Paradise Inn, “One of the Great Lodges of the West,” as its website proclaims, sits below Mount Rainier with direct access to the renowned Skyline Trail. It’s known to be a rustic experience and expensive, but it’s the one lodge in Paradise with an unbeatable location. So is it worth staying there?
Paradise Inn is worth visiting for an evening, but at the starting price of ~$200 per night, it isn’t worth an overnight stay due to poor dining options and underwhelming nightly accommodation. The Historical Lodge at Mount Rainier sits just below Mount Rainier and has been maintained in its historical 1930s condition while offering direct access to nearby trails like the Skyline Trail. It is a rustic accommodation experience without Wi-Fi and, in some cases, private bathrooms.
My name is Lukas Gott, and I worked as a bartender and busser at Paradise Inn in the summer of 2024. After living around Paradise, I highly recommend visiting and experiencing everything the area has to offer. But after a full summer of working there, I wouldn’t recommend staying for the night. Read along for a little bit of drama and a lot of great reasons to visit!
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VISITING MOUNT RAINIER AND NEED A GAME PLAN? CHECK OUT OUR ITINERARY.
| Pros | Cons |
| Unbeatable Location | Poor Dining Options |
| Easy Hiking Access | Questionable Nightly Accommodation |
| Rustic Experience | Overall Over-Priced |
Mount Rainier was originally named Tahoma, and while each Native American tribe had a different name for the Mountain, the Mountain is still called Tahoma by many Washington locals. In 1870, soon after treaties were signed claiming the Mount Rainier area, mountaineers P.B. Van Trump and General Hazard made the first recorded summit, with many following suit thereafter.
In 1883, James Longmire established a hotel and spa in the town of Longmire, which is now still a prevalent section of the park and is home to the National Park Inn. After years of mining, logging, and tourism, Mount Rainier became the 5th National Park in the United States in 1899.
With close proximity to the Mountain and an array of wildflowers that still attract visitors today, the Paradise area quickly gathered tourism and a new attraction area, the Camp of Clouds. This camp would become Paradise Inn, established in 1917, out of a need for greater accommodation and increasing tourism.
The Inn was built to resemble a rustic look, using downed fire logs from the park to create the lodge. A German carpenter, Han Franke, made the rustic wood furniture, piano, and grandfather clock that still sit in Paradise Inn today.
FUN FACT: The piano Franke built not only still stands but is played on a nightly basis by pre-approved musicians, creating a beautiful ambiance in the evening.
Paradise Inn nearly burned to the ground in 1965, but after a historic rebuild, it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, making it untouchable in terms of development.
As mentioned, pre-dating the park opening, visitors crammed in for the views and wildflowers near Paradise Inn, and while I have prejudices against the place, the location of Paradise Inn is outstanding. With just under an hour’s drive from either the Nisqually or Stevens Canyon entrance, and the ability to avoid multiple long entry waits via the new timed entry system, the Inn sits just below Mount Rainier at by far the best location for accommodation in the Mount Rainier area.
The main attraction of the park, the Skyline Trail, is a mere 5-minute walk from your hotel room. A 30-minute stroll gets you to Myrtle Falls, a towering waterfall sitting in a valley of wildflowers below Mount Rainier. The cafe facing the South overlooks the Cascade Mountain Range, which boasts beautiful sunset views in the evening. It’s a truly beautiful location and is the main reason I recommend visiting Paradise Inn.
DON’T MISS: Quick and Easy Guide to Hiking in Mount Rainier
As stated, I worked as a bartender and originally busser at Paradise Inn. I have a lot to say about my working experience here, but before that, let’s go into what Paradise provides. Paradise has three different food options on the property.
HELPFUL TIP: Pack a lunch before visiting.
This is a small cafeteria offering snack goods and lunch meals such as pizza and soup. This cafe isn’t controlled by the company that runs Paradise Inn Guest Services, but it isn’t much better as this overpriced food isn’t much of a consistent option.
The Tatoosh cafe offers coffee, ice cream, canned beers, and an array of prepackaged meals. It’s probably your best bet for a good dining experience on the mountain. It doesn’t provide much, and isn’t cheap, but the view from the deck with a drink makes it worthwhile.
My home for 4 months.
The Paradise Inn dining room runs on a breakfast, lunch, and dinner schedule. The breakfast is a buffet that costs ~$35 per guest and runs from about 7 to 9:30 am. It features an array of cost-cutting food options including cheap bacon, carton eggs, fruits (if they place a whole pineapple on the table uncut, I beg you to just take the whole thing home), bulk bought cereal and pastries, as well as some juices that are one of the few bright spots.
The lunch consists of burgers (don’t bother asking for temp, it will be well done), salads, and as of last year, a teriyaki tofu sandwich that did nothing but confuse me. Each sandwich option will be available for over $20 and runs from about noon-2:30 pm.
Now for dinner, a supposed gourmet experience, where your best mains will be prime rib, salmon, and meatloaf. The meatloaf is supposedly a 100-year-old recipe and isn’t that bad, but two slices of meatloaf for over $50 will leave you feeling empty. Dinner runs from 5:00 to 8:00 pm and includes a full bar (at the time, I, with little experience, was making VERY strong drinks).
The dining room, in theory, should have an ambiance in such a beautiful hall, each table set with differing pastel-colored napkins to resemble the flower diversity in Mount Rainier. But for some reason, they refuse to play any music in the dining room. Baby screaming? You’ll hear it. Trying to have a conversation? So are the other seven tables next to you. And you can have all this for just the low price of approximately $50 a guest.
FIND OUT: Where to Eat In and Around Mount Rainier
Before we get into a review on an overnight stay, I want to identify what the lodge is selling as nightly accommodation and as a visiting experience. As we know, Paradise Inn was placed on the National Register of Historic Places list, which, while protecting its future development, also prevents any improvements on rooms or architecture unless approved for repairs.
In short, this building is old, and the accommodation is sold as being a rustic experience. This means the building doesn’t have Wi-Fi, the majority of rooms are small, some do not have a private bathroom, and due to the old architecture, rodents have been known to be a problem. Being within a National Park, Paradise Inn is also unable to use any poisons but instead uses peppermint oil and traps to keep the unwanted furry guests out, so in hindsight, it’s not the company’s fault.
It is open from mid-May through September, and reservations can be made up to a year in advance. They also have a guaranteed check-in time of 4:00 pm, where a large line will form at the front desk, and guests are commonly told their room has been overbooked or is not yet ready.
The worst customer experience I knew about was told to me by a front desk manager, who let me know a woman had booked her honeymoon on the mountain a year in advance, only to be told her reservation had been lost, and all rooms fully booked.
On the bright side, the rustic experience is a change in pace, as with the lack of Wi-Fi, many people gather in the main hall to play board games or to grab a drink for socializing, all while the piano plays on through the evening. The bar I mentioned does drink service in the lobby until 7 pm but has no sit-down service.
Here’s my issue: everything experience-related can be had without booking a stay in the lodge, as the main lobby is open to guests, and the piano plays free of charge. So aside from the lobby experience, the nightly stay covers a small room, without a bathroom, without Wi-Fi, and with little critters potentially running amuck. Is the only reason to pay $200 a night for early access to hiking trails?
After doing some research on Paradise Inn’s website, it seems most two-bed or queen-bed rooms are already unavailable during wildflower season, or late July to August, when I checked in February, so make sure and book early if you want to stay there. Although, you can check back for cancellations.
The Inn offers 8 different room types, some with shared bathrooms, and prices run from ~$200 per night to ~$460 per night, depending on the type of room and time of year. There is also an option to include the buffet breakfast in the cost of your room. You can book your stay on the Paradise Inn website.
CHECK OUT: Absolute Best Time to See Wildflowers at Mount Rainier + Where to Find Them
| Pros | Cons |
| Unbeatable Location | Poor Dining Options |
| Easy Hiking Access | Questionable Nightly Accommodation |
| Rustic Experience | Overall Over-Priced Nature |
All in all, I highly recommend visiting Paradise Inn for its beautiful location, rustic experience, and hiking, but bringing your own food and finding nightly accommodation elsewhere is worth the drive.
If my article discouraged you from staying at Paradise Inn, your best course of action would be to find accommodation in either Packwood or Ashford, the two nearby towns with access to park entrances.
For navigating park entrances and nearby towns, check out my article Which Entrance Should I Use to Visit Mount Rainier? for more in-depth information.
In Packwood, my favorite accommodation option is Historic Hotel Packwood, which is a cute historic hotel with a great atmosphere and location. It has great access to nearby restaurants such as Packwood Brewing Company, Cliff Droppers, and Nachos Mexican Restaurant.
While there are decent accommodation options in Ashford, I highly recommend checking out The Hobo Inn in the town of Elbe. This accommodation offers a stay in converted train cars, and nearby is my favorite restaurant, Elbe Bar and Grill, which offers delicious burgers and sandwiches at a reasonable price.
Make sure to check out the local Airbnbs and camping as well. Ashford has free public land camping sites near the river.
Most travelers want to visit the most popular sites and still avoid the crowds. We have a detailed itinerary that gives you a step-by-step game plan so you can get to the best places at the right times.
MOUNT RAINIER TRIP PLANNER: To read or watch all of our content about Mount Rainier National Park, check out our Mount Rainier Homepage.
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