Having spent 5 days in Paducah, Kentucky while on our 50 state road trip, we headed east to the small city of Horse Cave.
There were a couple of reasons we picked this as one of our stops. First of all, it’s near Mammoth Cave National Park which is somewhere we wanted to visit. Second, the Holiday Inn Express Horse Cave was on IHG’s last list of PointBreaks properties. PointBreaks is a selection of hotels that comes out every 2-3 months which you can book for fewer points than normal.
The fact that the hotel was on the PointBreaks list was just one way we saved when making a reservation – I’ll share more in the ‘Cost’ section later on.
We ended up staying five nights, so here’s a review of our stay at the Holiday Inn Express Horse Cave.
Check-In
We got to the hotel at about 3:30pm; there wasn’t anyone else checking in when we arrived, so we didn’t have to wait.
One random thing to point out – the Holiday Inn Express Horse Cave has the best luggage carts ever. We’ve lived in hotels for almost 18 months and one of the worst parts is unloading and loading our car. Some hotels have small carts, others have carts with flat wheels which makes them hard to push, others only have airport-style luggage carts.
This property had a large cart which meant we could load everything on there. What made it even better was that the cart moved incredibly smoothly; so smoothly in fact that I could push it with one hand and it steered easily. If you saw how much stuff we bring in (we don’t like leaving it in the car after it was broken into last year), you’d understand why that’s impressive.
Having a luggage cart that moves so easily will be unimportant for most people, but for me it was a huge plus.
Anyway, back to check-in.
The lady checking us in made sure we were aware of the pet fee and, I think, had us fill out a pet form (I might be misremembering that part). Seeing as I have Platinum status with IHG, she also asked if I wanted 500 bonus points as my welcome amenity or a drink and snack. I’m all about the points, so I chose those.
Soon enough we had our keys for room 311 and so we headed upstairs.
Bedroom
When entering our room, the bathroom was on the right, with the bedroom straight ahead.
When making our reservation, they didn’t have any king rooms available when using points. As a result, we had to book a room with two queen beds.
The beds were very comfortable, while the room had a good blackout blind which ensured it stayed dark for a good night’s sleep.
In the back corner of the room was a sitting chair. I didn’t ever use it, so I’ve no idea how comfortable it was.
On the opposite side of the room was a desk with an office chair, along with a dresser and wall-mounted TV.
The TV didn’t have a huge selection of TV channels, but there was still a good choice.
To the left of the desk and dresser was a closet and bench we used for our luggage. Above the bench were three hooks that were nice to have for hanging towels and other stuff.
Inside the closet was an iron, ironing board and safe.
Back towards the bathroom was a narrow unit containing a microwave, mini fridge and a Keurig coffee maker.
The Holiday Inn Express Horse Cave seemed to be fairly new, so the furniture was in good condition and the room had nice decor. Another nice feature is that they made connectivity easy. Between the two queen beds were some USB and power outlets.
There were even more available on the other side of the room, along with HDMI and VGA ports in case you wanted to connect another device to the TV.
Bathroom
When entering the bathroom, the sink and vanity were on the right. The countertop was a good size which is something we always appreciate. We make meals in our hotel rooms using our portable kitchen, so it’s nice to have space to wash and dry our dishes.
The toiletries were Bath & Body Works and were good quality.
In the middle of the room was the toilet…
…while the bathtub with shower was on the left. The shower had fairly good water pressure and the water heated up quickly.
Overall, we enjoyed our room at the Holiday Inn Express Horse Cave. It was clean, comfortable and had enough space to store all our stuff thanks to the space above and beneath the bench in the bedroom.
My sole complaint about the room is the location of the air conditioning unit. It was right next to the desk and meant if the a/c was on, it was miserably cold sitting at the desk trying to work. I like the room on the cooler side of things, but even I was frozen when trying to sit there, so I sometimes ended up working from the bed.
Breakfast
Breakfast is free for all guests when staying at any Holiday Inn Express. The one in Horse Cave had a good selection of food, including several hot options each day.
The scrambled eggs were better than I remembered them being several years ago when we stayed at Holiday Inn Express properties more frequently. Scrambled eggs alternated with cheesy omelets on other days.
Egg white and veggie omelets were available every morning. These were much more tasty than you might expect mass-produced omelets to be, so I had one every morning.
They also had a couple of meat options each morning. The day I took the photos they had pork sausage links which were very good and turkey sausage patties that tended to get a little dry. Other days there was bacon and maybe something else.
The other breakfast options were the same pretty much each day.
In addition to the milk and chocolate milk, there was a juice machine…
…along with a coffee and tea station available 24/7 in the lobby area.
The breakfast area doubled up as general lobby seating. There were plenty of tables and chairs, so there was never any issue finding somewhere to sit.
One other thing to note about breakfast – it was always incredibly well stocked. The woman working at breakfast seemed to hustle every day to ensure nothing was ever out of stock, so props to her for doing such a good job.
Amenities
The Holiday Inn Express Horse Cave had a good sized indoor swimming pool that was nice and warm, along with a whirlpool. Unfortunately there were always people in them whenever I tried to get pictures, so I didn’t end up taking any photos so that I wouldn’t look like some kind of fully-clothed creeper trying to take photos of kids in a swimming pool!
The hotel had a fitness room that contained a few pieces of equipment and some weights. The air conditioning unit can be adjusted by guests which is nice as there are few things I hate more than a hot and humid fitness room when using the treadmill.
One slight downside of the hotel is that there’s no guest laundry area. It looks like Horse Cave has a laundromat, but we didn’t need to do any laundry during our stay, so I don’t know how much it costs to use it.
The hotel does have a business center in the lobby with a couple of computers and a printer.
If you get hungry or thirsty during your stay, there’s a pantry area with some snacks and drinks.
Pet Policy
The Holiday Inn Express Horse Cave is a pet-friendly hotel. They accept pets weighing less than 40lbs and they only charge $25 per stay. That’s an extremely low pet fee given that it’s per stay rather than per night. We travel full time with our dog, so having such a low pet fee was greatly appreciated.
The hotel has several grassy areas surrounding the property, so there’s lots of space where your dog can do its stuff.
The location of the hotel isn’t very conducive to going on long walks though as it’s close to a highway. We therefore took Truffles to the nearby city of Munfordville a couple of times at Green River Park & Arboretum for a walk. There’s a paved path around the edge of the park, along with a longer trail (I think about 4.5 miles) heading into the woods.
Service
The service at the hotel was good. The front desk staff were friendly, while the person in charge of breakfast always worked very hard. I think we might’ve declined housekeeping each day, so I can’t attest to how good that is.
Check-In & Check-Out Times
You can check in at 2pm at the Holiday Inn Express Horse Cave, while the check-out time is 11am.
Wi-Fi
The Wi-Fi connection at the hotel was free and was always good and speedy.
Location
The hotel is located just off I-65, so it’s a convenient place to stay if you’re traveling through the center of Kentucky. It’s about 45 minutes away from Bowling Green and less than 15 minutes from Mammoth Cave National Park.
There weren’t many restaurants or other stores in Horse Cave, so for those we went to Munfordville which is about 10 minutes away.
On the other side of the highway is Kentucky Down Under Adventure Zoo. We didn’t go seeing as we’ve seen all those animals in Australia, but it seems to have good reviews online and reduced priced tickets were available on Groupon.
After checking out, we visited both Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Park and Abraham Lincoln’s Boyhood Home at Knob Creek. Those are only 35-45 minutes away from the hotel, so that’s something else to do during your visit. Be aware though that neither his birthplace nor boyhood home feature the original homes – find out more about why here.
Parking
It’s free to park at the hotel and there were always plenty of spaces.
Cost
I mentioned at the beginning of the review that we booked the Holiday Inn Express Horse Cave because it was on IHG’s PointBreaks list. It usually costs 20,000 points per night which is probably fair. It was reduced to 10,000 points per night when we stayed which made it excellent value.
Even better, I have both the old and new IHG credit cards. The new card offers the fourth night free on award stays, so we only had to use 40,000 points for our five nights rather than 50,000. The old IHG credit card also gives a 10% points rebate on award stays, so we’ll get back an additional 4,000 points. That put our net cost at 36,000 points, or only 7,200 points per night.
The paid rate for our stay would’ve been $97.89 per night including tax which is also a fair price. This meant that we got 1.36cpp (cents per point) of value by using points which is very good for IHG Rewards Club points.
Final Thoughts
The Holiday Inn Express Horse Cave in Kentucky is a great hotel. Its rooms feel new and they’re clean and comfortable. There’s a good breakfast spread in the morning and they do a good job making sure it doesn’t stay empty. The staff are friendly and there’s a nice pool and whirlpool.
The minor negatives are that there’s no guest laundry area and the air conditioning unit in our room being located right next to the desk meant it was extremely cold sitting there.
Overall though, we had a great stay and would definitely recommend it if you’re looking for somewhere to stay near Mammoth Cave.
Truffles Approval Rating
Truffles gives the hotel four paws out of four – pawfect. Although it wasn’t really possible to go on any longer walks around the hotel, there was plenty of grass. She got attention from the staff members (which she loves) and the hotel only charges a $25 pet fee.
Being on the top floor also meant there wasn’t anyone loud above us, something that can cause her to bark if they stomp around too much.
Our Rating
Room = 4.6 / 5
Hotel Amenities = 4.4 / 5
Food = 4.7 / 5
Location = 4.3 / 5
Service = 4.4 / 5
Overall Value = 4.7 / 5
Total = 4.52 / 5
Address
Holiday Inn Express, 750 Flint Ridge Rd, Horse Cave, KY 42749
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