Open July 2008, the newly built Holiday Inn Express Atascadero faces US 101 towards the south side of town, within one mile of Helimann Park, Atascadero Lake and the Chalk Mountain Golf Course. Other local attractions such as Morro Bay and the Paso Robles wineries are depicted in large format landscape photographs decorating the hotel's lobby, and the 80 rooms & suites. The familiar Express Start free continental breakfast is available, with the nearest restaurants half a mile away on the far side of the highway, along El Camino Real. For leisure the hotel has a modern fitness center, an outdoor pool and hot tub.

One of a limited number of hotels in Atascadero, in the southern foothills of the Santa Lucia Range, the 75 room Best Western Colony Inn is situated towards the north edge of town between Highway 101 and the parallel El Camino Real - far enough removed from the highway for a peaceful night's sleep. The many wineries around Paso Robles are a short drive away northwards. The Colony Inn's clean, newly renovated rooms contain all the expected amenities plus a microwave & refrigerator, and have views either inwards over the hotel's pool & courtyard, or out over houses and grassland of this generally quiet part of town. Free continental breakfast is on offer, with other facilities of a spa, exercise room and conference center catering for up to 180 guests.