I was part of the family reunion who stayed here in June and wanted to add my own few cents to clear the air for future guests who consider staying here. Hotel prices in the Canadian Rockies are fairly steep by my standards so from that point, Alpine Meadows was very good value. The wooden lodge style was very warm and welcoming, the mountain views out the front were excellent. The secluded location was also nice. I think quality of sleep depends on which room you have. We were in the upstairs of the Chalet, with parking lot view. The room was nice and large, a double with a futon sofa so my daughter & I had space and no complaints. My sister downstairs complained that her door rattled all night long. We had more hot water in our shared tub - yummy. I loved my hot baths. Other family members didn't have hot water in their rooms, but they had nice rooms with views.

As for the owners -- they are difficult. The breakfast room is cute, with nice views. There is a kettle with tea bags and mugs set out so that you would think you can serve yourself tea whenever you wanted except that whenever I asked Maria to put water in the kettle she would complain about people taking the coffee mugs off to their rooms and there wouldn't be enough for breakfast. Breakfast was another adventure that became arduous and by the end of our stay I was ready to skip it all together because it was such a hassle. If you are with a small group and it's not crowded this might not be such a problem. But Herb played the waiter and Maria was the cook. Herb ran around taking people's orders, but did not write them down. He relayed them to Maria who may or may not remember what you asked for. The choices were things like how many pancakes, how many eggs, and how did you want your eggs. When the servings came out of the kitchen, it was never clear that what you asked for was on the plate, and we'd have to ask around to match whatever was on the plate to whatever someone might have ordered. Due to the extreme confusion, by the end of our visit some us came to breakfast with a pen and pad and started writing down the individual requests and then checking them off once they were delivered. That was helpful. Maria is not flexible. She complains a lot. Herb tries to make nice but he was not very organized. The amount of food was hearty enough though -- there was cereal, juice, bananas, coffee & tea set out buffet style, nothing special but adequate. The eggs, bacon, pancakes, french toast would have been more enjoyable if we didn't have to wait so long to get it. Maria was also very fussy about where we sat -- wifi was available, but the tables were small such that you couldn't really use your laptop and read your email at the same table as 3 other people, but if you moved to an empty table for the purpose of being productive with email while you waited for the interminable breakfast to arrive, Maria would yell at you about sitting in a place that wasn't set.

The common areas were very cozy and nice with the exception that Maria & Herb were constantly interrupting and puttering about. Since we were a family reunion, we were with cousins and siblings we hadn't seen in years, and it seemed just when I was settling into a nice chat with a cousin, Maria would appear and say she was turning off the lights, or it was time to go to bed, because quiet time was 10pm. Well, if our family was the only people staying there, then it seemed there should have been some flexibility as to letting us sit on the sofa and chat.

As for the railroad noise that others have mentioned here -- the railroad runs all through the Rockies in this area. There was some distant noise from freight trains and workers in the railyard. However, I would like to point out that if you stayed in the town of Golden itself, or in the charming town of Field (which was full of much more expensive B&Bs) the railroad noise would been much worse. You won't get away from the railroad in this area.

So my advice is that this place is still a good value but just don't expect it to be one of those "I can't wait to come back." experiences.

As as aside, we went up to Kicking Horse Resort and ate dinner at the restaurant and visited the Grizzly Reserve and that was really fantastic. The food was great, the view stunning, and the remote feeling quite exceptional. There were very accommodating to our group and the off-season ski shops, playground, climbing wall (small) around the parking lot made for a nice way to end the great lunch and visit to the grizzly bear. Oh, some of saw the grizzly bear when we were on the cable car up to the restaurant. We bought a package ticket - cable car, lunch, chair lift to the grizz and I thought it was a good value since I'm picky about good quality food, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it.

We had 10 rooms at Alpine Meadows - 6 in the lodge and the 4 bedroom chalet. We had 22 people in all for a family reunion. We liked the location - it was quiet, the views were pretty, and it was close enough to many activities. The lodge is spacious; we liked all the exposed wood and windows. We have to agree with the other reviews that the owners are a little "different". This is the first hotel/lodge we've been to where we really tried to avoid them because whatever you were doing (trying to get some work done or catch up on Email, or reading or visiting), they constantly interrupted you for random discussions about themselves and each other. They tended to complain about each other to us which was pretty weird and unprofessional. They also need to work on their plumbing - we had problems with lack of hot water in some rooms, lack of water pressure in some rooms, and the owner switches off the jacuzzi jets at a certain hour. The place lacked warmth (could use come carpets and could lose some of the signs telling you what to do and not do) and the common areas had quite an echo. Things seemed as cheap as possible - we bought berries and yoghurt to add to the marginal breakfast - the owners make it very clear that they are trying to save money. Even though we repeatedly told them to serve breakfast for 22 family style, they insisted on serving each person individually (it's cheaper) and since Maria apparently has no idea how to cook for a group, breakfast became a pretty drawn out and frustraing affair each day. But we thought the price was fair, the place was at least moderately clean (just don't look under the furniture!), the beds were comfy enough and the chalet kitchen was well equipped and served our needs.

Some of the former reviews are very harsh and go beyond what should be written about people, so our experience is, that indeed the lady of the house is a bit strict towards her guests. It is very important to her that lights are always put off and you really do not feel very welcome in some cases concerning some house regulations and she complains of guests in the past what one should never do. So we didn´t really dare to ask to use the lobby room with the fireplace, we had the impression that she is no longer very fond of what she is doing and we also had a problem when paying in terms of price. Her husand is a bit of other character and very nice and gentle. He does obviously love what he has created. The rooms I found very clean, but we had one with no view which went out to the backyard of their house, the other side faces the railway station down in Golden and it may be a bit noisy during nightime and daytime when the railway people are doing their job. The other rooms face the lake area. Environment is very quiet in total no direct neighbours in the near neighbourhood. I cannot judge if the rooms have thin walls or not, we did not have neighbours. The breakfast what o.k. and good. But in total we didn´t feel very pleased and welcome like we had felt it at other B& Bs.

We are retired travelers so i guess the people who wrote reviews saying negative things are a bit persnicky. We have traveled the world and prefer B&B's and this one ranks near the top. The couple who built it 13 years ago and operates it -- are fine folks and very pleasant. The place is immaculate and the rooms (ours had a GREAT view of the valley) are about as nice and clean as can be with really nice decor. Hot breakfast is served and we especially enjoyed the fact that it was DARK at night with no outside lights shining in.