Grand Aleutian Hotel

The Grand Aleutian Hotel is the best accommodation in the Dutch Harbor/Unalaska area. It is a 3-story building, modern and clean, with very good facilities for any expedition. The service at the hotel is fast, efficient, and very courteous. The desk staff was great at helping us obtain a room the afternoon the flight was canceled.

Unique Quality: The facilities are very nice. The hotel has great views of the bay behind the hotel, looking out over the Unalaska island. The hotel has a breakfast/lunch restaurant, the Margaret Bay Cafe, as well as a separate restaurant for dinners, the Chart Room. There is also a bar, gift shop, and salon (for after those long days fishing). All in all it is a delightful place to stay.

Directions: Down the coast from the airport... you can't miss it

It is a European style inn, and is being updated this year 2006. Service is excellent, Wednesday night seafood buffet is superb and on site Gift Shop features items from around the world, including Russia (which owned the islands in the 1800's).

Unique Quality: The views are awesome, snowcapped mountains, Bering Sea on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other, to me there is no other place like it in the world; 579 resident bald eagles + on the surrounding islands you can actually see the Whiskered Auklet!

Directions: After flying into Dutch Harbor, call the Hotel for a shuttle!

4 star hotel in remote Alaska - a rarity!
From the time you walk into the entrance and see the 3 story lobby with a rock fireplace, to a great dinner at the Chartroom, to after dinner drinks in the piano bar - you would never realize you are in the bush. Rooms are spacious and well appointed and each has a view of either the Bering Sea or Margaret Bay.

Good location close to the airport, two large grocery stores near by, and the Museum of the Aleutians two doors down.

Book early, as the hotel fills early, especially when fishing and tourism seasons overlap in the summer.

Sheryl Johnson, the sales manager, is very good at booking fishing, whale watching and birding tours.

Unique Quality: 120 rooms, 2 restaurants, 2 bars and quality gift shop. Short walk to Museum of the Aleutians and both grocery stores.

Directions: half mile from the airport

The locals refer to Dutch Harbor as the water, and the village as Unalaska. So there are more accomodation tips in Unalaska, but if you insist on staying in Dutch Harbor, the Grand Aleutian is the Big Kahuna. The hotel is big and sprawling and looks out of place in this small island community, but with the money the transient workers make, they want somthing modern and clean. We didn't actually stop in to check it out, but it looks horrible.

Unique Quality: This is a big hotel on a small island with few visitors. I imagine that it must get it's business from visiting fish brokers and seasonal workers.

Directions: 800 miles sw of Anchorage