Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Altoona-Des Moines

We stayed two nights at the Altoona Holiday Inn Express Hotel and suites. This hotel is in a great loction, less than five minutes from the adventureland amusement park. Its not walkable to the park, but a quick drive up the street. There are a number of restaurants available including culvers, pizza hut, mcdonalds, subway. A few more miles up the road there are many more sit down choices, as well as a walmart. It is also located directly off I80 so easy access and about a 15-20 min drive to other des moines attactions. Parking is ample and free and there is a gas station across the street.

Staff was friendly upon arrival. The hotel has three floors. We had a "two queen suite" which had two queen beds and a pullout soafbed. This was just right for our family of six. The room was spacious enough we did not feel cramped. It did not have any divider from the beds to the living area. We also had a nice flatscreen TV with many cable channels and multiple pay per view options (warning to parents, with only a couple clicks a movie can easily be purchased, beware!). The PPV included some currently in theater movies which was nice. There is a table with two chairs, one dresser, an extra lounge type chair, nightstand and then closet area. There was also a mini "kitchenette". This had a small fridge, a small coffee pot and microwave. The cabinet had some paper plates and bowls and packaged disposable silverware in it. There were also quite a few both regular disposable cups as well as coffee cups.

Bathroom was standard with a nice sized shower and tub. Water pressure was very good and a decent height. We were given 4 towels to start and a call to the front desk quickly brought another two towels. We did have one issue with the toilet plugging and a plunger was brought to us quickly as well. The bathroom also has some bath and body works mini shampoo, conditioner, lotion and soaps which were replaced our second day.

The hotel also has a small fitness room that had two treadmills, a stairmaster and recumbent bike. The pool area has a small heated pool that ranged from 3ft-5ft. It was not crowded when we were using it but I would think with more than 3 or 4 families it would be pretty busy. There was also a hot tub.

In the afternoon and evening there were fresh chocolate chip and snickerdoodle cookies out as well as coffee which was a nice touch. Breakfast in the morning was really good and saved our family a fortune! They had their traditional hot cinnamon rolls, scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, and a pancake maker. There was also bread for toast, bagels, muffins of several varieties, yogurt, hard boiled eggs, three cold cereals and two types of oatmeal. They had coffee, two types of juices, milk, tea bags and hot cocoa packages.

Overall we would most definitely stay here again if going to adventureland!