Swiftcurrent Motor Inn, Columbia Falls MT

Date: 8/26 - 8/29/23
Room Booked: Motor Inn 2 Doubles

Pros:
+ Location: Right at the trailhead for Iceberg/Ptarmigan and Swiftcurrent, and only 1 mile away from the Many Glacier Hotel
+ Restaurant: Neil's is a counter-service restaurant as opposed to a full service restaurant, which makes getting in-and-out much easier. Plus, the food here is not only less expensive compared to Many Glacier, but IMO is just better and the portion sizes are bigger. The Cobb Salad was a sleeper hit (and can easily be split into 2 to act as a massive side salad!), and the 12" pizza came out right out of the oven and tasted fresh.
+ Motor inn room was decent size, with a dresser, closet, and table and chairs. There's some minor complaints (see below) but overall very decent for a lodge within the park.

Cons:
- Bathroom has no shelf space/hooks and the sink is very small, with no counter to place items on. Shower is also small (but not as small as the Rising Sun cabins). Also walls are very thin (but you should just assume this is the case for all park lodging).
- General comment for all park restaurants: it would be nice if the restaurants opened earlier (ex 6am) - 6: 30am seems early enough but when you're trying to beat the crowds this is essentially always too late.
- Walkways between main lodge and motor inn rooms could use some signage

Overall conclusion:
If you're looking to get a room inside the Many Glacier valley, IMO the best room to get is a lakefront room at Many Glacier Hotel. However, if you're unable to get those rooms, the 2nd best option is the Motor Inn rooms at Swiftcurrent. While I have not personally spent a night at Many Glacier, we spent a decent amount of time in the lobby and restaurant, and from what I read the rooms themselves at Many Glacier are not great, so if you're not getting the lakefront view, you might as well save a bit of cash and get a nicer room at Swiftcurrent. We were honestly impressed by the Motor Inn rooms and how well appointed they are - I wish I had some good photos of the room before we made a mess of it to share, but it was very roomy for a park lodge! The fact that the rooms are in the middle of the woods also makes things quieter.

Fair priced cabin that was clean and spacious with a sink, coffee maker, and kitchen table. Although only full size, the bed was comfortable, linens were cozy (including a Pendelton bed topper), and everything was very clean. Parking was a bit tight, but we made it work. We only wished for a bathroom in the cabin. The shared shower house was cleaned twice daily and was only a bit dirty from trail dirt, lol. The location was the biggest selling point, and the location was perfect!

Room was clean and comfortable for two of us. Bathroom was larger than expected. Really liked staying here. And, you cannot beat the setting.

Stayed in the cabin here.obviously not ideal to have to walk to the shower and restrooms but you pay for what you get! This was an incredible value with how good the location was. We were able to walk to the iceberg lake and grinell glacier trailheads from our cabin. Rooms were clean but the beds were a bit uncomfortable.

Stay here if you love mice! We stayed 3 nights total at Swiftcurrent in the cabins during our week in Glacier. The first two nights we had mice in our cabin, my husband “took care” of them but it was horrible and we lost a lot of sleep. The final night we didn’t have any mice issues inside our cabin but in the morning found that a mouse had somehow gotten into our closed up vehicle and tore into the food we had stored in there. Adding to the fun, we used the laundry facility and with plenty of smartwool items for hiking opted for cold wash, only to find that it had washed on hot. I’m talking steam facial when I opened the door after the cycle finished. Come to find out after speaking with others staying there, it had been an issue for several weeks prior as well, staff were aware but had not bothered to, at minimum, place signs on the machines to warn customers they would be ruining their clothing because the machines only ran hot water no matter what cycle you select. The bathroom facilities were not cleaned twice daily as was posted, they were filthy. The check sheet on the bathroom door meant for hourly employee bathroom checks had been initialed for the entire remainder of the evening by 3pm. Location was truly the only good part about this stay.

Well located and affordable in Many Glacier. Disappointing that you can’t make your own food due to bear risk and instead you’re forced to eat at the restaurant. You can’t cook in your room but you can eat non-cooked food in your room? Logic there doesn’t work for me.

That said, the restaurant offered basic and very affordable food which met our needs. Staff were great. I think a picnic area with bear proof rubbish bins could be offered where people could cook their own food.

Extremely expensive. The Bear Spray sells for $50, compared to $28 on Amazon. See photos for other prices at their gift shop. Restrooms are clean

We stayed in one of the cabins (not the inn) in the D-Loop. I think C loop is probably the best.

This is an excellent place to stay if you are planning on only hiking the trails that start there (e.g, Glacier Lake; Iceberg Lake). It will allow you to start early (without having to fight for parking) and get back and just drop your things right into your room.

Make no mistake though - this is a no-frills cabin experience. Community showers and bathrooms (unless you splurged for the limited cabins with the bathrooms), four-window air conditioning (meaning you open four windows to get air in), and only double bed (not a queen) with firm but VERY tiny pillows. I did see a room in the enclosed inn which was a bit more lush but those rooms are limited.

Essentially - it works but it is not going to be a place you will necessarily sit back and lavish in (which might be not so good if the weather is bad and traps you in the room).

The restaurant is good. There are limited options - I found that the breakfast was better than dinner options - the breakfast burrito is offered all day and is substantial and really good.

Service all around was excellent. Desk staff and restaurant wait staff alike were amazingly friendly - smiles were full and genuine.

Since parking is SOOO limited there, I wish they had more picnic tables to have lunch at. These seem to only be in the staff areas.

The general store had really good soft serve, plenty of grocery items, and the "whoops I forgot that" items in the camping area.

There is VERY limited internet (as in, you leave the porch next to the lobby and it is gone). This is not great (IMO) since I have recently relied on AllTrails to hike these days and downloading a map meant I have to leave my cabin and go to the lobby each time).

Essentially, it is the perfect spot for the visitor who plans to hike the trails.

We were able to see moose and some saw a bear or two (but not me).

Food is NOT GOOD!
The rooms/cabins are 5 star amazing. Place is amazing. Service was great.
I am in shock that Xanterra provides a very limited menu with the healthier options always sold out or not in stock (and they aren't even good). Nor do they provide anything other than the few items pre-made and warmed up.
Not to mention you aren't allowed to cook at your cabins (per the rules it's a $250 fine).
Be prepared for terrible food.
And know it gets worse in Yellowstons.
Shame on Xanterra.

Just visited and ate. Food was ok and service was a bit slow. We were hungry and not in a hurry so all is well.

We took the cheapest room available which turned out to be a cabin (they’re all cabins, which isn’t clear when booking) with a painted wood floor that didn’t look like it had been washed at all this year (wiping a small spill with a tissue when we first arrived resulted in a black tissue) and considering I found a plastic disposable cup on the floor, I doubt it had been swept in a while either. The door was so horribly creaky that it probably wakes up everyone in the surrounding cabins if you need to go use the public bathroom at night, since there isn’t one in the cabin. I don’t doubt people just rather pee in the sink (which only has cold water available) instead, and considering how dirty the floor was, you should bear that in mind if you need to use their sink! We got 2 free shower coins for the one night stay and were told they buy 8.5 min because they want to conserve water, which was fine with us, but then I walked into the bathroom and one of the sinks was left running. It took some fiddling but it did shut off. Every time I used that bathroom I walked in to a running sink, and even after coming out of the stall I would often find someone had used it again after I came in and shut it off and it was left running again. I did inform the girl behind the desk about it, though she sounded like she didn’t want to believe there was actually an issue until I told her it was running every time I went in there, and said she would get maintenance to look at it. We were also told no WiFi at the cabin, only in the main building, but we did have some access since our cabin was one of the closest to the building. Just lost connection a few times and had to reconnect, but the WiFi sure wasn’t very good. Not the worst thing though if you’re there to be in nature! The store and restaurant are quite pricey and the restaurant only has very basic things that they were able to teach the inexperienced teenagers working there to cook. Don’t expect to order eggs over easy for example, you will only get scrambled because “it’s hard to screw up scrambled eggs” (literally what we were told). The coffee said medium roast which I would be good with but it was 2-3x stronger than I would expect medium roast to be. Husband likes dark roast so thought he would like the coffee then but it just tasted terrible anyway. But if you add enough stuff to it and maybe water it down, it’s drinkable. The store is expensive but there’s a microwave you’re allowed to use, which for the price you would think they would have enough income to offer in the room too. They can offer an iron and ironing board even, but no fridge or microwave. I did find it odd also that they have a shelf in the store that they have the audacity to label “breakfast” when all they offer on it is pastries, but the staff was all very friendly. Considering the price and you don’t get much more than you do if you’re tenting, I didn’t think it was worth it. You stay a bit warmer at night, that’s the main perk with a cabin.

This room was nicer than we thought it would be. Great location. Quiet and good wind flow to keep the room cooler.

Great location and very close to grinnel glacier trail (5 mins away). They have restaurant and break fast was great. They also have a small store which Carry’s all basic things needed inside the park. Rooms are not so clean but I would say safe enough to stay in such a great location. They also have a small trail right beside their hotel which takes you to a lake and your chances of finding a moose in there is very high. I have seen plenty of wild life photographers who told me that lake has moose almost everyday.

I stayed in the cabin. I thought it’s bad in the beginning but it turned out to be not that bad. Love the cafe which has great breakfast/lunch/dinner. Fishercap lake nearby is the great place for muse viewing

Nice and clean. Close to the best trail in park, the Grinnell trail. I would definitely stay again

Stayed in cabin C-5. Very clean and cozy. 2 beds and eating area. Community shower/laundry house behind the cabins. Nice gift shop, in main building. Restaurant leaves a lot to be desired. Just opened for the season, so they were out of most things, which is understandable, but the menu was limited to start.

Great location on east side within walking distance to Grinnell trail head. Overall was good and would recommend.

Pleasantly surprised by the cleanliness of the rooms and hospitality of the staff. Shelby behind the front desk was so gracious and accommodating when I mistakenly booked a room at a different inn inside the park. She helped us book a room here instead. The next day on the trail we saw a small grizzly bear. Amazing place to stay.