Travel Talk: Hotel recommendations for Watkins Glen? - Team Juicy Racing's Racing School and Race Series Forums

Kasey · #1 04-17-2006

Where is the best place to stay for the WGI weekend?

MJAmok · #2 04-17-2006

I like the Glenora. Others prefer Glen Motor Inn. There are also a number of B&B's in the area.

LimeRockRacer · #3 04-19-2006

Kasey:

I stay at the GMI. It is cheap close but fifties decor, albeit clean. The Glenora is a mile or two further away, very nice and more expensive.

Do you want modern ammenities with good food and wine, or cheap clean fifties racing nostalgia. The choice is yours!

Carl Lopez · #4 04-25-2006

The Glen Motor Inn is where all the professional teams stayed in the 70's. Autographed pictures of Stewart, Peterson, Andretti, Ickx, etc all over the place where they stayed when the USGP and World Championship of Makes was at Watkins. You can strike up a conversation with the owner, Vic Francese, who was the host and friend to some of the most famous Formula One drivers of the 60's and 70's. Still races a Can Am McLaren in Vintage events.

My personal favorite is the Seneca Lodge where many post-USGP celebrations were held and still have victory wreaths from Grand Prix winners hanging on the wall behind the rustic bar..... Jackie Stewart, Fittipaldi, James Hunt. Not fancy but not changed since the 60's and great organic food served at dinner.

dlippert · #5 04-26-2006

The coolist thing about the Glen Motor Inn is that you don't just stay in a room that the legends of F1 stayed in, you are on the same carpet, you use the actual towels they used and you sleep on the sheets they slept on. Up until a couple years ago we used the phones they talked on too, but lightening finally killed the phone system. Nonetheless, it's like being a part of history. In a good way . . . :-)

Carl Lopez · #6 04-26-2006

Picture Mario Andretti, Ronnie Peterson, Jackie Stewart and Francois Cevert sitting by the pool in October, alongside Graham Hill and his new Embassy hire Tony Brise. It was a time that fired me up like watching Ruth hit all those home runs. For better or worse, my heros stayed there and I'll always have a soft spot for it.... scratchy towels or not.

badgersid · #7 04-27-2006

so dick i guess you will be staying at the wgmi can i have your room at thr glenora.

dlippert · #8 04-27-2006

Sure. I really will be at the GMI.

OLDMAN · #9 04-27-2006

The sign in front of the GMI says "No Vacancy".

OLDMAN

Kasey · #10 04-27-2006

I spoke to Vic at GMI early last week and made a reservation.

Considering all the nostalgia this place is noted for, I was suprised to hear Vic say they expected to have wireless internet service by the end of this week!

See you there.

dlippert · #11 04-28-2006

Wireless dial-up.

badgersid · #12 04-28-2006

dick bring your own towel's soap,drinking cup a pair of flip flop's'flea and tick spray and a bottle of lysol

have fun

dlippert · #13 04-29-2006

They're in my standard kit along with my Glen Motor Inn ball cap.

ajnealey · #14 05-08-2006

Hey ya'll,

I ran my first race weekend with you guys this past weekend at VIR and I'm hooked. Signed up for Watkins Glen but need a place to stay.

Any recommendations would be great.

Thanks,

AJ Nealey

dalyduo · #15 05-08-2006

Hi AJ,

Glad to have you aboard... Here's a thread started a few weeks ago on just that subject.

http://www.teamjuicyracing.com/forum...t=Watkins+Glen

smayer · #16 05-09-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by ajnealey

Hey ya'll,

I ran my first race weekend with you guys this past weekend at VIR and I'm hooked. Signed up for Watkins Glen but need a place to stay.

Any recommendations would be great.

Thanks,

AJ Nealey

AJ,
Try the Glen Motor Inn at (607) 535-2706 or www.glenmotorinn.com. It's old and it isn't fancy, but it's got a great view of the lake and alot of racer history.
Steve

OLDMAN · #17 05-09-2006

It's full.

OLDMAN

ajnealey · #18 05-09-2006

Thanks for the help. I just got me a room for the weekend at the Glen Motor Inn. See you all in a couple weeks.

Thanks,

AJ

OLDMAN · #19 05-09-2006

Two weeks ago they told me they were full with a waiting list!

F*%$ them.

OLDMAN

Kasey · #20 05-09-2006

AJ probably got the room that I cancelled just this morning. I changed to the Radisson in Concord.

jdc916 · #21 05-14-2006

Corning NY isnt too far away. And there was a great new hotel a few years back. Help me out Sid, I cant remember the name of it.

cdh · #22 05-14-2006

I like the Glen Motor Inn but for an alternate the Falls Motel in Montour is a good choice. Totally renovated a couple years ago, all new paint, carpets and furniture, less expensive than GMI, closer to track, decent simple accomodations, very nice folks. Plus, you don't need to mail them a $100 security check like the GMI.

Slowhands · #23 05-01-2007

Where do you recommend staying for the Regional weekend at the Glen?

rslonaker · #24 05-01-2007

For ambiance and authenticity, no better choice than Glen Motor Inn, or Seneca Lodge. Just don't be surprised by the time warp.

jdr922 · #25 05-01-2007

I got reservations at The Anchor Inn and marina. Anyone stayed here before?

oldredracer · #26 05-01-2007

If you're in it for the history, it's the Glen Motor Inn or the Seneca Lodge. For cheap it's the Relax Inn in Montour Falls. If you like clean sheets, bathtubs with hydrojets and wish to walk on the rugs in bare feet without fear, it's the Falls Motel. 5 minute straight shot to the track.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserR..._New_York.html

cdh · #27 05-01-2007

Seneca Lodge is def. worth a visit, the bar oozes race history and the restaurant serves a fine meal, but beware, stay there only if you wont miss having a phone in your room, or most other amenities. At least that was the case when I was first there in 2001, may have improved since then. When I didn't see a phone in my room, I went to the GM Inn.

John Greist · #28 05-01-2007

Where else on this continent in this day and age can you have a cabin all to yourself for $40?

Rosso · #29 05-01-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by cdh

...only if you won't miss having a phone in your room...

Jeeezus Pete - they don't charge EXTRA for that? But, then again, only I turn my cell phone on once a week to see if the battery needs to be charged.

Signed,

Wotsa Tex Message

gurl rcr · #30 05-02-2007

I'm with Sid - Glen Motor (or Seneca Lodge) should only be stayed at if you're ready to sleep in a bio hazard suit. If you can't get into the Glenora, or find a good bed and breakfast, and there's a whole list of them on the Watkins Glen website www.theglen.com go down the road to Horseheads or Corning. You'll find the full compliment of chain lodgings, including a Hilton Garden Inn. The only problem with staying down there is that by the time you go back for a quick shower at the end of the day the last thing you want to do is turn around and go 1/2 an hour BACK up the road for dinner with everyone. On the other hand, you don't get a room that either brings back your worst memories of summer camp or looks like a museum piece for 1960s decor (including the small working television sitting atop the antique, non-working console television)

Good Luck hotel hunters and we'll see you there !

cdh · #31 05-03-2007

BTW, I had to cancel my WGI Regional

(nothing to do with VIR, a video gig came up I must do) so I am canceling my room at the Falls Motel, just in case anyone is having trouble finding accommodations, one is opening up there, nice place.

I am working on racing at the Invitational, wait and see

GEORGE · #32 05-04-2007

I can't wait to go to the Glen. Mr Chicken, Seneca Lodge, The Glen Motor inn, Peter Argetsinger. They are all old fixtures of time gone by but you gotta love 'em. OK Pete is not quite on that level, but he did give me a great tour of the old course.
My choice for the Glen used to be the Glen Motor Inn (the Skippy guys stay there) but I began to think that I slept on the exact same mattress that Denny Hulme slept on 40 years ago. They do know everyone in town though.
Last time I was there I stayed at the Seneca Lodge. Everything you have written about the place is true; no phone, last upgrade in 1962; towels that wont go around a 32" waist; 15 channels on the tv(no speed tv either) paper thin walls. And I'm talking about the NEW section. BUT ..... You have to stay there for the bar and restaurant and the fact that it hasn't changed since the owner brought racing to the Glen in the 50's.
The restaurant is good even if my dinner guest has eaten ther for 40 years and has had the exact same thing every time!!!! Or that the waitress suggested 3 dishes to me as "really great" and when pressed for her favorite one she said " I am a vegetarian, I won't eat any of them"!!!
Campy small town kitsch, BUT you just have to stay at the Senecea Lodge. Seee You All at THE GLEN
CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

wally · #33 05-06-2007

For nostalgia, I would stay at the Seneca Lodge ( GMI is a dump that hasn't had anything new in 50 yrs. ). The Radisson in Corning is nice with many good restaurants in town ( the London Underground, and others ) but it is out of the way unless a group of you stay there.
However, my favorite place to stay is in a Newell motorcoach at the track ( the have electric and water behind the grandstands ). As it happens, I have a 43.5' Newell fresh out of the paint shop. Call Sid for details and price.

Wally

oldredracer · #34 05-06-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by wally

As it happens, I have a 43.5' Newell fresh out of the paint shop. Call Sid for details and price.

Wally

Lesseee. Hope it's not a new Newell, because a new Newell divided by two nights at the Glen would be roughly $1,500,000 per night, which is even more than they ask at the Seneca.

wally · #35 05-07-2007

No, it's a '92 with 65k miles and 500 Amurican horsepower, so it would only be $75k a nite. Plus you could use it every race weekend and the cost per nite would keep coming down. And I assure you that you would be a rockstar with the family when you load them up in the bus for a trip to Bryce Canyon, and Zion and that whole SW tour.

oldredracer · #36 05-07-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by wally

No, it's a '92 with 65k miles and 500 Amurican horsepower, so it would only be $75k a nite. Plus you could use it every race weekend and the cost per nite would keep coming down. And I assure you that you would be a rockstar with the family when you load them up in the bus for a trip to Bryce Canyon, and Zion and that whole SW tour.

Story of my life. Something that sound too good to be true turns into a good deal with me just a little short.

wally · #37 05-07-2007

Did I mention I'm on the barter system ?

oldredracer · #38 05-07-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by wally

Did I mention I'm on the barter system ?

I'd offer my first-born son, but I bet you couldn't get him out of the house either.

John Greist · #39 05-08-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by wally

Did I mention I'm on the barter system ?

Certainly in the time-honored tradition of Skip Barter

Gerardo · #40 05-08-2007

Try The Falls Motel. Nice, relatively modern rooms, good prices, and close to the track.

http://www.thefallsmotel.com/

arig · #41 05-08-2007

I agree with the recommendation for the Falls. They were even nice enough to hold my HANS device when it was shipped to them til I arrived. Very nice staff when I was there.

Slowhands · #42 05-08-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by arig

I agree with the recommendation for the Falls. They were even nice enough to hold my HANS device when it was shipped to them til I arrived. Very nice staff when I was there.

I even got the same person on the phone 2 different times! A definite extra star in my book.