La Quinta Inn airport locations are one of the best places to stay when you need a home base away from home that is convenient to both the downtown business district and the airport. Personally, I love the Pittsburgh Airport La Quinta Inn. Why? Because it’s the one near where I live! I love dropping in for breakfast when my family and friends stay there when visiting.

But always they are asking, “What does La Quinta mean?” It sure sounds Spanish, but my sister, who is a Spanish teacher, could only come up with the explanation that it meant “the fifth.” Huh? So is La Quinta Inn the fifth hotel? Probably not.

I did some sleuthing. I looked up some other places called La Quinta (not so uncommon, as you can imagine) and found an old city called La Quinta. According to their department of commerce, the word is archaic (i.e. not in use anymore. Like Netscape Navigator and Big Mouth Billy Basses). It meant a hacienda or rest stop along the way during a very long journey. Every five days, travelers would take a load off at one of these “la quintas.”  So, there you go – it’s where you stay to recharge on the fifth day of travel.

Now, when you visit the La Quinta Inn at the airport, you obviously won’t be travelling by horseback or foot. But with all the sightseeing and business dealing and family visiting, you can kind of imagine what it must’ve felt like for those early travellers to take a load off after five days.