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Van Gilder Hotel the
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$$$
4 reviews for Van Gilder Hotel the
Van Gilder Hotel was my saving grace when I went to meet my fiance's family in Alaska last year. After a week of hell, I said we need to go check into a hotel for a night and be by ourselves (the totality of trip was two weeks!).
We drove into Seward later in the day and found this place. It was expensive for one night's stay, but the people who worked there were exceptionally nice and very friendly. It's down the street from the Seward SeaLife Center (walking distance), so we went over there the next morning and got to see all the neat sea creatures that are native to the area.
We checked out the next afternoon but not until we went up each floor and read the captions on all the neat photographs they have throughout the hotel. If you ever make it to this place, make sure you look for the photo of the original owner and her pet porcupine. It'll blow your mind!
I tip my hat to the kind people of Van Gilder who helped save my sanity!
A really cool old hotel. It's not a 5-Star, modern place with a big flat panel TV, room service or the like, but it's a cool place to stay. The room had a queen sized brass bed with an antique looking comforter, but clean, new sheets.
There was a rotary phone!! Awesome.
Beautiful (original?) hardwood floors.
Clean, comfortable, and warm.
Maybe a tad price-ie, but that's Alaska in the Summer for ya! It was the cheapest hotel in Seward, though.
The building was very old, and as a result, creaked and moaned a probably lending to the ghost stories. (A woman was shot there though). I though it added to it's charm.
I recommend it if you want a cool, no frills place to stay...
(Why would someone bitch about the place having actual keys? Key-cards blow!)
I stayed at this hotel in June 2008. The front desk staff was friendly and personable. The hotel is older and it shows. I appreciate that it is a historic building, and wouldn't want the place to go out of business. However, I think the owner should take care of a few things. First, the carpet on the front steps is visibly ragged and worn, with huge raggedy holes in it. The paint on the outside really needs to be touched up and completely redone in places where it is chipping off. Also, as I will detail later, the shower did not work properly. Don't be fooled by the photos on the hotel website- this place is small, old, worn looking, and quaint but worn on the inside. It is also worth noting that the parking is in small, crowded gravel lot behind the hotel, and is the "one with the trailer parked in it."
As others have noted, there is no elevator. I did not have a problem with that, but it is something to be aware of. There are interesting photos of old Seward, important figures in Seward's past, and details about the town on the walls. There is also a nice painting from the 40's. Decor is acceptable and has a quaint historic feel.
The rooms open with regular keys, not card keys. The lock is older, not heavy duty or particularly secure. Inside the room, there is a brass bed and a really old looking, possibly vintage bedspread that looks like it hasn't been washed in months or years. The sheets, however, were clean and the bed was neatly made. There is a tiny TV in the far, upper corner of the wall, which is a bit funny, because there is a bureau in front of the bed where a TV could be placed. The TV on the bureau would be much easier to see, and would also not require all the effort that they took to install a shelf and a TV up near the ceiling. There is no hairdryer, AC, heat, or iron in the room, which is good to be aware of before your stay. The walls are also extremely thin, which is understandable for an old building, but is also something that one should be aware of. It was easy to hear other guests talking in their rooms.
The bathroom was small but clean, with a somewhat hilarious early 1900's photo of a lady with a bare behind standing next to a bicycle. I could have overlooked all the other problems, but my main gripe with the hotel is that the shower did not work properly. The shower is either scaldingly, dangerously hot, or ice cold. There is no in between. I struggled with it for about 20 minutes before wearing out the hot water for perhaps 3 minutes and managing to jump in and wash my hair before the water turned ice cold again. That is not a real shower and not what I paid 158 dollars per night for. I also thought that since the water starts out ice cold, then goes to lukewarm for about 30 seconds, then suddenly becomes scaldingly hot, that a child or older person that is not able to jump out in time could be seriously hurt or burned. When I informed the front desk of the problem, I was informed that the problem is common in the hotel and happens all the time. I am sure that is not the answer that potential guests want to hear and it is something to consider before staying there. For this reason, I would not stay at the hotel again.
This is the coolest old hotel you could ever stay in. Plus its HAUNTED! No joke. Go ask your mother.
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