El Dorado Hotel Terlingua

[cjacob]

So this will be the 1st night spent in a hotel room in the last 15 years of Big Bend Travels for Me.  Has anyone stayed here?  We plan on spending the last day/night in Terlingua and do not want to drive far to camp site or hotel after too many beers/bourbon.  Is there another hotel that might work better?

[RichardM]

Haven't stayed there myself, but from what others here have said, it's probably one of the last places I'd stay in the area.

http://www.visitbigbend.com/wheretostay.html
...
I've stayed at a lot of the places listed in the link, the only one I'd definitely avoid is the El Dorado.

I stayed at the El Dorado once right after it opened and it was ok, it was clean and around $50.  About a year later went back, not so clean and they wanted something like $90.

Just don't stay at the El Dorado and I think you'll be ok.

That seems to be the consensus about the El Dorado. What's up with this place?

it's dirty.  that's the main thing I didn't like, and the doors to the rooms are made out of wooden planks nailed together.  More like a fence gate than a door.

There's a few more unfavorable mentions of the "El Draino" on here, but you get the idea.

[trtlrock]

My wife & I stayed at "The Strawbale House" in Terlingua for several days this past trip.  Off the grid, no TV, butane fridge, hot showers, outdoor privy, awesome views, reasonably priced...

FYI you could get sloshed at the Starlight and stumble back to the house on foot in about 5 minutes.   

If you're interested PM me for contact info & pricing...

[Sotol Vista]

is this the place where the office is one of the motel rooms? if so, last year when the wife and I were checking to see if they had rooms available (they did not) there several people were sleeping in the bed and some on the couch in the "office, kinda made me feel a little weird.

James

[RichardM]

Here's the El Dorado's website: http://www.eldorado-hotel.net/

From their site:

[bdann]

office used to be in one of the rooms, now in the new bldg that Richard posted a picture of. I haven't stayed there in quite some time, maybe it's improved.

[bdann]

Another photo of the place for reference purposes, taken in June 2004 (time sure does fly...)

[Desert Rat]

My daughter and I spent one night there in March of '06.  The room was clean, but the place is definitely rustic.  The shower has a very small water heater that has to be turned on about 20 minutes in advance.  The shower itself is big enough for a small party.  Room rates were higher than most of their nicer competition.

The walls and ceiling are wafer board.  The exterior doors are wood planks, and ours had major cracks that allowed light in and air conditioning out.

[riverrat]

We ate at the High Sierra Bar and Grill on New Year's Eve 09 and the food was good (we had the chicken fried steak) the people were very friendly. Can't comment on the rooms, though.

[Hiker79]

Spent the night at the El Dorado in April of this year.  I had planned on staying at the hostel by the Boat House but the wind was too high and I didn't really want to get a layer of dust back on me after the shower.  So I checked in and the room was nothing but a disappointment.  The door was wooden and I could see light coming in from outside.  Not a little light but the gap between the door and the frame would allow a pencil to be passed through.  The shower was pretty disgusting and the room was very spartan.  There was a TV which boasted 2 channels, an infomercial and one of the ESPNs.  There was also a fly swatter located by the bed, but thankfully was not needed.  All of this cost me abut $80.  It was pretty quiet and I did like the fact that I could park right outside the door.  If so inclined, I could have walked to the Starlight, but drove to avoid the wind/dust.  Nope, I won't be staying there again.