The Cactus Cove Inn and Suites — Hotel in Amarillo

I can't say enough great things about this hotel — our experience truly exceeded our expectations! I don't write reviews, short ones either apparently. However, if you're looking for an honest review from a skeptic, this is it. My husband and I wanted a quick getaway with our kids, and we couldn't have picked a better place. I was really hoping the hotel would live up to its glowing reviews and photos, because the price seemed like a steal. I'm happy to say it was even better!

Our kids, ages 14 and 10, loved every moment. They fed the fish, played putt putt golf, checkers, and cornhole, enjoyed the heated pool, relaxed in the cozy egg chairs, and my 10 year old thought the slide was the coolest. My son, who's a bit of a tech enthusiast, was over the moon when he saw we could take out the on-property Tesla for an hour — free of charge! It was such a cool experience, especially once we figured out how to unlock it and actually drive it. LOL

The staff was the top notch. They have chosen great people to represent them. One of the friendliest and accommodating I can remember in awhile.

Thaila at the front desk was incredible. She patiently helped me navigate the Tesla app so we could book the ride and unlock the car — "fancy space car," as we jokingly called it! Without her help, the car ride wouldn't have happened. She was always there with a smile, whether it was grabbing us towels, offering to help us check out at the little boutique by the front desk, or kindly handing out fish food to my kids multiple times a day.

We also had the pleasure of meeting Matt, the owner. Thaila mentioned my son's enthusiasm for the Tesla to Matt and he made a point to come out and introduce himself. He even showed my son his Cybertruck — a moment that left my son completely speechless! If you get the opportunity to meet Matt, you will love him like we did. He is so humble and kind. (Must be raised right!) We thanked Matt for his generosity and had a great conversation with him about his vision for the property. Matt shared his goal of making Cactus Cove Inn and Suites the most family-friendly hotel in Amarillo, and we assured him he's well on his way. With the affordable pricing and thoughtful amenities, it's hard to beat. He still has more plans to come so be on the lookout for future additions - Bonus.

Another standout staff member was Nuvia. She seemed to be everywhere — running the front desk, bringing us towels, AND making hot breakfast every morning. She did her best to make sure every guest had a great experience. She was all smiles all the time. It's a little weird to say we were going to miss her, but she was that nice.

The bacon was delicious, and the Texas-shaped waffles made my kids smile. The option to upgrade breakfast for just a few extra dollars was a nice touch. We've never stayed anywhere else that offered such a great, affordable breakfast. When you HAVE to pay for breakfast at other hotels, you certainly can't get a huge breakfast burrito or biscuits and gravy with a side of bacon for $6.99.

When it was time to leave, my kids were genuinely sad. Despite our busy schedule exploring the city, they wished we could have stayed longer just to enjoy more time at the hotel. We've already decided to return and schedule a whole day to fully enjoy everything the hotel offers — breakfast, enjoy all the amenities, take the Tesla to go pick up a pizza for lunch, enjoy all the amenities some more, followed by dinner at the attached Western Horseman. Trust me, that will be a very full day.

If you're considering a stay here, do it! You won't regret it. We hope you love it as much...

I'll start with the things we loved. The atrium that the rooms surround was a great atmosphere overall. There's an indoor pool for swimming in the winter that is heated, alongside a couple of putt-Putt holes and giant cornhole and some nice chairs to lounge in near a fountain. There is a restaurant attached near the lobby entrance, which had really good food and dancing and live music in the evening. The restaurant is perhaps a little pricey but the food was worth it... You can always venture out for cheaper food down the road if you need to. The rooms were clean enough. The beds were comfortable.

I liked this place overall, enough that I would return. I do have improvements and some critiques that I still have to share to advise others honestly. The staff were relatively polite when checking us in. One thing I thought was odd was that they warned us about the key cards losing their information if we were to put them near our phones? Have never heard this warning anywhere else, and indeed we did have one fail although I don't believe we got it anywhere near any of our phones or magnets or anything like that. 😂

When I asked the desk to give me a new card, the first question out of her mouth was what I did with it to make it lose the information for the room. This is horrible customer service, assuming that the customer did something that you now have to fix and that that should be the focus of the conversation. All they have to do is put the card in a machine and enter the number and it takes 5 seconds but that staff interaction was a little annoying.

The rooms were okay, but specific things like the blinds not working for some of the windows, and the fact that all the rooms windows and doors that face out into the atrium are just big blinds as the only light block as well as some rusty fixtures or exposed piping in the rooms in the upper corners etc..

There were no normal amenities I would see like extra plastic bags in the room, there were no do not disturb signs, there was a 20% off coupon for the little convenient shop next to the check-in but no one advised me of that being in the room, and there was a personal envelope with someone's name on it (no contents) on the desk in my room which makes me wonder how thoroughly they cleaned it before I got there.

In the atrium area, despite the rooms only being separated by a thin windows and doors with only blinds to block light and sound, the for some reason decide to blast music from like 8:30 a.m. until the evening? I don't think we noticed it when we first got there because it was almost time for the atrium to shut down but it's pretty disturbing to people's sleep. If they are going to blast music that Early then they may as well leave the atrium and pool open all the time.

Oh... They are doing renovation so this may contribute but one area of the atrium like where the egg chairs are smelled very badly so that we couldn't really chill there. The pool was also very cloudy and seems like it needs better filtration as it also kind of smelled so we didn't want to get in there the second night.

Worth noting that No one informed us of parking accommodations even though the majority of the parking lot has signs about VIP parking and are reserved so you can't park there. Which is a big problem on the weekend because that little restaurant is like a dance club and musical so.... The parking lot fills up pretty quick and we had to park pretty far away from our rooms when we got back late...

Our original reservation was with the Big Texan Motel, about 4 miles east on I-40. I had booked a room about 6 weeks prior; but, due to problems at check in, they sent us over to the Cactus Cove. The issue with the Big Texan is a story unto itself. For their part, the check in at Cactus Cove was easy and things went very well. Thankfully, we were in a 1st floor room. My spouse is partially disabled, and that was part of the problem at the Big Texan, as there are no elevators there and I had requested a disabled "accessible" room. I understand that the Cactus Cove is undergoing some stage of restoration. I hope that it'll be a wonderful thing, but it most certainly had not yet reached our room. So, I can only speak to what we experienced in our room during our stay. The ice machine in the corridor close to our room was non functional. It was either empty, or did not work at all. It growled angrily at me while I attempted to get it to give up its ice. The TV in our room was also nonfunctional. It operated OK in that it came on and the remote worked; but, as there were no cables of any sort physically attached to the TV, save the power cord, it apparently was intended to receive its signal via WiFi, which was clearly inadequate for a seamless viewing experience. In the few moments that it did work, the viewing choices were extremely limited, and it took forever to buffer in order to display a few seconds of programming. I gave up and turned it off. In the shower, there was a giant, round "rainfall" type shower head. In fact, it did not produce a gentle, falling type "rain" shower. Rather, it emitted a multitude of stinging jets of water that felt as if it was machine gunning hypodermic needles at the skin on my arms. In the shower enclosure, there was no "shelf" or dish in which to place soap or shampoo. I set them in the corner of the tub. The water pressure from the shower head immediately washed the miniature bar of soap down into the drain, where I left it. I finished bathing with shampoo. There was no exhaust fan in the bath, so that the mirror immediately fogged over. I used the hair dryer to clear it. The room appeared to be clean enough and the window AC unit did operate well. There was one piece of art work on the wall; otherwise, the room looked bare. Beds and pillows were fair and comfortable enough, although the pillows were a bit thin. We ate at the Big Texan, so we did not try the in house bar or restaurant. The "continental" breakfast was no big deal. My wife said that there were a few grab and go things, and that there was a waffle machine. But, she didn't see anything with which to actually make a waffle. An employee was available to build a breakfast burrito at an additional charge. I opted for some milk and some donuts when I stopped for gas on the way out of town. As it stands, the Cactus Cove would be a decent place to crash in order to come in from the cold or to keep the rain off of one's head. Other than that, this one wouldn't be on my list for a return trip. Maybe, it'll be nice for someone else when it's completely remodeled; but, from our view, it's got...