot of phys.ed and sport management majors.</p>

16

<p>Okay, now you have an Elmira alumnus joining the mix. Rather than advocate for Elmira, (which is a great school and I loved my time there) I will offer some suggestions about places to stay along the way. Whatever you do, do not stay at the Quality Inn in Massena, it's awful. If you are willing to drive to Massena, the Econo Lodge is clean and adequate, and a steal at $79/night. As for Elmira, I would say that you would be pleasantly surprised with the Holiday Inn (Horseheads, not Riverview) or the Econo Lodge. Both will fall in line with what you are looking for. </p>

<p>Good luck to you and your daughter on your college search. You have a great list of schools both academically and athletically, she will have a great experience at any one of them.</p>

17

<p>Thanks for the heads up on the Quality Inn. The picture I saw of the hotel was not particularly impressive and generally you see the best of a hotel in its primary image.</p>

<p>For the Friday night, it looks like the Econo Lodge has its rates jacked up to $119 (I am not a member of any particular discount group, unfortunately - not that they are discounting rooms on a holiday weekend), so I'm going to have to weigh that off against the convenience of staying in Potsdam at the Clarkson Inn.</p>

<p>I think I will book the Econo Lodge in Elmira, though as it is $99 and a lot of the other stuff in the area (including both Holiday Inns) are booked solid for the Saturday night.</p>

<p>All of the schools on the list should be within the match or even safety category based upon her GPA (3.3 in all honors classes) and projected (from SSAT boarding school admissions testing) SAT scores (est. 1150-1200 old scale). I think putting a varsity athlete in a reach school is a recipie for disaster. And with D3 schools, a lot of the decision will be around FA offers where being in the top quartile of applicants helps tremendously.</p>

<p>We've seen a few eastern schools - mostly D1 (Northeastern, BU, UConn, Quinnipiac) and will stop by a few more (Providence, Sacred Heart) either this summer when we are up for camp/tournaments or in the fall when we return to school.</p>

<p>I figure this trip will be a success if we find 3 or 4 schools that she would feel comfortable at. </p>

<p>I'm not too worried about seeing campuses without students, as we did exactly the same thing (holiday break visits) when looking at boarding schools 2 years ago.</p>

<p>Side note... I got an email from the manager for a summer team goaliegirl is playing on. Her D is currently at Elmira, so I'm sure I will hear plenty this summer...</p>

18

<p>I heard that the women's hockey coach at Elmira recently stepped down, which is very surprising given the success they've had over the last few years. I will be interested to see who they find to replace him and the reason they give you as to why he left. It could be a good time for a player your daughter's age to come in with a new coach. </p>

<p>To add my own side note, you mentioned your daughter is at a prep school in the Lakes Region, I'm also a Tilton alum.</p>

19

<p>If I hear anything from the summer team manager (her daughter plays on the team) as to what happened, I'll pass it along. I think it was a bit of a surprise myself, but goaliegirl has been watching the coach carousel at a few schools (the internet is an amazing thing). I think she has learned to love the school first, the hockey program second, and the coaches are a nice bonus.</p>

20

<p>Hey Goaliedad: If you should end up in Oswego at bedtime, the Best Western "captains quarters" is nice. On East 1st street, along the river. Don't usually need a hotel room there, as we have several family options, but we stayed there last year when all the extra bedrooms were taken at the time of a family funeral. Nice, clean, recently renovated and breakfast. Don't remember the $, but it seemed very reasonable. Great trip- good luck! OBTW, the Bridge St. bridge adjacent to the hotel is closed for re-building and there's a few minute detour to the Utica ST. bridge.</p>