We started out in Traverse City on Sept 14 for our sons wedding and then traveled up to Mac City for a nice relaxed time off. I booked on line after looking at a LOT of hotels, had never stayed at this one before, and I thought the indoor water park might be kind of interesting. We booked a hot tub room, and got decent off season rate. My ONE MAJOR complaint was my husband and I are smokers, and we were informed when we arrived at the hotel (not prior) that we were NOT allowed to smoke on the balcony even with our room door closed. Had a beautiful view of the bridge but could not sit out on our balcony with a glass of wine in the evening. We had to go out on the beach, which was rainy!!!! I know other hotels in the area allow you to smoke on your balcony as long as you close the door to your room so smoke does not get into the room. This said we will not be returning to the bridge vista. Now for you non smokers, the bed was comfortable, we did have a flat screen tv with a dvd player built in (would have been nice to know that was available before I arrived also) the waterpark was nice the hot tub was great, the pool a little chilly and the lazy river also very chilly. The staff was adequate, nothing spectacular, depending on what time of day, they bordered on rude. The breakfast was ok, not that great in my opinion, the waffles looked good (neither of us had them) the eggs were fake, the biscuits were doughy the gravy was VERY salty, the sausage was fair, the toaster did not do a very good job, coffee was HOT, which is good, the juice was good there was fruit, out of a can, no fresh apples or bannanas, cold cereal,(2 choices only) and 4 choices of instant oatmeal. Overall for the less than $100 I saved booking at this hotel, I would spend the extra and go to the Best Western, or the Comfort Suites, or one of the other hotels on the "drag". Also if you are looking for the "bar" that the website boasts about it is non existant!!

This isn't the Grand Hotel or even the Clarion for that matter, but it is a pretty decent priced family hotel. We tend to visit the Mackinaw City area every summer and we shop around for the best price before deciding where to stay. The Bridge Vista Beach Hotel is a fairly new hotel, so we decided to give it a try this summer.

I'll start with the Bad!

- The indoor Water Park --- Some of the reviews here have mentioned the algae and I certainly noticed it on the stairs and windows. There is really no excuse for this! Hire someone to clean this stuff daily. Despite the algae the water seemed very clean and I could smell the chlorine. My other issue with the water park was the "life guard". The life guard wasn't wearing any clothing to identify himself as an employee or as a life guard! This is UNACCEPTABLE! If a child was in trouble I wouldn't have known where to find the on duty life guard because he was wearing normal everyday clothing.

- The breakfast room --- The lady working the room better make a large amount of money because it takes a special person with loads of patience to work in this room. The room is too small for all of the guests and the set-up is very strange. The food was comparable to any other hotels breakfast buffet, but a larger room and different set-up would help.

- Lack of snack bar --- It was advertised and it did not exist. Either open it or stop advertising it! I visited during peak season on a weekend so I know it wasn't just closed for the few days I was there. I completely understand if it didn't make any money so they chose to close it down, but I would suggest they stop advertising it.

- Lack of parking --- There were several nights when we would get in a bit later and had to squeeze into parking spots. They may want to enforce some sort of car per room rules so parking is less of a headache.

The Good!

- The Rooms --- Room was clean and the bed was comfortable, therefore it passes my test. The room had a flat screen TV for those who care. We had a balcony overlooking the water and Mackinac Island.

- The Indoor Water Park --- I know I listed this above, but besides the algae issue I found the place to be pretty fun. I think it is the best indoor water park in Mackinaw City. The three water slides are actually really fun (and I'm an adult) and there is a great play area for the younger kids.

- The Staff --- They know the area well and were very friendly.

Overall I would recommend this Hotel to families traveling to the area and those who may be on a tight budget. The amenities were very good considering the relatively low price.

Our room was ready at 4 pm, however other rooms were still being cleaned (cleaning carts in halls, doors to rooms wide open). We couldn't remember the last time in which we saw this much cleaning still being done at a hotel this late in the afternoon - so we suspect that the hotel sharply reduced the workforce after Labor Day.

The room itself was clean and the beds/pillows were comfortable.
The bathroom was clean and the shower had a strong flow to it.

The screen door to the patio could use some work as it had a few small holes in it.
It would have been nice to be able to access the beach from our ground level room, however there is a white picket fence that prevents that from happening (you have to walk around the outside of the fence to get to the beach).

The hotel provides a decent breakfast; just make sure that you eat early as the food is much better earlier than later (we noticed a huge difference in the freshness of the food when eating earlier versus later). The employee working the breakfast room was very nice and had an energetic personality.

We chose this hotel because of the indoor swimming park it offered. The rooms were clean, the swimming park was nice and every thing seem to flow very nicely. We are very picky about the food we eat so the breakfast buffet did not agree with us. To much sugar and instant food, not real eggs. We had to keep chasing towels down, there were 5 of us in a room and it seemed like they didn't want to keep clean towels in our room. with all that said, we would stay there again. It was a very clean place and the people that worked there were very nice and willing to help. We had a great view of the bridge at night, it was beautiful.