Holiday Inn Express Cape Canaveral is a 150-room hotel at 995 Shorewood Drive, four floors of bright, generously sized rooms that run from 346 square feet up to a 533-square-foot One Bedroom Suite with a king bed and a sofa bed. Every room carries a 50-inch HDTV, a mini refrigerator and microwave, a bean-to-cup coffee maker and a wide work desk. Outside, a heated pool anchors the courtyard with a kid’s splash zone, a sun deck, loungers and curtained poolside cabanas, and the terrace beside it adds a fire pit, soft seating and a bocce ball court. Mornings start with the free hot Express Start breakfast, where the pancake station, the biscuits and gravy and the egg omelets get named again and again in guest reviews.

IHG bills the property as the nearest lodging to the Port Canaveral cruise terminals, and location is what guests rate highest at 4.8 out of 5. Cape Canaveral Beach is about a mile away, the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex sits 15 miles up the coast, and the launch pads are close enough that a night launch becomes part of the stay. Cape Grill and Bar and its Tiki Bar are at the Holiday Inn Club Vacations resort next door and are open to hotel guests. The Cape Canaveral Space Force Museum is 3.2 miles out, Escape Cocoa Beach 2.2 miles, and the Westgate Cocoa Beach Pier 2.8 miles down the shore.