Michael B.
Yelp
My family and I are on our annual epic summer adventure, and this time we're on a tour of national parks in the western United States. After much research (you know me), I threw in all my chips for a company called Under Canvas, which is a hybrid of luxury hotel and camping. By the time our journey is over, we'll have been on the road 28 days, covered over 4000 miles, and I will have spent over $3000 on this company. And you know how I roll with all of my reviews-- I give the unvarnished truth. If I love a place, you hear about it. If I hate a place, you hear about it. The point is to promote businesses that are going above and beyond, and put those other businesses that couldn't care less about customer service in notice in hopes that they improve. And as a personal policy, I almost always try to give a business a second chance (except in egregious cases). So, on to my review of Under Canvas Glacier.
First off, love the concept. Glamping at national parks. Basically the American version of high end African safari accommodations. The staff was very nice. Shout out to Mary and Chris in particular. Glacier is an amazing place to visit, and the folks at Under Canvas made it even better. We got upgraded to a suite because we purchased their Tent Pass, which allows for that sort of thing if there is space available. Brand new tent. Out by ourselves, which we loved. Such an improvement over the conventional hotel. Very spacious, beds were very comfortable, the addition of a white noise maker was great to cover the sound from the trains that come by in the wee hours of the morning, and the overall style sensibility was fabulous. And we got complimentary coffee/tea service at our tent each morning. And The wood stove was a great way to stay warm. Also, being just a few minutes from the park entrance was brilliant. Overall, quite happy with our first (out of three) Under Canvas stays.
Okay, so a few suggestions: would be nice to have more than one suitcase rack, and a few more places to hang things. Particularly when you're visiting national parks, there's a pretty good chance you'll have stuff that gets wet. Having more than four hooks to hang things on would've been a big help. Also, the hot water didn't work properly, so we had a hot and cold showers for the three nights we visited. Not a dealbreaker, but a bit shocking all the same in a place that gets as cold as Glacier. And one pretty glaring omission: no warning sign indicating how hot the woodstove gets. My wife put a piece of clothing on to dry, and within less than half a minute we smelled something burning. This is a disaster (read lawsuit) waiting to happen if a kid gets accidentally burned or someone's wool socks go up in flames. If management is reading this, you might want to consider ample signage for something like that.
We're on to Under Canvas Yellowstone next. Will leave an on-going review in real time, so stay tuned.