An Adventure At The Crowne Plaza at Historic Union Station

This is the story of a 2-day family getaway and one of the coolest hotels our eyes have ever seen: An Adventure At The Crowne Plaza at Historic Union Station

On a recent trip to Indianapolis, Indiana we had a wonderful time exploring downtown Indy and the surrounding area. But the cherry on top was our stop-you-dead in your tracks hotel accommodations!

An Adventure At The Crowne Plaza at Historic Union Station

The one of  kind  Crowne Plaza at Historic Union Station is both an attraction and a unique and comfortable place to lay your head. I have never seen a hotel so completely and wonderfully awesome as this. First, it’s located in majorly historic area of Indianapolis. Lot of history here in this place and it is a National Register-listed train station.

Basically, we’re talking about the story of a magnificent feat of architectural ingenuity, whereas the good folks developing the property decided to build a hotel around the steel beams and storied remains of one of the countries first major (and Indianapolis’s first) train stations in the Midwest. And although this hotel has novelty aspects it is a full-service hotel and conference center. The hotel boasts a total of 273 rooms, but they have something no other hotel in the country has.

The Crowne Plaza at Historic Union Station has 26 authentic Pullman Traincar sleepers, and they’re sitting on their original tracks! How cool is that? Very, very cool beans indeed.

For some reason we didn’t go to the Crowne Plaza hotel website before we got here. We didn’t check it out all so we really didn’t know what to expect. So after we get checked in we grab our baggage and leave the lobby and just as we round the corner to the left enter the spacious atrium. You’ll notice the tall green painted, riveted steel beans and other clues that will tell you this place was once something else. What we’re looking at are the leftover raised train track supports. And to our surprise the trains and the remains of the original Union Station are the isn’t only thing there is to see. Brass yourself, they’re also ghosts! And no, I am not losing my mind either because I saw them with my own two eyes.

The Ghosts you’ll see located throughout the Crowne Plaza hotel were original fixtures at a local mall. However, when the mall went out of business years ago the ghosts were given a new home within halls of the Crowne Plaza hotel.

And it is a natural fit, because what are ghosts but reminders of what was and they’re a lively bit of nostalgia in wispy white and gossamer forms. But these are ghosts of a friendly and welcoming nature, they’re train conductors, patrons, young men and women and hobos catching a ride to Chicago looking for work.  These are reminders of a far and long gone era and they definitely have a certified cool factor.

But for us the highlight and delight of this hotel stay were the Pullman Traincars hands down. And these converted in luxury suites are something to talk about. The boys were so excited to be staying in such cool digs. They were snapping pics with their respective cell phones and  sharing the pics with their friends.

We were stayed in the Rudolph Valentino cars and I was so thrilled! I told my wife, “We’re staying in the Rudolph Valentino room! However, in return she looked at me nonplussed and offered only this, “And?” Like many people of a certain age certain celebrities from long ago are all but forgotten or they just honesty never heard of them. FYI. Rudolph Valentino was the Brad Pitt of his day but unlike Mr. Tyler Durden the heart-throb Valentino died in his early 30s and he didn’t have a village of children. All of the Pullman suites are named after music, film and personalities from early to the mid 1900s. Popular rooms are the Charlie Chaplin, Greta Garbo, Amelia Earhart, Cole Porter and Diamond Jim Brady rooms just to name a few.

Everything about these converted rooms screams comfort, from the super comfy beds to the hot showers and a ton of white fluffy towels.

And to really get the full experience I highly recommend ordering room service. We decided to splurge and give the boys their first room service experience. They LOVED it! The Chicken Quesadillas are highly recommended.

Below is a list of additional features you will find at Crowne Plaza  at Historic Union Station:

• Baggage Handling (Fee)
• Business Center
• Catering Available
• Exercise/Fitness Room
• Gift Shop
• In-House Audio-Visual Service
• Laundry Service/Valet
• Lounge/Bar On Site
• Restaurant On Site
• Room Service
• Snack Bar/Shop
• Swimming Pool (Indoor)
• Walk to Attractions
• Walk to Restaurants
• Walk to Shopping

This Crowne Plaza is centrally located to restaurants, stores and attractions. And if you don’t want to walk, attractions are just a short drive away.

Overall, we were pleasantly pleased with our stay at The Crowne Plaza in Indianapolis. It was a cool experience and an honor to be able to stay in a train car. I highly recommend trying one at as part of your experience. To me, this made our short drive worth it, and was a big piece of our vacation experience in Indianapolis.

Disclosure: I received a complimentary stay to facilitate this review. However, this post contains nothing but my 100% honest opinion!