Our Stay at the Holiday Inn Express in Silver Spring, MD was Pleasant!

Disclosure: I received a discounted or free product to help facilitate the review. All opinions stated are genuine and my own.

Holiday Inn Express
7990 Georgia Avenue  Silver Spring,  Maryland  20910 

What do you look for in a hotel? When my family and I travel, there are certain things, besides safety which is paramount, that we look for to help make our stay more enjoyable. The three things that top my list are location, free WiFi, and free breakfast. The Holiday Inn Express in Silver Spring, Maryland had them all.

The room was a standard double-bed.
There was an easy chair and small table not pictured, on the other side of the bed to the left.

We booked a standard two-bed room. It was clean and came with all you might expect.

Free WiFi was available for our entire stay.

There was the writing/desk area. Free WiFi was provided for the entire stay, which made it nice for checking the weather, news, etc. 

The little freezer came in handy for gelato, and the refrigerator held
our restaurant leftovers and drinks!

A flat-screen TV, microwave, and mini-refrigerator/freezer were also appreciated conveniences in the room. A lot of times we had leftovers from our dinners out, and this provided us with a fast way to reheat them when someone was hungry, but we weren't quite ready to go out.

There was also ample storage for Minecraft Characters...because when you're 7-yrs.-old and you just got the set for Christmas, those little guys are traveling with you. ;) The drawer was instantly claimed as 'animal space' and that's where the stuffed animal crew lived. My son kept his clothes in his suitcase (so his characters could have the drawer), lol!

The closet was small but efficient.
There was also a safe, and a shelf just above the hanging bar.

The closet in the room offered a safe, an ironing board/iron, a shelf, and plenty of room for our coats. The iron and ironing board are great for touching up dress clothes, when you're having more than just a casual night out.

Loving that tile!

The bathrooms were spotless, and had a cool tile in them that made the room lively. Housekeeping was spot-on with providing us with what we needed each day, and they went out of their way to be polite.

The small touches sometimes made us laugh,
but they were all appreciated.

Little touches like the carefully folded end of the toilet paper made us laugh, but they were appreciated.

The Hot/Cold Breakfast was supervised so nothing ran out.
It also ran until 9:30, allowing the slower folks in our group to get fed. ;)

The free breakfast in the morning was monitored by staff, and provided both hot and cold items aplenty. It ran until 9:30 each day, allowing plenty of time for even the stragglers in our group (*cough* my teen *cough*) to make it downstairs with plenty of time to get fueled up for the day.

I'm not even a breakfast person usually (terrible, I know)
but I enjoyed the food and the uninterrupted (aka unplugged) time with the family.

Honestly, I'm not big on morning eating for myself, but I did surprise myself by enjoying fruit (or yogurt), a bagel and juice each morning, and I completely appreciated not having to find a place to buy breakfast. While it's certainly the least expensive meal of the day, feeding a family of (4) three meals a day, when you're out-of-towners, can get downright pricey. Plus when there's breakfast in the hotel, you don't feel so rushed to get ready and out in the a.m.

The Pancakes in a Minute Flat machine captivated the kids. ;)

There were hot breakfast items, like sausage, eggs, and biscuits. It was the Pancakes in a Minute Flat machine, however, that wooed the hearts of my children. There was just something fun about putting your plate at the end of the machine, and having two pancakes almost instantaneously pop out (no flipping required ;) ).

High tables and booths.

Seating in the breakfast area was ample, with both high table,

Low table and more booth seating.

low-table, and booth selections.

The Cultural Arts Center was directly across the street from the hotel.
It was one of many, many places (including ample dining and shopping)
 to visit in the immediate neighborhood.

After we fueled up for the day, hitting the area attractions was first on our to-do list. The location of the Holiday Inn Express in Silver Spring, MD. is ideal for two reasons. First and foremost, it is in a prime location all on its own. We could literally walk across the street to the Cultural Arts Center, and all around us, as far as you could walk in every direction, we were surrounding by fun/interesting/amazing things to do.

Food Tip: If you're a pizza-lover, like we are, you can walk to Pacci's Neopolitan Pizzeria. We did, and my oldest and his wife met us there. Everyone thought it was a great place to get a pie! If pizza's not your thing, no worries, there are tons of eating establishments in close vicinity to the hotel.

A metro map was conveniently located in the lobby area.
We took the metro twice to DC

The second reason the hotel location is ideal is that it sits just outside of DC, and a short ride on the metro took us most anywhere in the busy city that we wanted to go...without the agitation, and hustle & bustle of traffic in that very busy area.

There was a shuttle at the hotel, but the metro stations were so close,
and the weather was so nice that we just walked to them.

There was a shuttle van that would take you to the metro if you wanted to use it (there was also a metro bus out front), but there were metro stations close enough to walk. The weather was so mild and pleasant when we were there that we took the opportunity to enjoy it, and skipped the shuttle altogether. Walking was more fun, and it was nice to have that downtime walking, and joking with the family. Everyone was along for our walk except my daughter-in-law and grandbaby, who met us at our destination (they were 20 minutes late because they drove...DC traffic is really just that crazy!).

The rooms had free WiFi, but there was a business center
that included a printer, if you wanted to use it.
It was located in the main lobby.

The rooms had Free WiFi, but if you wanted to utilize the business center in the lobby, you were free to do so. The printer would prove useful for airline tickets, directions, or any other multitude of things if you needed to use it.

There was a small but efficient workout center.
It also had a water dispenser in the corner.

There was also a small, but efficient workout room, for those brilliant enough to get their exercise groove on during their stay. For us, it was our holiday, so I skipped my workouts entirely, and with no regrets. :D

Pay Laundry makes me happy. It means there is no need to over pack!

Pay facilities for laundry were a nice touch. I like to have laundry on-site, that way I don't have to overpack! Luckily for us, we didn't need to use them, but I loved the option that they were there.

Hotel Parking was Free!

Parking at the hotel was free, and in that area, that's a really big deal. There was also meter parking outside of the hotel (you could renew/refresh it from your phone!), and guest parking was available if needed, for a small fee. In addition to that, a public parking garage was located directly behind the hotel. So refreshing to have so many options to park, in such a busy place.

Everything above was just par for the course for the kids... but when my teen
found gelato in the snack pantry in the lobby, the hotel became her instant favorite.

All of the things I mentioned, we greatly appreciated in the hotel. It was the talenti Mediterranean Mint gelato though, that sent my daughter over the glee moon. She purchased two of these during our stay, with her own Christmas money. They were offered for sale in the hotel's convenient drink/snack pantry in the front lobby. Her first gelato was purchased when our family stopped over to get us for a daily outing. That meant two big brothers who also like gelato were in the room (one of whom indulged liberally). ;) Her second purchase was done at a time when the boys were gone to my oldest son's house. I'm still laughing. She'll share, but with gelato, she'd definitely rather not. ;)

Holiday Inn Express
7990 Georgia Avenue  Silver Spring,  Maryland  20910 

All in all we were very happy with our stay. The only downside, and it really wasn't a downside at all since the air had a fan option, was that the big windows didn't open easily, and when they did it was just a crack. It was so nice weather-wise (unheard of for this time of year!) that we really wanted to get some fresh air in the room...but on the bigger scale of things, not being able to do so was really no big deal.

We enjoyed the Holiday Inn Express in Silver Spring, MD., and would gladly return for a future visit. In fact, we very well may, we still have so many things we want to see and do in both Maryland, and in DC!

You can learn more about the hotel by visiting their website.  You can also follow all Holiday Inn Express hotels on Facebook and/or Twitter.