Minneapolis Renaissance Hotel harkens back to railroad days

The Renaissance Hotel by Marriott at The Depot is more than just a hotel. It’s a mini railroad museum. Being among the railroad history made our stay there even better.

The hotel, located downtown near the Mississippi River, is located in a renovated train depot. The Milwaukee Road rail is recognized at the hotel.

The building is well designed and offers a view of an old train depot.

The hallways have railroad and train posters hanging on the walls.

You may come upon an exhibit of train employees’ uniforms, such as a conductor or chef.

My favorite statue was a newsie. A kid hawking the old Minneapolis Star newspaper.

Another displayed a couple bidding each other farewell as the man prepared to depart for a military assignment.

Guest rooms had photographs of trains and railroads.

Speaking of rooms, we loved out guest room. It was modern and clean. It had the required necessities for travelers – plenty of outlets to charge devices, including USB ports. The Wi-Fi internet service worked well. However, the internet service can be “enhanced” with a daily special that runs about $10. I’m not a fan of those deals. I favor building in the extra charge into the room rate and allowing every guest the same outstanding internet service.

I was a fan of our room. The work station was spacious and comfortable. The room had a sofa and coffee table, so that made relaxing at the end of the day very enjoyable. We also had room to enjoy our dinner one night when we ordered in.

The front desk has menus of nearby restaurants that deliver to the hotel. We tried a local pizza place. We had a different style pizza – with the tomato sauce on top instead of as the base. It was spicy and tasty.

The Renaissance at The Depot is centrally located among the attractions we were interested in seeing. We were about a 10-minute walk to the Mill City Museum, Guthrie Theater and Gold Medal Park. The Mississippi River and Mill Ruins Park – home of the fun to walk Stone Arch Bridge – is about five minutes from the lobby.

We watched Independence Day fireworks from the Stone Arch Bridge (along with a few thousand “friends”).

The hotel has some great amenities, including a fitness center opened 24 hours a day. The restaurants had ample seating and the food was delicious (breakfast and lunch).

The hotel shares a water park with the Residence Inn, that’s connected. There is a fee for the water park, but it looked like people didn’t care, as there were crowds daily.

Parking is self-service or you can use a valet. I was OK with saving the extra dollars and parking myself. The hotel has plenty of parking available for guests.

The staff was very friendly and professional.

We enjoyed our stay at the Renaissance at The Depot. We recommend it during a stay in the Twin Cities. We plan to stay there again.

For more information on the hotel and the area attractions, please visit www.thedepotminneapolis.com, www.marriott.com or www.minneapolis.org.

Disclaimer: Thank you to meet Minneapolis and The Renaissance Hotel at The Depot for the media rate. However, all opinions and views are ours.