Three beautiful hotels – which one is right for you?
Credit to Author: Dave Pottinger| Date: Sat, 26 Oct 2019 14:14:18 +0000
Late last year my wife and I were planning a a pre-Christmas river cruise down the Rhine when we discovered that a unstable heart arrhythmia I have made travel insurance impossible to get.
So we put the passports away and instead spent the travel dollars on mini-vacations located within relatively easy-driving distance of our Victoria home. We spent Christmas at the spectacular Wickaninnish Inn in Tofino. In April we crossed the Alberta border in our family jalopy to experience iconic Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel. And in May we drove/ferried to Salt Spring Island to stay at the quaintly bucolic Hastings House.
The Fairmont Banff Springs is Canada’s legendary “Castle in the Rockies.”
It seems odd to compare two boutique B.C. inns with Banff’s gigantic former railway hotel. Hastings House considers roughly 45 guests to be a full house. The Wick, as it’s nicknamed, has a total of 75 rooms and suites. Meanwhile Fairmont Banff Springs, with 757 rooms/suites likely absorbs 1,500 guests without resorting to a shoehorn.
Nevertheless, there’s a key commonality: All three lodgings lean toward high-end comfort and these three enterprises offer experiences so unique that most travellers will appreciate the value/cost exchange. We’d certainly return to any of them.
Hastings House County House Hotel is on Salt Spring Island.
While our travels created multiple memories, there is, for me, a signature recollection from each location — much like that unforgettable scene in your favourite movie:
• At Wickaninnish on a sunny Christmas Day, with temperatures nudging 10 celsius, we stroll two kilometres of pristine Chesterman Beach. The waves, rolling in one after another from the Pacific, are being ridden by scores of wet-suited surfers. Underfoot the firm sand is studded with tidal pools, kelp bits, sea shells and craggy rocks. Seagulls glide effortlessly above. The salty sea air sweeping in off the ocean hints at exotic places. We are exhilarated.
Chesterman Beach surfers at Christmas time in 2018.
• In Banff a gondola whisks us 670 meters upwards to the chilly top of Sulphur Mountain. From a wooden boardwalk straddling the summit ridge we witness six different Rocky Mountain ranges. Caught between a bright sun and a cerulean sky, the snowy mountain tops radiate dazzling whiteness. Far below, the evergreen Bow River Valley and castle-like Banff Springs Hotel exist in a different world. The grandeur leaves us humbled.
A panoramic view of Rocky Mountain ranges and the Bow River Valley from the writer’s Fairmont Banff Springs room.
• Sitting on the flagstone patio of Hastings House, sherry in hand, we bask in the warm May sun. A breeze lifting off Ganges harbour carries the sweet aroma of wild roses. Diamonds of sunlight bounce off the harbour’s blue waters. A rainbow of colours — reds, yellows, greens, blues, whites — surrounds us in the lush, unruly English country gardens. A blissful silence yields occasionally to the melodic chirping of songbirds. We are calmed.
The path to the Willow suite at Hastings House.
We found each property delivered a different vibe. Likewise for the architectures.
Banff Springs Hotel, with origins dating back 130 years, is an enormous Chateauesque limestone structure with the steep roofs, dormers and turrets typical of Canada’s grand railway hotels. Its lobby, with soaring arches, immense windows and grand staircases is stunning. We spent hours exploring ballrooms, meeting rooms, viewing rooms, shops, lounges and a dozen restaurants. The paintings and antiques scattered throughout must be priceless.
The Wick, on the other hand, is a zen retreat of cedar, stone and glass unobtrusively tucked between forest and ocean. Its circular Pointe Restaurant provides a spectacular panorama of beach, tiny islands and the wild Pacific Ocean. Outside lighting along paths and lanes typifies the Wick’s understated footprint. Small hollowed-out rocks at ground level emit a soft glow to guide pedestrians and drivers.
The lobby of The Pointe Restaurant at The Wickaninnish Inn.
Hastings House, like Wickaninnish, a member of Relais and Chateaux, an international association of independent establishments dedicated to hospitality, is anchored by the Manor House, built in the early 1940s to replicate an 11th Century Tudor-style English residence. Its Shakespearean interior is all about post and beams, white plaster walls and leaded windows. Six satellite premises include a cottage which was once Salt Spring’s original Hudson’s Bay Post. In addition to sheep pastures, the property’s 22 acres incorporate extensive gardens, some of which grow herbs and vegetables for Hasting House chefs.
A great hotel, large or small, demands great staff. All three of these establishments trumpet this precept. Their claims are largely, but not wholly, accurate.
Wick personnel epitomize the ideal. Without fail, in our experience, everyone from the front desk to the cleaning staff to the servers and bartenders made us feel genuinely welcome and important. They were all amiable, knowledgeable, courteous and keen to help.
Part of the Grand Lobby at Fairmont Banff Springs.
Staffers at Banff Springs, though not quite as high profile given the enormity of their workplace, were similarly dedicated. Hats off, for example, to the valet who, when asked to summon a taxi to the Sulphur Mountain gondola, decided “business” was slow enough that he could drive us himself free of charge.
At Hastings House, superior service was intended, but we found its execution was spotty. The young woman at reception extended happy anniversary wishes before we’d even introduced ourselves. Good try, but a tad off (it was my wife’s birthday). While registering us, she tried to be personable, but came off nervous and uncertain. Two days later we returned to reception to change a dinner reservation, a different young woman, unfamiliar with the system, promised to have a colleague phone us. That call never came.
Like good staffing, guest room quality is critical. At The Wick and Hastings House our rooms were fantastic: spotless, with expansive seating areas, fireplaces, comfy king beds and large, well designed bathrooms. Luxurious.
Our Banff room was handsome, but claustrophobic. The bathroom was designed for smurfs. A postage stamp-sized shelf under the sink accommodated some of my wife’s toiletries. Mine had to be shuttled in from an ironically large walk-in closet. I complained about the mismatch between room size and room rate. The response: Sorry, but heritage buildings can’t be renovated.
If there was a universal Achilles heel amongst all three establishments, it was, surprisingly, the “cuisine.”
Arriving at Banff Springs after a late lunch, we opted for a light dinner at Stock Food and Drink, the hotel’s fancy-pants cafeteria. Pea soup, a bowl of chicken and veggies, plus two glasses of house white cost $59. On night two we walked into town and patronized Nourish, an inventive, moderately priced vegetarian restaurant. On night three we cancelled reservations at the hotel’s Japanese restaurant and ‘dinner-sized’ our lunch at Sky Bistro atop Sulphur Mountain. Tasty buffet; spectacular views!
At the Wick we enjoyed some lovely breakfasts and lunches at The Pointe and the Driftwood Cafe. But the ultimate —Christmas dinner — was disappointing. We both ordered the three-course turkey special, while “plated” enticingly, the turkey and trimmings were lukewarm. (Note: Shortly after our stay, The Wick hired a new executive chef. Changes perhaps?)
Likewise, we experienced mixed results at Hastings House. One morning the chef, with no advance notice, cooked up a lovely plant-based breakfast for my wife. Unfortunately, our dinner in the Bistro was lacking. My pork tenderloin schnitzel resembled a stiff piece of cardboard and was bland to boot. My wife, meanwhile, enjoyed a tasty vegetarian piccata. Kudos to the kitchen, however, for the daily 7:30 a.m. deliveries to our room of freshly baked and still warm muffins.
And finally we arrive at the math behind our experiment in higher-end accommodation. Here are our daily room rates.
The idyllic view from our Willow Hillside Suite Hastings House room.
Hastings House Unit #304 — Willow Standard King Hillside Suite. Total cost for three nights: $1719.15.Per night cost = $573.05 (includes PST, GST and a $25 per night resort fee). Complementary services provided:- free breakfast (full English-style), free hot muffins delivered to room each morning, free afternoon tea/sherry service with cakes/cookies etc., turn-down chocolates nightly- free parking- gift bottle (small) of Proseco for my wife’s birthday, small Hastings House notebook Dinners and lunches required payment.
Update from Hastings House: This is the high season rate which runs from May 15 to September 14. The low season rate would have a total cost of $1447.95. The low season is March 13 to May 15 and September 14 to November 2. The rate also includes the region’s newly implemented Municipal Regional District Tax (MRDT).
Hastings House is closed seasonally from November 4, 2019 to March 13, 2020,
A view of Chesterman Beach from the writer’s room in the Beach Building at Wickaninnish Inn.
Wickaninnish Inn – Room 011 Beach House — Beach Level Deluxe 1 King Total cost for four nights: $2227.20.Per night cost = $556.80 (includes GST, Room Tax, Municipal/Regional Tax). No resort fee. Complementary services:- free parking- free rain gear, rubber boots, binoculars- Christmas gifts: stocking with candle, foraging guide, 2 small Baileys Irish Cream, 1 jam, 1 marmalade, Tranquility Balm, 2 cookies, Spiced Nuts, Chocolate Bark, 1/2 lb coffee, Post-it Notes. Also a carved Xmas ornament. All meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner) required payment.
Wickaninnish Update: Rates for the 2019 West Coast Christmas package begin at $2330.46 plus applicable taxes. Package includes, three nights accommodations for two, for arrivals on December 23rd, 24th or 25th.
Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel – Room 0283, Fairmont View King Total cost for three nights = $1187.01.Per night cost = $395.67. (Includes GST, Tourism improvement fee, Alberta Tourism Levy, Valet Parking and a $25 per night resort fee).Advance documents described the hotel’s resort fee as discretionary, but it was mandatory. A post-stay complaint resulted in the $25 nightly resort fee being refunded. There were no unique complementary services relative to those cited at the Wickaninnish and Hastings House.All meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner) required payment.
Fairmont Banff Springs update: Load up in your mountaintop sleigh and visit Santa’s workshop at the summit of the Banff Gondola. Enjoy Christmas delights and explore the Elk Interpretive Centre straight from the North Pole.
Where: Banff Gondola
When: Saturday & Sunday, November 16 – December 22; December 23 – 30, 2019