Up at Mackinac Island's Grand Hotel: Inside a Room

July 17, 2012 at 5:54 PM | by JetSetCD | Comments (0)

How many US hotels do you know that've reached 125 years of business? Well, The Grand Hotel of Michigan's Mackinac Island is one of 'em, as well as being one of the last surviving wooden construction hotels. Its history is long and tumultuous, but its summers are sunny. This week, we'll take a look around the Victorian property and the features and amenities that have made it a top seasonal destination for the last century-and-a-quarter.

Today: Inside a regular room at The Grand

No two rooms of the 385 are alike at The Grand Hotel. Many hotels make this claim by changing the artwork or bedding but, at The Grand, the differences are substantial and noteworthy: custom wallpapers (264 specially designed for The Grand), custom colors (22 specially mixed colors), custom furniture (some taken from estates owned by the likes of Joan Crawford) and the banning of the color beige across the board. These are the opposite of the cookie-cutter, corporate hotel room; they are the vision of interior designer Carlton Varney, prot�g� of Dorothy Draper and infamous fiend for color and prints.

We checked into Room 484 on the top floor of the building, with a view down the main street connecting the hotel to town and the harbor. This being our first visit to the hotel, our initial room reaction was one of "hmm, okay this is interesting. We shall see." It was very feminine, very pretty and very...grand.

Rooms like this begin at $362 per couple, and are on the American Plan. This includes breakfast, 5-course seated dinner and gratuities. More on all that tomorrow *wink*.

After two nights of sleeping under a green satin duvet and dressing from a white wardrobe adorned with geraniums, we fell into the rhythm of the hotel, its colors and spirit, and just got it. The lecture on the history of the hotel from The Grand's resident historian Bob Tagatz aided in our appreciation and, as we've already noted, the hotel was designed like a wrapped gift turned inside out. Too feminine for ya? There's always any of their 40 special suites to browse, like The Lodge of Teddy Roosevelt.

WiFi Connect: Totally free and with an open signal, for easily connecting many devices. We had absolutely no problem with connecting anywhere in the building. Needless to say, we were extremely impressed considering the hotel's age, size and large guest amount (900-ish!)

Amenities: The aforementioned WiFi access of course, but staying at The Grand also include lovely geranium toiletries, air conditioning (a somewhat recent addition, thank god), mint chocolates on your pillow at turndown, delivery of your luggage from and to the ferry docks, and access to the various spaces within the hotel (non-guests are charged per person just to enter). Outside all this is the hotel's Tea Garden with croquet, bocce and other lawn games, the giant Ether Williams Swimming Pool (free Sno-Cones!), other scheduled events, and access to the hotel's stable carriage museum and art museum in town. Do NOT miss the 2-hour lecture on the Porch by Bob Tagatz, The Grand's historian.

Tomorrow: A look inside The Grand's spectrum of restaurants.

Disclosure: We were at the Grand Hotel as a guest of Pure Michigan while on assignment for Jaunted, but rest assured that all photos and opinions are completely our own.

[Photos & video: Cynthia Drescher/HotelChatter]

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