Room Service: Best Western Plus Galleria Inn and Suites (Cheektowaga, New York)

Best Western Plus Galleria Inn and Suites
Cheektowaga, New York

Buffalo is a very pleasant city to stay in if you feel like getting away without sacrificing some of that comfortable, modern lifestyle. It's another country using another currency, but we expect useful amenities and smooth highways. We speak the same language, but with a little effort, we can't understand each other. Especially in this particularly precarious day and age, we need to have more cross border contact.

Apart from that sermon above, Buffalo is also quite a convenient city when it comes to hotels. With a spacious geographical layout and more than enough expressways to get around, you're never straying too far from the comfort of a hotel room.

The Best Western Plus Galleria Inn and Suites is a prime example of a property that can be conveniently reached from a highway exit. Tucked in a residential neighbourhood with stores nearby, this property is a two-floor complex with an attached restaurant.

I arrived in a quiet weekend after a day of cross border shopping at the nearby Walden Galleria, a couple of exits away from the New York State Thruway. From the Peace Bridge and the Canadian border, it's a six minute drive, while it's more like half an hour from the City of Niagara Falls. Plenty of ample parking featuring those typically wide American spaces.

Checking in was simple with a nice enough clerk. She had to dig into a list to find out if there was an available room for me when I arrived, but then again I arrived at a ridiculous time - half an hour before check-in hour. I spent a little time in the business centre to help pass the time I waited but could not find a computer that functioned well. None of the computers in the centre were connected to the internet, while one of them might have had a counterfeit license, although it could have just been an error on Microsoft's part. Regardless, it was a disappointment as I had some documents I needed to print related to my trip.

The room itself was down a winding set of corridors that appears to have been renovated very well. It looked like the rooms were once open to outdoor hallways, but a genius decided to enclose this area and add a pool and small courtyard to the property. The room numbers were denoted by odd and even digits, so it may be a little confusing to meander throughout the facilities. One minor issue was that the room lacked a window where you could peek outside - only a window from the front door with a view of the hallway.

The layout of the room was very traditional but quite comfortable to stay in. My room was split in half by a wall that rose halfway like a partition, creating separate sitting and sleeping areas. There was a nice wide couch in the sitting area that transformed into a sofa bed, but the nearby king bed with comfortable sheets had fit me just fine.

There was also a small desk with the right amount of space for a laptop, a wet bar with a small microwave and fridge, plus a bathroom that did not contain a tub but a walk-in shower that made it look like a gym stall. The bathroom took a bit of time to get used to, but there was ample space everywhere.

Wifi service was mostly fast, though a bit sluggish from traffic. Breakfast included hot protein and homemade jams and jellies - perfect to wake up to!