Today, we continue our series of lodging reviews from the upcoming edition of The Unofficial Guide to Disneyland with a look at the Anaheim Desert Inn & Suites, one of the most convenient properties in the entire resort area.
The Anaheim Desert Inn & Suites, which is located at 1600 S. Harbor Blvd., isn’t technically on Disney property. However, it’s a closer walk to the Disneyland park gates than any official on-site hotel. In fact, as the off-site hotel that appears most often on our reader surveys, it actually scores higher than Disney’s Paradise Pier in key categories.
Location, location, and location are the chief selling points of the Desert Inn, which we consider to be the block’s ultimate no-frills hotel.
Suites sport small sitting rooms with charm-free furnishings. The rooms are larger than average for the area, and the pull-out sofas allow your family to spread out. The decor, while functional, isn’t especially attractive, but the availability of parlor layouts that sleep up to 10 guests makes this an economical choice for large families who want to sleep within steps of the magic. A mini-fridge and Wi-Fi are included in the $6/night resort fee. Your room view possibilities include a parking lot ($17.55/day) or the back side of another hotel.
See a sample room for yourself in this video tour:
The indoor pool is basic and too small to swim laps, but there is a convenient changing area with lockers. Right next door is a breakfast room serving cold pastries, hard-boiled eggs, coffee, and not much else.
With that out of the way, we recommend Desert Inn because the rooms are good enough, and it only takes a few minutes to walk to Disneyland. The hotel is directly across the street from the parks, and that more than makes up for its shortcomings.
We’ve received more positive reader surveys about the Desert Inn than any other area motel, with 90% saying they’d stay again. The Desert Inn is also a top pick of our friend Tom Bricker at the Disney Tourist Blog.
Overall, we rate the Anaheim Desert Inn 3 stars out of 5, while the pool scores 2 1/2 stars out of 5.
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