Grand Canyon Railway & Hotel — Hotel in Williams

Decided to take the family to Williams AZ, for the Train to the Grand Canyon! Hotels are scarce in Wiliams but the Grand Canyon Hotel & Train Package if for just the ease of staying from the departure & arrival point is perfect. Arriving at the property, workman were present, & painting the main drive entry. As we approached there was a lot of activity, with a man basket & such. We stopped to avoid getting in their way, & every one of these workman immediately recognized us in their area & responded with smiles & removing all obstacles so we could enter. They greeted us & as I apologized for us stopping their progress they stated "no, thank you for staying & excuse us" Now you may ask yourself why this part of the review is important. Because from their vendors to service providers everyone we engaged with over 24 hours was very hospitality minded & demonstrated how grateful they were for visitors. All of this made perfect sense when on our return trip the next day, our wonderful PSA on the train Teryl said "that the entire town & region were thankful for every one who came to take the train & stay in Williams because it's their towns most valued source of revenue". The entire team truly embodies making you feel welcomed & appreciated. I did the online pre check in & it helped. Desk agents were busy but pleasant. The room was adequate. Beds were on the firm side. The bathroom was roomy but the shower, water pressure & hot water temperature was five star! We added the dining options to the package at the onsite Buffet. The staff was awesome. The meal options were adequate but filling. Great mashed potatoes & the beef tenderloin were good. Now where the restaurant shined was the breakfast buffet. Lots of selections & great coffee. The French toast, fruits & omelette station were all fantastic but the staff again 5 star. Cowboy show happens at 9 am sharp. Here is the twist, not one of these people knew my industry or background of 40 years or that I once operated an historic attraction in the state for almost 9 years, so I know a bit about hospitality & tourism. But all the cowboys were engaging, inviting, & genuinely making a few hundred people feel welcomed. We saw an actual surprise Engagement they assisted with & I got picked, to be picked on in the show by the cowboys & thank God the Marshall showed up, saved me from some cheating horse thieves...LOL It was FUN. Now here is where our day get away, became a full blown vacation adventure. We had our tickets & I upgraded to the dome car. That's the way to go. The view was incredible & we had the top of the car to ourselves. But the difference was the PSA. Teryl like Cheryl but with a T was her line but her stories, her smile & warm engagement was perfect. We loved her. Mind you she is also the bartender & hot chocolate maker, in the car, yet she juggled it all masterfully. On the way to the canyon she mentioned she was willing to show anyone that wanted to wait for her, a special heart stone in the rock wall that went along with one of her stories. We were the only ones that took her up on it. Now mind you she was older & so we took our time walking with her, along the way we asked her questions, & got to know her a bit. She was awesome & all the extra details she gave us, honestly it made the whole trip even better. Her stories are as amazing as the canyon & she has done her research! We did some follow up on what she shared, the history & stories she shared have even more crazy to it.. Her meal recommendations at the El Tovar were spot on. We got lucky to get in without a reservation. After we got to the heart shaped stone, to which she took our pic, wish now, we would have gotten a pic with her, we parted. On the way back we tried to request to ride with Teryl again because we were assigned another car but the computers were crashed. The staff though allowed us to ride back with Teryl. It was simply a great trip back to Williams & yeagh the Grand Canyon was gorgeous but Teryl & the Grand Canyon Railway team made sure it was going to be a life long...

We just spent 3 days, 2 nights at the hotel and took the train trip as well. The hotel staff were amazing! We were able to call the morning of our arrival to request accommodations that did not involve a long walk to our room, and they immediately blocked us into a room close to the lobby and on the first floor. When we arrived, check in was fast and easy and they directed us where to pick up our train tickets for the following day. Our room was a standard, 2-queen bed room. The bathroom was very clean and recently updated. They do not provide daily housekeeping if you are staying multiple days, but we were told we could request a sprucing up in the morning for trash and clean towels. We just requested some extra towels and pillows at check in which held us for our visit. The train depot is right across the courtyard, inside a gift shop. The prices in the gift shop were not horrible, certainly not as high as some places we've been. If you are looking for t-shirts in anything bigger than a 2XL, you are out of luck though. Otherwise, they had a nice selection of gifts and trinkets. Next door to the train depot was the Harvey House Restaurant (also with a small gift shop LOL). HH has buffets 2x daily, breakfast and dinner. We don't usually eat enough to make a buffet a good deal, so we didn't eat there. We did order a box lunch for the train ride the next day - it came with a sandwich, chips, trail mix snack, string cheese, bottled water, and cookies. It was only $17 and came in a cute reusable insulated bag that had the hotel/railroad logo in it - a very cute memento. That evening, we ate inside the main hotel at Spenser's Pub. A pretty small menu, but with several decent options all at decent prices. They also have a bar. We had the pizza, chicken Caesar salad, and the chicken penne alfredo pasta. All were very good!

The next day we headed out early for the wild west show and train ride. Our train car wasn't crowded, although there were over 900 people on board. You definitely want to spring for at least Coach class to make sure you have air conditioning. There is a snack car, but (in our opinion), the choices are not great, and the line forms very quickly. Take your own snacks for the train ride.

Our train host was Sheryl - she was amazing! She "hosted" two cars, so went back and forth between our car and the one next to us. She was very well versed in the history of the train as well as anecdotes about the route, the folks living along the route, and things to do once you reached the Grand Canyon Village. We did see some beautiful wildlife from the train, so keep an eye out! She gave us ideas on where to eat at the Village, including encouraging us to get in line at a restaurant (there are not many) as soon as we get off the train - another reason to buy the box lunch from the hotel - to have as much time as possible to see the sights. Interestingly, there are not a lot of cheapie gift shops, but there are a lot of galleries and studios and of course the view is just unbelievable. You only have about 3.5 hours at the village, and you don't want to miss the train back! We took full water bottles with us, ate the trail mix on the train, had the rest of our lunch at some shaded picnic tables when we arrived at the village and then just ate supper when we returned to the hotel (again, at Spenser's Pub). During the ride up and back, there were singing cowboys, and on the way back was the obligatory "train robbery". The actors and musicians were very personable and also were part of the "wild west show" before we left the hotel/station. I'm attaching a few pictures.

Check out the next day was super easy and we were on the road well before the heat got too bad. All in all, it was a fun little vacation. The hotel is not priced too crazy, and the train ride was well worth it. Otherwise, like with most vacations, what you spend on food and souvenirs...

We ended up doing a package deal with the hotel, dinner and breakfast at the Fred Harvey restaurant, the railroad trip to and from the Grand Canyon, and a bus tour. First, the hotel. It was fine. Nothing special but clean and had everything we needed. It was kind of fun to see all of the families running around in their pajamas who were doing the Polar Express ride. The Fred Harvey restaurant was a bit of a let down. The staff were great but the food was typical hospital cafeteria quality. If I was doing this trip again, I’d skip that restaurant and just eat in Williams since there are plenty of good quality, fair priced choices. We opted for the first class setting in the train ride itself. I have no complaints there. The seats were similar to first class seating on a major airline. The car had an attendant that was entertaining. The snacks were okay. The musicians were fantastic! The train robbery could’ve been more dramatic but it was a unique way to give passengers a way to offer tips that are shared among all of the actors for the trip. As for the bus tour in Grand Canyon City, I’d say skip it. We did the Freedom tour high is the same as the Grand Tour minus the included lunch. You can, instead, just hop on the free shuttle busses and do the same route. In fact, there’s one of the shuttle drivers (Tom I think) who was actually more entertaining and shared more stories than our tour guide in the Freedom tour. As for the lunch, it was at the Maswik hotel’s food court. Hard to believe but it was a step down in quality from the Fred Harvey restaurant. They do have a pizza place there that would have been the best chicken, artichoke and spinach white pizza I’ve ever eaten except they burnt it. In all fairness, they comped the meal and offered to make us a new one but the charcoal taste was distracting. I recommend definitely eating at the El Tovar hotel. Absolutely wonderful experience and not much more pricey than everywhere else. The lodging at the Maswik was pretty neat. The rooms felt like a cabin in the woods with little balconies overlooking trees. It felt old but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. One recommendation that I have is to be prepared to pay airport prices for pretty much everything in the village. It’s pretty remote (and at the Grand Canyon) so that makes sense. What doesn’t make sense is the prices they set for the authentic Native American jewelry. If it was one tenth of the price I’d probably buy some thinking that it was a bit pricey but worth it for the experience. But overall I’d recommend doing the train trip and visiting the Grand Canyon. Bring a telescope of some kind for stargazing....