Weird Al Yankovic sings about "the world famous Albuquerque Holiday Inn, where the towels are oh so fluffy and you can eat your soup right out of the ashtrays if you want … it’s OK, they’re clean!" so naturally our trip to New Mexico had to include a stop here. But where IS the "world famous Albuquerque Holiday Inn?" All Holiday Inns in the area seemed typical, fine places in their own right, no doubt, but certainly NOT world famous. Could Al have simply been humoring us in song?
A bit of research revealed the answer. Today’s Albuquerque Marriott Pyramid North was once a Holiday Inn. Further, it was described in an article on Albuquerque that appeared in National Geographic’s Traveler magazine about 15 years ago. Mystery solved!
The hotel is easy to spot from the highway with its two distinctive stepped sides. One complaint: it’s actually more like a ziggurat than a pyramid, but I quibble. Inside, ten floors served by two glass elevators look out over a central atrium. There’s a small indoor/outdoor pool we found very pleasant after a day out and about in the heat and a little fitness center that we studiously avoided.
Our room was typical of the Hyatt/Sheraton/upper level Marriott ilk: clean and decent sized with fairly new furnishings. The price seemed very reasonable -- $109 plus tax per night -- compared to what we’d normally pay in the northeast. But then everywhere we went in New Mexico room rates seemed like bargains.
By the way, our towels WERE fluffy, but not so fluffy we’d sing about them. We had a non-smoking room so can neither confirm nor deny Al’s previous report of ashtray cleanliness.