WA Mt Rainier National Park Pioneer Inn

[Sutter]

It's an historic hotel in a great location. You pay a premium for that. The rooms are small and the walls thin, the hallway floor creakey, and prices (for rooms and food/drinks) high, but that comes with the territory. It helps to read up about the hotel's history in advance, so you can appreciate it. Rooms in the main building have shared bathrooms. We got a room in the annex with a private bathroom. It ostensibly had a Queen-sized bed (for $154 plus tax), though the bed seemed just a double bed and the room designed for one person (price is the same forone or two people). We may have ended up with that room due to a late check-in on a holiday weekend. The next day we saw a larger room being vacated and managed to switch. The room had two beds, each equal in size to that in our first room, albeit with a smaller bathroom. Meals in the main restaurant weren't outrageous in price, albeit inconsistent in quality (e.g., excellent prime rib, and pasta, but fairly poor trout, and buffalo meatloaf). The convenience store by the lodge at Longmire has the cheapest food and liquor we found inthe park. The large lobby, with vaulted ceiling, is probably the nicest part of the Pioneer Inn (the view outside tops that, of course). There were ranger lectures there each night. On weekends there is a free shuttle down to the lodge/restaurant/shops at Longmire, near one park entrance, with stops at places of sightseeing/hiking along the way. Parking is limited. While there is an area set aside for hotel guests, that can be full so you need to find a space elsewhere. Note: the hotel's Web site advises you that there is no Internet or cell phone access, and no TVs or phones in the room, though there are pay phones near the reception desk and at the nearby visitor center.