The Roadside Motel: ‘Reinventing an American Icon’

Travel Blog • Michael Yessis • 05.24.07 | 2:41 PM ET

Photo by ercwttmn via Flickr (Creative Commons).

While Route 66 sees the sad decline of countless roadside motels, elsewhere in the U.S. they’re on the rise. “The credit goes to a growing number of ‘boutique motels,’ properties dating back to the 1940’s, 1950’s, and early 1960’s that have been bought and completely reimagined by energetic young moteliers with a clear vision of what makes for not merely comfortable but also memorable accommodations,” writes Charles Gandee in the introduction to a roundup of chic motels in Travel + Leisure.

Gandee continues:

Unlike boutique hotels, which offer cutting-edge design and too-cool-for-school attitude, boutique motels are personable, cozy even. There is an egalitarian quality to these places, which offer a host of communal experiences, from Jacuzzis and heated swimming pools to expansive breakfasts and cocktails at 5:00 p.m.

I’ve stayed at one of the motels listed in the Travel + Leisure feature, Austin, Texas’s Hotel San José, and I did feel a sense of history and connection to Austin’s history—the motel dates to 1936—as well as a communal spirit among the travelers hanging out in the courtyard, sipping drinks and chatting.

I loved the Hotel San José‘s design, too, though some of the hotels featured in the slideshow accompanying the Travel + Leisure feature—Kate’s Lazy Meadow Motel in Mount Tremper, New York, for instance—are a little more striking.

The Kate of Kate’s Lazy Meadow Motel, by the way, is B-52’s singer Kate Pierson.

Photo by ercwttmn via Flickr (Creative Commons).