I sandwiched my stay at Atlantis three weeks ago with hotel stays at Sheraton Nassau Cable Beach Resort. I stayed on Cash & Points for $60 and 4,000 points per night. That worked out to US$110 per night after tax and after adding the $40 daily resort fee. Starwood charges resort fees on award stays. Hyatt does not.

Published rates for my stay dates were $239 per night prepaid, nonrefundable or $269 AAA. 15% tax and $40 resort fee on top of that. At 4,000 points per night I was getting redemption value over $60 per 1,000 points.

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Glenwood Hot Springs is called the world’s largest hot springs pool at 405 feet long and 100 feet wide. The hot springs pools make a nice stop when traveling between Aspen and Vail or driving the I-70 freeway across Colorado. Hot Springs Lodge is a modern hotel and part of the historic hot springs pool complex.

Glenwood Hot Springs pool and Spa of the Rockies

Glenwood Hot Springs Lodge has 107 air-conditioned rooms. The Glenwood Hot Springs hotel itself is nothing special (AAA two-diamond). This place operated as a self-service hotel for moving baggage from the car to the room during our stay. The hotel was pretty basic but supplied all the amenities of a midscale hotel. Complimentary wireless internet and poolside café breakfast are additional perks of the Hot Springs Lodge. Poolside café breakfast means a 200 yard walk to the café in the pool complex.

Hot Springs Lodge, Glenwood Springs, Colorado

The real value of booking a room at the Glenwood Hot Springs Lodge is free admission to the Hot Springs pools included in your room rate. Each guest received a coupon for pool admission. Once we entered the pool gate there was a self-service stamp that allowed re-entry for the entire day. One paid night at the hotel saved over $200 in pool admission fees for two days of swimming with six of us. We received pool passes for the afternoon we arrived and the next day, even though we checked out of the hotel at noon.

Hot Springs Lodge exterior

The hotel operates a shuttle to take people around the large pool to the front side entrance which is about a 200 yard walk. The shuttle is convenient for after dark.

Glenwood Hot Springs Pool is the main tourist attraction of the city. The pool was named a Fodor’s Choice 2010 Gold award winner as one of the Top 10 pools in the U.S. There are two main pools, an infant pool, kid’s pool slide area, and several dedicated lap lanes for swimming. The historic hot springs bathhouse is now Spa of the Rockies.

Personal pool testimony: I did not like the idea of being surrounded by hundreds of people in a big pool or being in a 94 degree pool on a 98 degree day. To my surprise the water actually felt comfortable and helped my body temperature cool down on the hot day. And the pool was so large that I found plenty of space even with hundreds of other swimmers. I was surprised and entertained by the high proportion of international tourists at the Glenwood Hot Springs pools.

There was very little shade around the pool complex, but grass and trees are above the pool and available for seating in the shade. But in the pool there was no relief from the July sun until evening. Lather up the sunscreen and wear a hat.

Hotel Colorado, Glenwood Springs

I prefer the historic Hotel Colorado next door. Built in 1893 this hotel is the grande dame of Glenwood Springs. The walk-up rate was $130 for a basic room compared to $200 for the Hot Springs Lodge. The pool admission is a big factor in Hot Springs Lodge, however, as far as a hotel goes the Colorado Hotel is nicer in my opinion.

Hotel Colorado, Glenwood Springs, Colorado

Hotel Colorado has no air conditioning though. The ceiling and window fans were not nearly adequate for cooling the room to my satisfaction in the near 100F mid-day temperatures prevalent during my July visit.

Kraig Kenning, a national slide guitar champion, gave an afternoon outdoor performance in the Hotel Colorado courtyard. Good music is one thing that trumps my desire to keep my body temperature cool. While the family headed to the pool, I headed for the music. Kraig played for hours and I was fortunate enough to see about half of his show.

I was feeling the karma sitting under the shade of old trees in the courtyard of a historic Colorado hotel, smelling the barbecued food on the outside grill, and hearing a guitarist play tunes for hours.

Hearing Kraig Kenning perform was one of my highlights of this Colorado trip.

Hotel Colorado is one of those places where I just walked the hallways and admired old style craftsmanship that I do not see in modern hotels.

Large wooden banister stairways and wide hallways, stories of President Theodore Roosevelt and Titanic survivor the unsinkable Molly Brown – both with named boutique hotel suites on site, legends of the origin of the teddy bear, high ceilings and big paintings, and of course the antler adornments common to hotels in Colorado.

History and a bygone era greet you at every turn as you meander through Hotel Colorado.

Travel Resource: AAA Travel Views  

AAATravelViews has good links for hotel stories, contests and giveaways, and most importantly – hotel and travel discount notices.

There are more than the Top 10 family getaway destinations in the AAA Family Getaways report (9-page pdf file).

One of the Family Getaway locations listed is Glenwood Springs Lodge.  The Glenwood Hot Springs pools were a great family getaway for pool fun in the sun. Glenwood Springs is also the gateway to Aspen.

Why are lavish desert oasis pools rarely open more than 12 hours a day in a city where the temperature often does not drop below 80 by sunrise?

Casinos don’t profit from pool loungers.

Las Vegas is hot in the summertime. August temperatures at midnight can be 100 degrees. The temperature drops to the 80s by sunrise but by 10 am the temp is usually up in the 90s.

Vegas is a city of great swimming pools. Where else is there such a high concentration of beautiful bodies, bodacious curves, and ripped abs?

Go ogle in Vegas – but be ready to wear your shades in the mid-day sun. This town has limited pool ogle time after dinner on the Strip.

I have stayed at Starwood Hotels Planet Hollywood (formerly The Aladdin Hotel) a dozen times and only managed to make it to the pools once in the few hours they are open for the day. Planet Hollywood has open pool hours for just 10 hours a day in the peak summer season.

Starwood’s Westin Casuarina, one block off the strip, has an open pool for about 18 hours a day.

If the swimming pool is an important consideration in your Las Vegas holiday plans, then call the hotel before you book to check the pool hours for the dates of your stay. You may be wishing you stayed at the Holiday Inn if swimming at midnight is your plan. The Holiday Inn Henderson has 24-hour pool hours, as does the Ritz Carlton Lake Las Vegas, but these hotels are but this hotel is nowhere near the Las Vegas strip and the pool is nothing more exciting than a typical backyard pool.

(The Las Vegas hotel pool websites mentioned in this post are slightly out of date. Ritz Carlton Lake Las Vegas eliminated its 24 hour open pool policy at the beginning of summer 2009. The Ritz Carlton pool hours are now 8am-7pm Sunday-Thursday and 8am-8pm Friday-Saturday.)

The majority of Las Vegas casino hotels on the Strip have pools only open 8 to 12 hours per day in peak summer, and many pools are only open 6 to 8 hours per day between October and May. Pools may even be closed during winter months when temperatures some days still may climb to the upper 70s-low 80s. There are few indoor pools at Las Vegas hotels.

Here are two websites for Las Vegas pool reviews and hours. Nothing is constant in Vegas except the gambling, so a phone call is the best way to check for the latest information on a hotel’s pool hours.

Vegas.com – http://www.vegas.com/resorts/pools/

Las Vegas Advisor: http://www.lasvegasadvisor.com/poolfaqs.cfm

Survey of Las Vegas Hotel Pool Hours in Peak Summer

Bellagio summer 8-8; fall/spring  8-7pm; winter 9-5pm

Caesars 9-5pm

Circus Circus 9-9 summer; fall and winter 9-5

Encore 8-7   (checked 8-15-09)

Excalibur Summer 8-8; Fall and Spring 9-7; Winter 10-5

Fitzgerald’s 7am-11pm

Flamingo 9am-7pm

Four Seasons Sunrise to Sunset

Greek Isles 24 hour pool

Green Valley Henderson 9-8pm 

Hard Rock Café 9am-6pm

JW Marriott 10-6pm

Loews Lake Las Vegas 8-8pm  (checked 8-15-09)

Luxor 8-7pm

M Resort 8-7pm

Mandalay Bay 9-7pm  (checked 8-15-09)

MGM Grand 7am-8pm

Mirage 7-8pm

Monte Carlo 9-5pm

New York New York 9-7pm

Palazzo 8-8pm

Palms 9-7pm

Paris Las Vegas 9-6pm

Planet Hollywood 9-7pm  (checked 8-16-09)

Red Rock Casino 8-8pm  (checked 8-16-09)

Renaissance 8-11pm

Rio 10-6pm

Ritz-Carlton Lake Las Vegas 8am-7pm Sunday-Thursday; 8am-8pm Friday-Saturday  (checked 8-15-09)

Sahara 9-6pm

Stratosphere 8-7pm

Super 8 adjacent to Ellis Island Casino & Brewery one block off Strip ($1.50 microbrew pints all day) - 24 hours (checked 8-16-09)

Treasure Island 9-6pm

Venetian 8-8pm

Westin Casuarina 5am-midnight

Wynn 9-6pm

Westin Casuarina Las Vegas has extended pool hours

 Loyalty Traveler editorial note:

Pool hours were originally  cited from webpage postings of reviews not written during the summer season of peak pool hours. The sources cited were from sometime close in 2008. Posted hours have changed for many of these hotels.

Loyalty Traveler seeks to be a source of accurate and precise information.  Dates shown provide my personal verification of pool hours for the hotel on that date. Changes are frequent in hotel pool hours. A phone call is best for obtaining current pool hour conditions.