Hotel El Paso Review - 1 King 1 Futon Suite Communications Mobility Access Tub

Date of Visit: June 4-5, 2025

Hotel El Paso is a very basic hotel, but the price was only about $75 after taxes and fees, which was at least $50 cheaper than other options that night. Finding the hotel seeming looking abandoned and under significant renovations with no warning on the IHG website was a little off putting, but still worth the savings for us.

The bathroom did have grab bars by toilet, but it did not really have much space for the wheelchair. This may have been one of the few places Mik could get on the toilet himself, but I do not recall one way or the other.

The tub had quite a few grab bars and the seat seemed decent in how it flipped up out of the way, but none of us ended up using the shower.

The room was overly furnished with a table and chair that made it difficult to get into the room and then not enough room to actually use the futon/sofa bed and even walk through much less roll a wheelchair.

The mini fridge and microwave area was past the other bed and this was the area Mik found to be the best for his floor area space.

Overall this hotel worked out for us even though it was overly furnished and would do again if passing through and it was that much cheaper than other options. We really feel that it should have a renovation warning when booking, though, as it is very much feels like it a construction zone once you go inside. The rooms are definitely still old and worn, but everything other than the outlets being too lose to keep my charge in overnight worked and it was clean. There was no breakfast, but they do have coffee and put out little packages of mini donuts in the morning.

Destination Info:

Hotel El Paso (IHG)

949 Sunland Park Drive

El Paso, TX 79922

Some of our other El Paso Area Posts:

• Chamizal National Memorial
• Our Koffee Trail: The Coffee Box

USS Midway Museum

Date of Visit: June 2, 2025

Instead of going straight to our hotel and hoping to be able to check in early, we decided to visit the USS Midway Museum to pass the time until hotel check in. As Mik has long been interested in military and particularly the Navy, the Midways is something we have considered the past few trips to San Diego, especially since we had been downtown to leave on a cruise, but we were not sure if it would be accessible enough to be worth it. The night before I had picked up the brochure for the USS Midway Museum at the Yuma hotel and one of the things it mentioned was 70% of exhibits had elevator access, which convinced us it was enough to be worth visiting.

After going through security, there is an elevator up to board the ship.

On the main deck, Mik enjoyed looking at the aircrafts. We also found that there was an ADA Video Tour kiosk with videos about the areas that were not wheelchair accessible in this area. Mik really enjoyed this and was then disappointed when the one up on the Flight Deck was out of order. There is an audio tour available, which you can use their devices or use your own phone, which made us extra disappointed that they then did not have an option to use your own phone for the ADA video tours.

Mik really enjoyed that he could go into the CH-46 Sea Knight via the back.

It is very steep, though, so it was a little scary on the way back out.

Before going to the Below Decks area, we had lunch at the cafe. It was rather overpriced, but not any different than other tourist attraction type places and the food was good (Mik got fish tacos).

A good portion of the Below Decks is not accessible and we forgot to check for the ADA Video Tour on this level, but we still really enjoyed this level because they do have a lift to go into their newest exhibit area about engineering was really well done.

It was good the I rode with Mik and not Dad as at the top it has a a low overhead to watch out for.

Mik enjoyed the area where you could touch the objects on the table and it would tell you about it.

The exhibit about shipboard fire is also impressive.

Overall we really enjoyed the USS Midway Museum and did not feel like we missed out by not going to the areas Mik could not. I think it would have been good to see the movie, but we kept being in that area right after it started and Mik did not want to wait around for the next showing.

Destination Info:

USS Midway Museum

910 N Harbor Dr

San Diego, CA 92101

Some of our other San Diego Area Posts:

• Cabrillo National Monument
• Hampton Inn San Diego-Downtown
• Holiday Inn Express La Mesa near SDSU
• Our Koffee Trail
• Dark Horse Coffee Roasters
• Lemon Grover Coffee
• Pink Rose Cafe
• PetCo Park
• San Diego Automotive Museum
• San Diego Model Railroad Museum

Holiday Inn Express La Mesa near SDSU - 2 Queen Standard Accessible Tub Kitchenette

Date of Visit: June 2-4, 2025

Pretty sure I had booked the room as roll-in shower, but we did end up with an accessible room and probably would not have even used the shower if we had it, so we did not even try to get it fixed when we got to room and found out it was a tub instead of shower.

The bathroom was almost a good design. Biggest problem was that the sink comes out too close to the toilet and we had to take the armrest off to be able to put the wheelchair by the toilet. Also, the toilet seat was very loose.

The lotion and handwash was mounted at least on the edge of the sink area, but because the counter comes up, they were kind of high. The sink is also a nice idea of it being on the side so easier to reach for those in a wheelchair, but it was too close to the edge of the sink that it was hard to wash hands and not bump the edge of sink.

The room area was spacious with plenty of floor space for Mik.

The kitchenette area had a small mini fridge, microwave, and shelves with space to actually put some of your own things.

Overall this hotel worked well for us. The location was perfect for visiting our relatives and also lots of good coffeeshops nearby to try. The breakfast was also decent.

Destination Info:
Holiday Inn Express La Mesa near SDSU

8000 Parkway Drive

La Mesa, California 91942

Some of our other San Diego Area Posts:

• Cabrillo National Monument
• Hampton Inn San Diego-Downtown
• Our Koffee Trail
• Dark Horse Coffee Roasters
• Lemon Grover Coffee
• Pink Rose Cafe
• PetCo Park
• San Diego Automotive Museum
• San Diego Model Railroad Museum

Tohono Chul Park

Date of Visit: May 31, 2025

We had done all our must dos in Tucson the day before, so we really did not have a plan for this day and did not decide until mid-morning to go to Tohono Chul Park. We knew it was hot, but it is all relative because dry 100 in Tucson does not seem anywhere near as bad as the humid 80s and higher in Myrtle Beach. However, if we had planned to visit Tohono Chul Park, we definitely would have chosen to go earlier in the morning to enjoy it more, especially for Mik who found it too hot for him after about an hour (and we may have ended up spending more time browsing the gift shop than out in the park).

When we pulled into the parking lot, we found all the accessible parking spots in front taken and just took two spots after making the turn to the rest of the parking lot. When we walked over to the entrance, we discovered that we should have kept going and there were more accessible spots lined up with the entrance that you just have to cross the road to get to the entrance rather than the others that are right there.

While we did not end up going through much of the park, Mik did enjoy that the paths we did go on were mostly wide sidewalk paths.

We did go for a bit on dirt path that was not difficult to roll on, but did have to watch out for some bumps and more gravelly parts.

At one point we sat in the shade, where we thought we were looking at a tortoise statue. Then we realized it was an actual tortoise.

Mik's favorite of the little we saw was this horse statue.

Overall it was kind of a wasted trip because Mik got too hot to really see much of the place, but he saw enough that he would be interested in going again on a future Tucson trip if we just went earlier in the day.

Destination Info:

Tohono Chul Park

7366 North Paseo del Norte

Tucson, AZ 85704

Some of our other Tucson Area Posts:

• Hampton Inn Tucson Airport
• Our Koffee Trail: Chocolate Iguana
• Titan Missle Museum

Best Western Inn & Suites Tucson Foothills - Mobility Accessible/Two Room/Suite-1 King Bed, Walk-In Shower

Date of Visit: May 29-June 1, 2025

At the Best Western Inn & Suites Tucson Foothills, I booked us a Mobility Accessible Two-Room Suite with Walk-In Shower. We did get the room we booked, but upon entering it found the shower dripping, which initially did not bother me, but Mom then used the toilet and found the floor was all wet because it was of the style that floods the bathroom. Thus, before even bringing in our stuff, we went back to the front desk and ended up with the same room type non-accessible because the only other accessible option was with just one King bed.

Sofa bed living room area of Accessible Room

Bedroom area of Accessible Room

Accessible Bathroom - cannot roll up next to toilet due to shower

Accessible Bathroom - Roll Under Sink

Accessible Bathroom's Shower

Accessible Room's Shower - did not have handheld shower head

Bar Stools in Accessible Room were somewhat in way of coming into the room due to the kitchen area being wider than the non-accessible room.

Kitchen area of Accessible Room - Wider path than non-accessible room, but not sure if it has enough space for a wheelchair to turn around

Sofa bed living room area of regular room - we put the table in corner and I slept on the sofa without pulling it out as bed, so Mik had plenty of floor space (actually was also more comfortable this way than the thin mattress).

Bedroom area of the regular room

"Bathroom" Sink area in bedroom - Awkwardly, the toilet and shower part of bathroom is off the kitchen, so you have to go through living room and bedroom to get to it from bathroom. At least the kitchen sink is right outside bathroom for handwashing. 

Regular room's bathroom - the tub faucet was dripping here, too, but not a steady stream like the accessible room, so they definitely need to work on their plumbing throughout

Kitchen Area of Regular Room - made it clear the accessible room at least tried to be more accessible, but this layout at least mean the bar stools weren't in the way of coming into room because they did not end up out as far in the room.

In hindsight, we probably should have been more insistent on them just fixing that room or giving us 2 rooms, but really the accessible room would not have been any better because of the design Mik would not have been able to use the toilet himself. It just really awkward that to access the bathroom sink from the bathroom you had to go all the way around through the bedroom.

Mik enjoyed that the outside tables for breakfast were easy to roll up to. We also liked that you got a free drink and they had popcorn for Happy Hour every evening.

Overall Mik says this is a never again hotel, but really it was not bad. The rooms just show their age, but the staff was good and it worked out just fine for us even without an accessible room, although you do have to take some longer paths around to get to the rooms and breakfast due to the design of the first floor area and parking involving steps at some points. If it was priced similarly to the Hyatt Place, which I had almost chosen for this trip because when I first looked Best Western was only about $10 cheaper a night, then I would not stay here, but if I found it at half the price of the other hotel options like I randomly happened upon, then I certainly would stay here again.

Destination Info:

Best Western Inn & Suites Tucson Foothills

6201 N Oracle Rd

Tucson, AZ 85704

Some of our other Tucson Area Posts:

• Hampton Inn Tucson Airport
• Our Koffee Trail: Chocolate Iguana
• Titan Missle Museum

Best Western Mission Inn - 2 Queen Accessible Tub

Date of Visit: May 28-29, 2025

After two nights of Hilton hotels, Best Western ended up being our choice the last night of the drive to Tucson as it was the cheapest and while Mom still had enough Hilton points for a place in Las Cruces the value was horrible at three times the point cost of the other two nights when the cost to pay cash was about the same price as if we had paid cash for the other places we had stayed on the trip and about $50 more than the Best Western.

Coming into the room was a little tight with the desk ending up close to where the door opens against the wall.

The room had two beds with not much space on ether side of the beds or maybe just enough in between for the wheelchair to go between them.

At the end of each bed was a wooden bench, which in theory is helpful for using as a luggage rack, but the one by the bathroom made it too narrow to wheel past the bed to the bathroom. It was not difficult for me to move and it fit between the window and the front bed out of the way, though.

There was a fridge and microwave. The wood door hid it and looked nice, but the cabinet door was very noisy creaking every time you opened and closed it.

The bathroom was okay size, but a little tight for getting the chair in and out. We did like the toilet paper was on the wall in front of the toilet because Mik always knocks the rolls off when they are under the grab bars (or has broken the holder when they are not open ended), but it is quite a reach and could be a problem for many others.

The tub did have a regular shower head and handheld shower head. I found it worked well for standing to take a shower. It does seem to be rather limited in grab bars, though, as there is only one at the front and none on the sides.

The sink was not a roll under.

Overall it worked for the night, but it was tight with not much floor space making Mik say we should not even consider this hotel on our way home. He did appreciate that the breakfast had a decent variety, though.

Destination Info: 

Best Western Mission Inn

1765 S Main Street

Las Cruces, NM 88005