Far View Lodge

Right off the bat, I’m giving this hotel 5 stars just for being in the park, simply because it’s the only hotel in the park! Why is this important? Because it takes at least an hour to drive through the entire park, and probably the same for the way back. And who really wants to do that for their entire stay? Especially if you’re trying to get up early the next morning for a tour like we did! The price per night cannot be beat. Of course I can’t say that for every month, but hotels outside the park in July were $ 10 to $ 30 more! I’m also giving them 5 stars because they are mega eco friendly and I love that! The staff, although we only spoke to one front desk associate, was kind.
I stayed in the hotel probably for a total of 10 hours. Maybe not even. But it was enough time to really enjoy the location, the atmosphere, the views, and the decently sized room. The room we had was a standard room and it was very clean and comfortable. The room featured a queen sized bed, a small round table with 2 chairs, a nightstand, a mini fridge, coffee maker and a dresser. The bathroom consisted of a standup shower, no tub. There is no a/​c or TV in the room, but you get a wonderful breeze if you keep the windows open! There is also wifi.
If you’re looking for a little more luxury you can stay in the Kiva rooms. I think the only difference was a/​c as far as amenities.
Each hotel room had it’s own entrance and balcony that overlooked the Mesa! Apparently you can see all surrounding states from the hotel too! So beautiful. No complaints! I highly recommend this lodge and I would of course stay here again and again!

p3 ½* The View Hotel
Mesa Verde, CO
Middle of the national park
Reasonable prices, not worth daily commute from outlying cities (e.g., Cortez, Manco)
Rooms with beautiful views of the canyon
Room smelled awful; had to air it out
No smoking policy
No TV
Rooms are on old side
Friendly staff
Metate restaurant was fantastic

First the good, great location and great views. Now the bad, very small rooms, dirty floors, WI-​FI was terrible, shower leaked to the parking lot, frig was not working well, no TV, no A/​C, food was over priced ($ 15 dollars for a hamburger) and food service was poor. You will find better hotels and food in Cortez. However you will not have the views.

Very nice quiet rooms with far views. Slept well. Close to the cliff dwelling ruins. Managed by Aramark. Definitely an AARP approved destination.

I enjoyed staying here. The view off our balcony was wonderful. The place is a little rustic, but it is a park lodge. Loved having the windows open and the breeze from the fan. The beds were very comfortable. Small old fashioned shower but ok for a park lodge. Beautiful surroundings and lots of wildlife.

The rooms with 2 queen beds are fine, a balcony with a view — and the dinner at the Metate room was very good!

We loved our night and morning at the Far View Lodge, and we wished that we had planned to stay here longer. Already we’ve planned to return and spend a few days so we can enjoy the ambiance longer.
I’ve seen the reviews of others and we seem to have had very different experiences. Our «Kiva Room» with two double beds felt like a very nice cabin-​like experience. The décor was new and very nice and appropriate for the theme. The beds were actually amazingly comfortable — our favorite of all the places we stopped over a 1.5 week trip. All the linens were soft and clean. Our room came with AC (only Kiva rooms have AC), and we ran it just to circulate the air out. Otherwise it was already rather cool, even with it being late June. Absolutely every aspect of the room, including the back porch/​balcony was clean and well kept.
It’s true that there’s no TV and no cell phone service. Wifi is provided but it seemed spotty. Quite frankly, we didn’t come here for such things as that. We came here to get away from all that and be closer to nature. So we were quite happy to have it not there at all.
I read others complained about space. Again, we didn’t come to sit in our rooms, and we felt it was spacious enough for the situation (with the exception on the bathroom, see below). I didn’t feel crammed into the room at all. Yes, there’s not much excess room to relax and hang out, but who wants to sit inside anyway.
Least favorite aspect of this room: the bathroom. Someone needed to tighten down the wobbling toilet. And maybe relocate the TP dispenser to give a little more room to that area. That part of the room could have used some extra space. The shower stall is also quite small. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was all quite new and clean as well. Even though it was smaller, I was happy with the bathroom and it didn’t affect my opinion of the experience.
Favorite aspect of this room: the back porch area. And the view. We were up at dawn just for the fun of making coffee (provided with the room and quite good actually) and sitting out on the porch. We opened the back door completely and enjoyed all that fresh morning air. And then sat outside and watched the rabbits out eating their breakfast. Great memories.
I included a photo of our view looking out the room onto the porch area. As you can see, while not large, it was spacious enough for the three of us to sit out there and enjoy the morning.

Far View Lodge rooms are much less than expected for the price. Subpar compared to other National Park Lodges we have visited. Room is aged and in need of repair both mechanically and appearance wise.
On the positive side, you save a 40 minute drive from the park entrance by staying there AND they offer a GREAT brunch at the Far View Lodge dining room. Highly recommend the «700 year tour.»

This place has a monopoly, being the only place to stay within the national park. It is a 20-​mile nearly 45 minute drive to get out of the park from here, on winding unlit roads. It’s location is really about the only thing it has going for it.
I stayed in a kiva room with 2 double beds. Rooms are over-​priced at about $ 150 per night. The room is small. There’s a wardrobe that you can’t even open because it’s blocked by a bed. It also was not well maintained– small, dark, dingy bathroom, barely any counter space, shade was broken, dead fly in the room– just generally pretty small and drab for the price. The balcony had an okay view, but it was obstructed by cars and parking lots.
There’s no tv, which was fine, but there is wireless. No cell service.
The walls are paper thin. I could hear absolutely everything in the room next door, and they were not being loud at all. I mean ridiculous– I can hear papers rustling, water running, the low-​volume conversation of two people sitting together in bed. Everything.
The restaurant was overpriced and had an hour wait on a Tuesday even though they don’t take reservations and everyone staying here pretty much has to go there, since there’s nowhere else to go.
I would probably give this place 2 stars, but if you’re here to experience Mesa Verde, it would really suck to have to drive into the park 20 miles.

The room we stayed in was very shabby for $ 150 a night. The food was so terrible one of us got food poisoning, but not before spending 90 dollars on appetizers and drinks. The bar closes at 10pm so be prepared to hang out in your room with not much to do. Breakfast was clearly made with the lowest quality products possible, got to love Aramark. It is clear that due to lack of competition, standards are non existent with extortionary prices.

The rooms (we had two adjoining rooms) were very nice. They were clean and very functional. We were concerned that we would suffer without tv or air conditioning (visited in late July) but we couldn’t have been more comfortable. There was a wonderful breeze through the room and out to the balcony. The balcony looked over the Mesa and was a wonderful place to enjoy coffee in the morning. My daughter and I stood out there one night and watched a huge lightning storm which was probably 25 or 30 miles away. So cool. Food was close by and decent. Staying in the park shaved off a lot of time in the morning if we were to drive in from Cortez as the first part of getting into the park takes the longest, pretty but long. The lodge is a great jumping off point to the two major sections of the park. They have two types of food available, reasonable and simple and then fancy and pricey. We ate the reasonable one several times and weren’t disappointed

Our experience at the lodge was amazing. This is a no frills kind of place, so if you’re looking for luxury, this is not it. We got a no AC room, and opened the windows at night, so it was a perfect temperature. The room is small, but does the job. It has a nice and serene presence, and I think all the rooms come with balconies (ours did) which is a very calm and relaxing place to be out late at night and early in the morning.
If you choose a place to stay outside of the park, the drive up to the top of the hill is 45 minutes. So lodging here saved us a bit of time to just get up, eat and then go straight the sites.
Its also very convenient to be close to 2 food options, the Metate room, which has some upscale dining, and great food, or the Café, which is more cost effective, and also has plenty of options to accomodate many different food preferences.
The next day we needed to get tickets to the twilight tour for the Cliff Palace, which meant we had to drive all the way down the hill, and the staff was HIGHLY accomodating to check in with the visitors center, and made sure we got our tix before we drove down the hill. (I recommend if you want to get on this tour, purchase tix ahead of time on the phone, or go to the visitors center before trekking up the hill!)
I was not impressed with the woman at the reservations number selling us the most expensive room at first, then downgrading us only after I mentioned we had a dog. I would have preferred to have gotten all of my pricing options up front. Just a warning.
Also read from a guide book the walls are paper thin, but had no problems hearing any of our neighbors.
We would go back here the next time we drive through Mesa Verde.

I was pretty nervous about getting to the Far View Lodge after reading the reviews. I thought it was plenty acceptable. We stayed in a two double bed kiva room.
The Good: being 20 miles in the park already is worth half the cost of the room. The room itself was decently maintained. You can’t beat the view. The buildings are a singluar row of rooms, so it seemed most of them had a good view. We were near the end of our building, so we had more of an unobstructed view than others. The lobby staff was pleasant and helpful. The ice machines were always full and it was easy to load up the cooler every day. There’s a mini fridge in the room. The wifi signal was strong in our room. I splurged for the room with an AC, but when we got there, it was unseasonably cool so we never needed it. I can’t imagine staying there when it’s actually hot and not having an AC.
The Mediocre: the room was smallish. There was barely any counter space (including the desk). There was a wardrobe with drawers mostly blocked by the bed. The deck was narrow, cramped with the furniture, and when you sat in the chair, the handrail was perfectly placed to block the view. We filled the place up with all our stuff.
The Bad: nothing of note, and that’s saying something. The bathroom needed a little maintenance and we should have brought our own toilet paper.

I loved the location and I can’t complain much for a park lodge.
They clearly have been working on making it nicer with high quality aspects of the rooms (i.e. counters and such). There was not a TV, the wireless internet in the room was not fabulous and there was little to no cell reception. I think I would have struggled more if I had been there for more than one day. Additionally, food was a 10 minute or so walk away but you could also drive I guess.
Overall I enjoyed my stay. The view of the stars outside is awesome and it is many steps up from «roughing it» and camping.

Overall a good place to stay.
For a lodge, standard rooms are decent. Even with hot temperatures during the day (~100), evenings are cool enough to live without air conditioning. The absence of TV is a good way to enjoy the quietness of the location. For those who cannot break from routine, free wifi is available in the rooms.
Food is also pretty good. We only tried the terrace café during our stay, and it was very good. Another more formal restaurant is also available on site.
Location is also great to get some rest right after hiking through the Mesa. Some rooms have great clear view on Mesa Verde. For others, the foreground will unfortunately be the parking lot, but the background remains beautiful.
The only drawback is maybe the price that can be explained by the fact they are the only lodging company inside the park.
A last advice if you plan to stay there is to make your mind whether you will take guided tours or not before getting to the lodge. Indeed, the closest place to get tickets is the visitor center, 15 – 20 miles away from the lodge. This might save you some time! They do not sell tickets on tours locations.

105.00 per night because of special. But we found mouse or rat droppings under sink and more droppings between walls under sink. There is an open wall space for access for sink pipes which apparently allows critters to come in. Screens are a bit old allowing bugs to get in. No AC in certain rooms but they have portable fan. Still warm in room even though outside temp is really nice. Beds are comfortable, shower floor is old, free wifi but no TV! They upgraded us to a nice Kiva room that has AC because of the droppings complaint. For a national park that doesnt make tons of money you cant expect really nice accommodations. But the Kiva rooms are updated. Spend some cash for those rooms. If you’re interested in the history of the pueblo dwellings you must stay here at lodge or stay in decent hotels in town (Cortez) but its about 40 – 45 min up to tour sites from Cortez to sites.

If you are going to Mesa Verde, this *is* the place to stay.
20 minutes away from anything in the park, well worth the time you take to make a reservation.
Good WiFi everywhere except the Metate Room.
No TV, but oh well, that is what the Balcony is for.

I agree with other reviewers in that this is really a 3 star place, but the location brings it up to 4.
So you want to know more about the place? Here it is in a nutshell…
The GOOD:
The ability to stay so close to the visitor center in Mesa Verde is a definite attraction. The on site restaurant was very good, fine dining on an Urban scale (which says something coming from a Chicago area foodie) The room was clean and had most of the amenities I would hope for, including wifi and cell phone reception. There was also a mini fridge and hair dryer provided, which is always nice. This was a pleasant surprise since the website states no wifi, tv or cell phone service. The rooms are arranged in rows with parking in front of each, motel style. There is a balcony with chairs in back, and each room has a blanket hanging near the door for those chilly nights. I was staying with the kiddos, but thought it was nice that the lodge offered a wine delivery service to the room. Nice touch. Staff was friendly, and available 24 hours a day.
The BAD:
Many of the balconies overlook the parking areas and front doors of the next row of rooms. The porch lights to those rooms stay on all night, so if you are hoping to sit on the balcony and stargaze, you are out of luck. We did have a few deer come very close, but they were scared away from the cars pulling into spaces by their room. Kin of defeats the point.
Not all rooms have air conditioning. You have to pay a premium for air conditioned rooms.
Price was high for the overall quality, but then again, they are the only game in town.
The UGLY:
For you gals, there is no place on the vanity to put any toiletries, as the sink is a basin type that sits above the counter, with no counter to spare.
When you walk in the room, it is noisy and feels like you are in a doublewide.
The walls are very, very thin… Uh, lets just say I was there with my kids, and it was obvious our neighbors had utilized the wine delivery service, and with no tv to counteract the sounds from the next room… well, you get the picture. Not quite the «nature» I had planned for them to observe in the national park anyway.

THE WALLS ARE PAPER THIN. You can hear the telephone ring in the room next door. You can hear the toilet flush next door. You can hear the toilet seat being lowered next door. You can hear someone’s alarm next door. When I read all the reviews about the thin walls on TripAdvisor, I thought people were overreacting… sadly, no.
Yes, the location is prime.
Yes, the views are awesome.
Yes, the staff is very nice.
Yes, the dinning options onsite are great!
But, for the price of almost $ 150 a night… the thin walls and nonfunctional AC are inexcusable. We tried to use the AC overnight, however, whenever it would cycle off the change in noise was SO noticeable it woke us up… several times. Finally we turned it off and opened the door and window. Downside of opening door and window is that a 6:30am it is bright daylight in the room. Apparently, I am not the only Unilocaler who had troubles with the AC.
A fan in the room would go a long way in hiding noise from next door and providing a cooling option.
Also, with no TV, no Wi-​Fi and moldy showers, I am not sure where the $ 150 per night is going.
Bottomline: Great location, but for the price and poor sleeping experience, I wouldn’t stay here again.

More like three stars but the location can’t be beat.
Located inside of Mesa Verde Park you are within easy driving distance to all the sites and hiking trails.
One thing to mention right away is the word «Lodge» is a loose term.
The registration desk and lobby (with the only wi-​fi connectivity) is located in this building along with a Lounge/​Bar upstairs and an upscale restaurant, Metate. There is also a small gift shop.
The rooms are nestled along the hillsides. There are 4−8(?) rooms in each unit.
Every room has a small deck with a fantastic view. The standard rooms (the type we stayed in) have queen bed (s), a desk and phone, a small bathroom with toilet and shower, a sink in the vestibule, an iron and ironing board, hair dryer and a desk chair and comfy chair. There is also a mini-​fridge with a teeny freezer compartment (big enough for an ice cube tray)
The bulky «dresser» unit in our room consisted of a top unit with doors that opened to three shelves with bulky doors and two drawers in the bottom part that were so bulky and heavy they were unusable. No closet of any kind.
Our mattresses were too soft for us (I guess we are used to our extra firm mattress at home.) I had to sleep on my side to avoid neck aches.
No air conditioning but there is a fan plus if you open the front door and/​or transom
with the back door or screened back window you can get a nice cross breeze.
No tv or wi-​fi in the rooms. There are ice machines in the parking lot.
You can park right in front of your room.
There are also «kiva» rooms that have air conditioning and other upgrades – all for more money, of course.
There is no laundry on site. You’ll have to drive 11 miles to the campground for that. The only market is also located in the campground. Fortunately we packed enough water, clothing and basic snacks. (Although the lodge discourages having food in your room because of bugs or rodents — neither of which we encountered).
The lodge gets booked up in advance so it is not the kind of place you can just drop in. There are motels in the surrounding towns of Mancos, Cortez and Durango which are 10 – 50 miles from the park entrance. Note that the road into the park is very twisty so it makes for a long drive.
If we ever return we’d probably go in a cooler season. it was already in the 80’s and low 90’s in early June. Many of the park services — eateries, visitor centers are not open all year round.

Far View Lodge has one thing going for it & many things NOT going for it
It is the *only* hotel within Mesa Verde National Park (unless you’re camping) so you’ll be staying here or driving 1 — 1.5 hrs to Cortez for your lodging & after a day filled w/​scaling cliffs to see dwellings, you’re thankful to have something so close by
This being said…
There are 2 kinds of rooms — 1 with a/​c & 1 without. After paying an exorbitant fee for a room WITH a/​c, one expects that a/​c to actually work
Well, it doesn’t…the reason? The unit is RIGHT UNDER a slatted window that won’t shut all the way & is also missing some slats, so all the cool air goes right out the window. BRILLIANT!
…then the motor of the a/​c unit burns itself out & stops all together b/​c it can’t climatize the room (duh!) — all equals a waste of electricity and a sweltering hot room
Given it was hot as blue blazes there (95+ degrees), we had counted on a working a/​c to welcome us back after hiking the mesa all day
Instead we got thin walls w/​babies crying all night, no view as they had stuck us in the back of the complex & their free WiFi is only available in the main building
Oh and you’ll also want to be sure to bring a sleeping mask. There are no blackout curtains — only translucent blinds which let in ALL the moon & sunlight
Were it not for the fact it was a 1 – 1.5 hr drive to get in & out of the Park area, we’d never have stayed here