Vancouver : Where to Stay
Sleepy In Seattle
By Tom Geirasimczuk
Jul 30, 2008

Splurge

The Alexis Hotel

1007 1^st Ave. | 888-850-1155 | alexishotel.com | from $299

In Seattle’s increasingly competitive boutique hotel scene, it’s no longer enough to label your operation an “art hotel,” put some black and white photos on the walls and trumpet your urban cred to out-of-towners.

Happily, the Alexis, a 121-room hotel with a killer location halfway between historic and quickly gentrifying Pioneer Square and historic and long-gentrified Pike Place Market, shuns gimmicks or labels. Instead, the hotel, much like the century-old building listed on the National Register of Historic Places where it’s housed, is all about timeless class: customer service, thoughtful amenities like pet-friendly rooms, a selection of complimentary national and local newspapers, and locally roasted organic coffee and tea awaiting guests in the lobby each morning. Then there’s the free afternoon wine tastings in the cozy, wood-panelled restaurant, often featuring little-known West Coast bottles.

The art that does drape the lobby and guest rooms is a result of an extensive $10-million reno last year that re-branded the property and established ties with the Pacific Northwest art scene.

Save

Pensione Nichols

1923 1^st Ave. | 206-441-7125 | pensionenichols.com | from $99; continental breakfast included

Half a dozen blocks north of the Alexis is the appropriately named Pensione Nichols, an affordable B&B in Seattle’s pricey downtown market whose star is rising fast. Yes, you have to walk up three flights of stairs because there are no elevators and the cheapest rooms have a shared bath, but the experience only adds to a stay in the recently remodelled 1910 building,

reminiscent of a bit of Paris in the Pacific Northwest. Ten guest rooms share four baths. Families looking for more room will love the two 900-sq.-ft. suites, and their private bathrooms and full kitchens. The sitting rooms look out over the epic Puget Sound and Olympic range and even offer glimpses of Mount Rainier. The recently introduced two-night minimum required in the high season is likely a result of the gushing press ladled on this gem online and by travel media of late, and the returning clientele seeking the past in this city of the future.