Halfway Hotel

The main problem was how dirty the room was. The shower curtain was damp and moldy, the toilet seat was broken, dust hung an inch off the fan, and the AC unit was incredibly loud. That extra bed, maybe a futon, would’ve been more comfortable if we’d just slept on the floor. The room was small, as we knew when booking, and the location was good. The WiFi didn’t work, but that was whatever in such a remote area.

We had a good stay. It was just what we needed for sleeping, showering, and leaving our things while we hiked and explored. The lack of a microwave was a bit disappointing, but otherwise the experience worked out well. If you’re looking for a yuppie hotel, you’ll want to keep searching.

For the price and location, this place is hard to beat, and we’d stay again. The rooms and bathrooms are small but clean, and we didn’t have any bugs or other pests. WiFi was strong where we stayed, though there’s no cell service at all. Calls and texts can still go through apps if you have an internet connection. The water pressure could be better, and you’ll hear the trains and highway traffic. A little planning made the stay inexpensive and pleasant. Our room didn’t have a microwave or mini-fridge, so we brought a cooler and made it work with ice, salt, and water. Depending on its size, you can chill some drinks or keep food and drinks for days. Hungry Horse is about 40 miles away, and its market had reasonable prices. We went that way daily for the West Glacier entrance. There’s also a reasonably priced market in Browning, near East Glacier. The Halfway Hotel is about equally distant from Browning and West Glacier. There are grills behind the rooms nearest the highway and covered picnic tables that were useful for meal prep. We cooked with the grills and our camp stove. The Izaak Walton hotel supplies charcoal and lighter fluid, and you can get a small amount of ice there for free, so you don’t have to pay high prices for meals at the Izaak Walton Inn. There’s noise around any place you stay, whether it’s kids in a hallway, a vacuum, an elevator, an ice machine, or something else. We travel with a white noise machine and rarely wake up, even when sounds are loud. You can also find 10-hour white noise videos on YouTube if you don’t want to buy a machine.

There were more than 20 bugs or mosquitoes in the room when I checked in, and I swatted most of them. I’ve included photos as proof. The other major issue was the noise. The property is beside the Amtrak line, and freight trains pass all day, blowing very loud, rattling horns at the crossing. Rooms facing the highway are affected more, but light sleepers in any room will hear it. After a full day hiking in GNP, I’d look elsewhere if you need a good night’s sleep. We paid about $125 a night for July 2-4, 2017, booking through a friend. The property belongs to the Izzac Walton Hotel (IWH), about a mile down the road toward Essex Amtrak station, where check-in takes place. There’s no cell coverage in these mountains near Glacier National Park (GNP). A red landline phone out front can be used to call IWH with questions or requests. They give you the guest WiFi password at check-in, but the connection is mostly useless. At best, it handles messages, which may be fine if you want a camping-like experience. For a larger group trying to coordinate or upload photos, it causes problems. The location is fairly close to West Glacier but farther from the East Glacier entrances. Amenities and service were reasonable, the rooms fairly clean, and there’s plenty of parking. The backyard was a nice feature, with shaded benches and a couple of firepits surrounded by seats. Shower pressure is low, though enough for most people.