My husband and I went on a week long vacation to Alaska in April 2007, and spent four nights at the Hotel Alyeska. Our main reason for staying here was to try the mountain skiing in Alaska.
The hotel decor is elegant. Beautiful wood paneling in all the public places, leather couches in public areas, a giant diorama of a polar bear/stars above the lobby, brass plating in the elevators (though they were scratched up from skis). The swimming pool is small for a hotel of its size, though the hot tub is a decent size. The afternoon we arrived, the hotel was quite busy and the pool had easily reached capacity. The restaurants are nice and the food is good, but they are quite expensive. There is no breakfast included with your stay, so your only choices if you wish to not leave the hotel are to eat at the restaurant or go to a grocery store and get your own breakfast food for mornings (we did the latter). They have mini fridges in the rooms so you can keep milk, juice, or other cold beverages. Parking at times was a hassle. There are several lots sprawled out around the property, so when the hotel is busy you may have to park far away where it can be a long walk to and from your car.
We initially booked a "moderate" room, but there was a buzzing sound near the room that drove my husband nuts, so we requested a room swap. The hotel was accommodating of this request, and ended up moving us to a "deluxe" room (same amenities as "moderate", but with a much better view). I think they charged us extra for the room upgrade, but I didn't care to argue it because it was only $10 a night more and didn't notice it until we'd checked out. Room amenities for the moderate/deluxe rooms were a bit above what you'd expect for a typical two/three star chain hotel. Some of the "extras" I remember were heated towel racks in the bathroom, a mini-fridge, bathrobes and slippers (though they weren't that great), and buttons on your nightst
and that controlled "do not disturb" and "please clean room" lights outside your door in the hall. The rooms, as well as the hotel as a whole, were overall nice and clean, but there were some signs of wear as you would expect from a hotel that is not brand new, especially one that has skiers tromping through it on a regular basis.
This hotel has high value if you are coming here during winter to ski. Our "just want to ski" package included two lift tickets and room, and factoring in how much an adult all-day lift ticket costs, I figured we only paid an extra $60 or so for the room with the package. It is a perfectly acceptable hotel to stay at, and you can walk right outside the hotel to take the tram or chairlift to the ski mountain.
However, I am not sure if I would recommend staying here in the summer, when most tourists visit Alaska. It is supposedly one of the most luxurious hotels in Alaska, but I'm not sure this hotel is worth the summer rates. Summer rates are much higher and do not include skiing (obviously), so value is lessened considerably. Also, Girdwood is a very small town and I'm not sure there are enough things to do in the area in the summer to warrant more than a night or two stay at this hotel. Spend time in Seward or Denali National Park instead.
Since we primarily came here to ski, I don't feel my review is complete without giving an overview of the skiing at Alyeska. My husband had never skied anything more than the tiny hills we have in MN, and my only other "mountain skiing" experience was one day in the Austrian Alps with a high school trip. So neither of us can compare Alyeska to a mountain ski resort in the "lower 48". Alyeska was by far the most difficult skiing both of us had done, partially due to the excessive amount of snow/sleet the mountain received the week before we went, so they didn't have time to groom the hills adequately. We both ended up renting wide parabolic skis the first day, since there was so much deep powder that neither of us could ski very well without them. The second day was better so I went back to my parabolics, but my husband kept his rentals since his skis are the old-fashioned type with no shape whatsoever.
After we took care of that, we enjoyed the skiing very much. The hill is quite large and it takes about 45 minutes to an hour to make a complete trip to the very top of the hill and back down again. There is a tram that runs from the very bottom to the very top to the very bottom of the hill on the "double black diamond" side (not recommended unless you are a true expert); the other side has chairlifts and you have to take more than one in intervals to make it to the very top. Both my husband and I will ski all difficulty levels of hills in MN, but we both mostly stuck to the "blue" hills at Alyeska, which were comparable to (if not more advanced than) "black" hills in MN. That was fine since there are an abundance of "blue" hills at Alyeska and you can make it from the top to the bottom only taking those. I would not recommend Alyeska for anyone who is a beginner, since there are only a few "green" hills that are all clustered at the bottom of the hill.
I would probably not come back to Alaska in the winter primarily for the skiing at Alyeska, as I would prefer to try a resort in the "lower 48" instead. But I would recommend it to avid skiers who happen to find themselves in the area in the winter, or are visiting Alaska in the winter to partake in a variety of winter activities there.
