There are a number of older hotels in Sequim, WA, so it was a wonderful surprise to find the new Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites with its indoor pool, spa and fitness room. The staff was friendly and helpful; when we checked in the front desk staff gave us recommendations on things to see in the area and gave us a map of Sequim. It is a beautifully designed hotel and we loved our king suite room which was large, clean and comfortable. I was expecting a small refrigerator and microwave in our suite, so I was delighted to find a full-size refrigerator in the kitchenette area which had plenty of cabinets, a small sink in the granite countertop, a microwave and coffee maker. The Black Bear Diner next door must have been built at the same time as the hotel as it shares the same architecture design and the landscaping connects the two buildings. The Black Bear serves large portions of food for breakfast, lunch and dinner so it was wonderful to find extra paper plates and utensils in the kitchenette for everything we took back and put in the fridge. There was even a small kitchen table and two chairs. The king bed was comfortable with both firm and soft pillows, and we also had a large easy chair with ottoman that I found myself falling asleep in more than once. However, the small flat-screen TV did not have the greatest TV cable and some serial programs we had been following were not available, but the quality of the TV picture was good. If our son had come on this trip, he could have slept on the fold-out sofa. The bathroom was clean and well appointed. There were lots of towels and I was really surprised with the amenities on the granite countertop; few hotels offer mouthwash along with the shampoo, conditioner and lotion (even if the bottles were on the small size). I enjoyed the rain showerhead in the bathtub and appreciated that there was a grab bar to help get out of the tub. With the hotel sold out both nights, I thought we would hear lots of noise in our room. However, the room was very quiet - we did not hear toilets flush, showers run, or loud TV noise. The hotel was located close to the freeway and we could see the cars, yet we were far enough away to not hear the traffic in our room. We had the A/C running at night as we like a cool room when we sleep, and we did not hear the A/C or heater in the rooms around us. If not for the sound of chidren running in the hall in the morning, we would have slept in and missed breakfast altogether. We did get down to breakfast late on the first day, so the gravy for the biscuits was gone and there was only a little of the scrambled eggs left, but the staff went out of their way to get my husband and I (and other latercomers) more hot eggs and cinnamon rolls. The next day we got down to breakfast a lot earlier and really enjoyed the hot egg and cheese omelets, biscuits and gravy, sausage and bacon, pancakes and cinnamon rolls. The hotel breakfast also offered muffins, toast, cereal, fruit, yogurt, hard boiled eggs, milk, juice and coffee. I would recommend the Holiday Inn Express to anyone going to Sequim. This hotel helped make our birthday weekend extra special. I would love to go back during the summer to enjoy the indoor pool and spa, and to sit on the rooftop deck on the 4th floor and enjoy the view. We did not use the pool and spa during our stay since we came on a long holiday weekend and the hotel was full of families with children, many of whom were down in the pool area. We also did not use the fitness room, but it looked like it was well equiped and a number of young people were on the machines. However, this hotel sells out fast during the summer months and on holiday weekends, so I would recommend you make hotel reservations before you travel if you want to stay at this great hotel.