Guemes Island Resort — Hotel in Guemes Island

Staying in a cabin at Guemes Island Resort would be an excellent $150/night experience, but for $280+, we will not be returning. The view is beautiful and the paddling is lovely. The old cabins are cozy. As a farm kid stuck in the city for now, I love lowkey rustic settings, and this area definitely checked that box. ||||However, a lower price would be appropriate given the quality of the experience, here is why:||||1. Our plumbing backed up into the shower prior to our check in, which was concerning and made us wonder if the shower had been cleaned at all between guests. When we went to shower, we were met with several inches of icky standing water. We were allowed to use the shower in an unoccupied cabin, but not offered new lodging until after the repairs had taken place (which involved a lot of digging out back of the cabin the next day). We had to specifically ask that the sewage be cleaned out from the shower before we used it.||||2. The cabin had a pervasive odor of wet dog. By the second day, both of us who have mild allergies to some dogs had to drive to the general store for Claritin, and to be honest this ruined our second night in the cabin, sniffling and waiting for it to take effect instead of spending a romantic evening enjoying our second and last night. We've both stayed at dog-friendly lodging before and never had this issue.||||3. Quiet hours are for guests only. Heavy equipment backing up/deliveries took place as early as 6:45 am. If you are a light sleeper, or like to sleep with your windows open for fresh air (see #2) and the sound of the waves, beware.||||4. The sauna is staff-only for the duration of COVID. Unlike on their website, the sauna is not available on any basis, including reservations, to guests. However, it was readily used by staff, which was frustrating to watch because the sauna/jump into the water experience was a big draw!||||5. There is only one small, crowded-in covered area to enjoy the outdoors when it is raining (as it often does in the area). There have been no accommodations made for COVID other than to kick guests out of the "rec room" area and make that "rec room" space a larger check in area where only staff are allowed to spend time together.||||6. Not much to explore by land. Because this is mostly a private residential island, every road but the main ones are plastered with 'no trespassing' signs and most of the beaches are also 'no trespassing'.||||If you do stay here, definitely paddle to Jack Island if you can. That was a big highlight of...

Have your wedding here! If you like the water, the outdoors, the beach, chill people and avoiding the wedding industrial complex, this is the place for you. We looked at so many venues, and none came close to this place.

Guemes Island is easily accessible with a short ferry ride, yet you feel far away from the city. It's surrounded by woods and right on the beach! The resort has a bunch of cabins that are all included in the rental. Our friends and family stayed the whole weekend. There are plenty of Airbnbs on the island if you have more people than they can hold. They were super helpful every step of the way. The staff are all so nice and clearly care about the place they are working at. It's also owned by locals, which is awesome.

We spent months looking at venues, toured a bunch of them, and none had what we were looking for. Or their fee just to rent their ballroom for the afternoon was twice what you pay here for the entire resort all weekend! Your wedding is going to be awesome, why not enjoy it for multiple days?

As soon as we arrived here, we knew this was the place. The staff was also super easy to work with and very helpful with anything we needed. They truly went above and beyond. Not only do you get all the cabins included so 90 people can stay all weekend, they have a sauna, wood fired hot tub (3 cabins have their own hot tub too), and plenty of room to grill, eat, and party. We rented a huge tent to have the reception in. They also have great relationships with vendors who made the day amazing and flow smoothly. There is a store at the resort, and another one on the island if you need anything. Anacortes is also a very short ferry ride away. The ferry was not an issue, the ride takes 5 minutes and it sails often. If you're used to the chaos of the state ferries, don't worry here.

Our wedding was incredible, and Guemes Island Resort was a huge part of making...

I am prefacing this review by saying we have stayed twice over the years, have loved our stays, the staff was kind and our cabin was comfortable and relaxing. This review is specifically for the owner of the resort, who we will never give another dime to.

We booked the Salish house for a long weekend and planned on having our vow renewal ceremony at the PUBLIC park next door to the resort. We were going to invite family and friends to stay at the resort in their own cabins to make a whole family weekend out of it.

When we talked to the parks department about using the park, they told us the owner of the resort would not allow us to use A PUBLIC PARK although events like this have been held there before by guests of the resort. The resort staff even told us to use the park (instead of their grounds) because we didn't have enough guests for the "rent a resort" option to hold it there on their property.

When my husband called to talk to the owner about why he was blocking our use of the public park, the owner was extremely rude, saying that if he made an exception for us, he'd have to do it for everyone. Furthermore, anyone in our party would be charged a 10% gratuity, but why he could not say. He also demanded that my husband tell him which of his staff members told us we could use the park, to which my husband refused because he was afraid the staff member would be unfairly reprimanded for it.

Overall, we are so upset that the owner is so unpleasant and unworthy of our business because we love the resort very much. We've cancelled our reservation and are looking for other options now. We don't usually write reviews but felt that others needed to know about our experience and to tread carefully with the owner. What an unfortunate experience that has very much tainted this...