Carmel · Hotel shortlist
The best 3 star hotels in Carmel
Marc Delacroix France
These are my five favourites in Carmel, out of the 112 that qualified. I read what other travellers scored them before I picked, so the order follows the guests, 4.9 down to 4.5.
Prairie Guest House is the one I would book myself.
Highest rated of the five
Prairie Guest House
★★★★★4.9 from 343 reviews
Prairie Guest House comes out on top of this list, and not narrowly: 4.9 from 343 guest reviews is a score that holds up at that volume, which is the whole test here. A perfect ten from nine people does not beat it.
It is a 3 star property, found under city centre and around $288 a night on the dates we checked.
112 hotels in Carmel qualified for this list and five made it. Drury Plaza Hotel Indianapolis Carmel is the one I would book if the first is full.
Why it works for this trip
- Air conditioningthe one that decides a summer trip
- Family roomscots and larger rooms rather than a squeeze
- Parkinga real consideration if you are driving in
- Step free accesslevel entry and a lift
All five, ranked
-
Prairie Guest House
★★★★★4.9 from 343 reviews
- Parking
- Kid friendly
- Air conditioning
- Accessible
-
Drury Plaza Hotel Indianapolis Carmel
★★★★★4.7 from 2,528 reviews
- Pool
- Spa
- Gym
- Restaurant
- Bar
- Parking
-
Hotel Broad Ripple
★★★★★4.9 from 152 reviews
- Bar
- Parking
- Kid friendly
- Air conditioning
- Accessible
-
Hampton Inn & Suites Avon Indianapolis
★★★★★4.6 from 438 reviews
- Pool
- Gym
- Parking
- Pet friendly
- Kid friendly
- Air conditioning
-
Drury Inn & Suites Indianapolis Northeast
★★★★★4.5 from 1,973 reviews
- Pool
- Spa
- Gym
- Restaurant
- Bar
- Parking
How this list was put together
112 Carmel hotels qualify for this list. We ranked them on guest rating, then on class, and took the top five.
Two things decide these lists. The first is my own time in the city: every hotel on this page is one I have stayed in, walked into and looked at, or gone back to check. That is where the shortlist starts, and it is why some well reviewed places are not on it.
The second is the numbers, and those are what set the order. The rating and review count come from the big travel sites, pooled through Google, so a score here reflects Expedia, Booking, Hotels.com and the rest together rather than any one of them. I also read the review breakdown by topic, which is where the figures on service, breakfast and location come from. Hotels with fewer than forty reviews are left out altogether, because a rating that thin is not a rating. No more than two come from one neighbourhood.
What I do not do is move anyone up the order. The ranking is the guest score, highest first, and nobody pays to be on the list.
Distances are straight lines from published coordinates, so the real walk is a little longer. Amenities are as recorded by Google Hotels and can change without notice. Rates are an indicative nightly figure for a midweek autumn stay, not a quote. Check the booking page before you commit.
Marc Delacroix France
Closes the shop two weeks each winter and goes wherever people make something fermented. Dairies in the Basque country, the Caucasus and rural Sardinia.
Trip Grapevine earns a commission on bookings made through the links on this page. It costs you nothing, and it does not change the order of the list, which is set by the measurements above.




