Bayshore Inn - Waterton Park, Alberta, Canada
Written: Jun 17 '08
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Product Rating:
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Pros: -Location
-Price
-Tavern!
Cons: -Overall room quality
-Management
The Bottom Line: There are other accommodation choices in Waterton Park, check them out! If two stars is ok, or you have no choice, Bayshore Inn should do.
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| curtisv632's Full Review: Bayshore Inn |
When I start planning a vacation, I enjoy spending time researching the destinations online to try and make the most educated decisions I can about the hotels to stay at, the places to eat, and the sights to see! Every time I head out on vacation, I always plan on reviewing the hotels I stay at to try and contribute back to others who might want to do research themselves before planning their own vacation. Generally the destinations I would stay at would have a lot of reviews, so I tended to not be too concerned by not contributing reviews similar to what already exist.
In the case of the destination we recently stayed at, The Bayshore Inn, I was not able to find any reviews of the hotel, and what information I was able to find seemed to be decent enough to take a chance on. No red flags, beautiful destination, and reasonable prices. So my girlfriend and I decided to go for it!
Things got off to a bit of a rocky start...
LOCATION
Waterton Park is located in South-West Alberta, Canada and the park was very easy to find. There was even cell service all the way to the village so we used Google Maps tied into GPS on my Blackberry to guide us all the way there. The best part about any trip to Waterton is the scenery, and it most certainly did not disappoint.
As you near the park, the area gets very hilly and you get some incredible views of the very large mountains in the park including Dungarvan (8418 ft) and Bertha (8005 ft) of which Waterton village site sits in the shadow of. It is interesting to note the village only has a permanent population of about 80 people. Most of the hotels are closed during the winter and bring in staff during the open seasons.
THE HOTEL
The hotel is situated along the banks of Upper Waterton Lake and affords some beautiful views of the lake and surrounding area. The prices of the rooms were very reasonable, and all the information I could find on the web indicated this property was a two to three star hotel. The lobby of the hotel was small but charming and had a large gift-shop attached to it. On site food services and entertainment include:
• The Main Dining Room: It was renovated last year including a brand new menu and provides beautiful views of the lake and mountains,
• The Fireside Lounge: A quiet lounge for dinner and an evening drink.
• Glacier Café: Nice little café where you can enjoy a quick breakfast, lunch or dinner from the same menu as the dining room, or enjoy a specialty tea, coffee, or a desert!
• Thirsty Bear Saloon: A fun and bustling (after 11:00 PM) tavern with a large dance floor.
THE PRICE
Prior to June 12th is still considered off-season for the area, so prices range from $119 for a non-lakefront room with 2 beds, to $179 for a family suite with 2 rooms and 3 double-beds. They also have a honeymoon suite which goes for $199 a night. Even during peak season, the prices do not go up all too drastically ($209/night for the family suite). There was originally going to be 4 of us going on the trip, so we had reserved a family suite.
OUR ROOM
We arrived late on a Friday night, and checked in at around 10:30 PM. We had planned on heading to bed right away so we could get an early start on the sights around the park. Our room was on the 2nd floor (2 storey hotel) and as we entered our room, we noticed a few things were not right. The carpets were quite dirty and it was obvious they had not been vacuumed. There were rocks and mud chips throughout the room. Even the beds had small wood-chips and other things on them. The bathroom floor had not been cleaned and there was garbage from the previous occupants in both garbage cans and even on the floors. There were also about 10-15 dead mosquitoes on the bathroom counter and in the bathtub. Top of the list went to the un-clean toilet bowl. I don’t want to go into much detail on that one – I’ll leave it to your imagination.
HOTEL RESPONSE
We immediately phoned the front desk to let them know of the situation. Within about 10 minutes (11:00 PM) the housekeeping supervisor and 3 of his staff were standing outside our door. They offered to clean the room immediately. So we accepted and headed to the Thirsty Bear Saloon for a drink while we waited. We were all pretty tired, but we didn’t really want to make a fuss about the situation so late at night, and were just anxious to get to bed and start sightseeing the next day.
NOT ALL BAD
There were certainly a few good points about the room. It was a second floor unit and had a balcony which afforded some spectacular views of the lake and mountains. The beds were comfortable, and when we were sleeping, I liked to keep the window open so we could listen to the waves. The winds are rarely calm in many areas of Waterton including the village, so we found it quite soothing to sleep with the sounds of the wind and waves.
MORE ROOM FUN
Aside from our initial room impression, we noticed a few other things about the room. The heat didn’t seem to work properly as the room was constantly hot, even with the balcony and windows open. The thermometer was set to 60F, and the temperature outside was 40F, but the room felt like 80F!! In the bathroom, there was no ventilation fan, although there was a heating unit. After showering the bathroom became incredibly humid soaking everything in it in a layer of mist even with the window open. Aside from all that, we can only imagine what the neighbors below us could hear as we could pretty much make out their conversations.
DINING
We decided to eat brunch the next day in the hotel dining room before we headed out sightseeing. The food and service were both pretty good. Late in the evening we ended up back at the dining room for diner as our 2 other choices in the village were too busy to accommodate us. Since the food and service were decent earlier, we were pretty comfortable having diner there. Our second meal was certainly a far cry from the first.
The food this time was ok. I had chicken cordon-bleu which was decent, while my girlfriend had steak cooked to medium-well. It ended up being quite tough and not all that flavorsome or impressive. What was most unappealing about our meal was the service we received. The waiter seemed very annoyed from the moment we sat down. It really seemed as if this guy didn’t want to be there, or as if we didn’t belong in his section of the restaurant. He was very quick to drop things off, didn’t acknowledge thank-you’s, and didn’t make any attempt to offer refills or even ask us how our meals were.
I’ve been to a lot of restaurants over the years, and this time definitely ranked as one of the least enjoyable meals I’ve ever experienced (and I consider myself quite fortunate to not have experienced much worse). Thank goodness for the beautiful lake and mountain views!!
THE THIRSTY BEAR
Probably the highlight of the stay was the Thirsty Bear Saloon. It is a fun little night club that really picks up after 11 PM. It’s a very spacious place with a 2nd floor balcony, a vaulted ceiling, and plenty of dance-floor! We dropped by both nights to have a drink and do a little dancing. It was a blast!! There was lots of interesting people and the staff was very friendly.
CHECKOUT
We certainly didn’t expect much at checkout despite assurances by more than a few staff members over the course of the weekend that we would be “taken care of.” The front desk manager didn’t even acknowledge I was checking out and his young assistant seemed more concerned with not crossing his path or getting in his way rather than asking me any questions about my stay. A guest ahead of me had done his share of complaining about his stay, so I didn’t really feel the need to waste my breath. It was obvious it was going to fall on deaf ears.
OVERALL EXPERIENCE
If you expect about a 2-star hotel, then the Bayshore Inn may not disappoint, especially considering the location. It certainly didn’t surpass any expectations for us, was reasonably priced, convenient, provided some excellent views, and was decent enough to allow us to get a good nights sleep. We also really enjoyed dropping by the Thirst Bear and recommend everyone checks it out.
There is no doubt that Waterton Park is an impressive little gem in the south-west corner of Alberta, and we thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the area. If we came back, we would definitely like to try some of the other hotels in the area, including a prestigious hotel located on a bluff overlooking Waterton Lake called the Prince of Wales Hotel.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
curtisv632
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Member: Curtis Voyer
Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Reviews written: 33
Trusted by: 30 members
About Me:
I'm a Software Developer, but I also enjoy writing! Been a while, but I'm baaaaaaack!
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