8 Best Hotels in Washington Cascade Mountains and Valleys, Washington

In the late-19th-century Waddell Building, this reliable chain hotel in the center of downtown's museum district has spacious, modern rooms outfitted in bright Northwest colors with lots of 21st-century touches. You don't have to leave the premises to visit the popular restaurant, Stanford's Steak. 

With a quiet location in Tacoma's residential North Slope Historic District, this Stick Victorian mansion with four lavishly decorated rooms is an excellent choice for being away from the urban bustle and close to some of the city's hippest shopping and dining districts. Typical features in these antiques-filled rooms include hand-painted ceilings and period wallpapers, and one suite has a fireplace and claw-foot soaking tub. Guests can relax in the verdant garden.

Named for the Venetian island where some of the world's best glass is created, this handsome high-rise hotel with an intimate ambience centers around exhibits by world-famous glass artists. Bold colors and sleek metals infuse public spaces with style and energy, and each floor exhibits a different glass artist's pieces. Amenities include minibars stocked with local beverages, Bluetooth radios, and plush robes. The stark, chrome-and-glass Bite Restaurant sits spectacularly above glass creations in the hotel atrium and serves refined contemporary Pacific Northwest fare.

The notably quirky McMenamins company runs this offbeat boutique hotel inside a dramatically refurbished 1916 Renaissance Revival landmark set high on a hill on the north side of downtown and adjacent to Tacoma's famous Spanish Steps. With its five bars, the hotel is a favorite among fans of nightlife and historic restoration. The variety of social venues—from the brewery tasting room to the game room to the tapas bar—means you have ample drinking and dining options, all under one roof.

Opened in 2021 in the city's dynamic and newly developed waterfront neighborhood just south of Point Defiance Park, this upscale mid-rise with spacious contemporary rooms and an excellent restaurant offers seaside relaxation and views yet proximity to a large city. Rooms have floor-to-ceiling windows, wet bars, and large walk-in showers. Copper & Salt Northwest Kitchen serves well-crafted regional fare, and Spa Serein offers a full slate of soothing body treatments. Don't confuse this property with the older, but still quite nice, Silver Cloud Hotel Tacoma Waterfront, which is a couple of miles southeast, closer to downtown.

Tacoma's lone waterfront hotel juts out into the bay along picturesque Ruston Way and the historic Old Town. Contemporary rooms and even swankier suites with plush carpets, overstuffed chairs, cozy fireplaces, and corner hot tubs look out over Commencement Bay and the boardwalk marina area. Aside from glossy bay vistas, rooms have microwaves, refrigerators, 55-inch flat-screen TVs, and Aveda bath products.

The grand foyer of this gorgeously appointed Italianate mansion in Tacoma's historic Stadium District has lovely Palladian windows, and public areas are painted in soft hues of lime, fuchsia, and coral. A wood staircase framed by white colonnaded archways leads to the guest suites, all of which have bay or mountain views; three have fireplaces. Subdued paintings, glass art, and international textiles adorn the walls. Garden spaces invite relaxation with Adirondack chairs and hammocks; romance brews around the Salon Piazza's fountain and gardens.

Spread over 3 lushly landscaped acres along beautiful American Lake, this 27,000-square-foot property was built in 1908 from the pieces of a 16th-century Gothic- and Tudor-style castle shipped from England; it has hosted two American presidents (William Howard Taft and Theodore Roosevelt). It's replete with medieval-style stained-glass windows, gleaming wood floors, large mirrors, antiques, fireplaces, and hot tubs. From the lakeside patio and sunken garden—designed by the Olmsted Brothers—you can meditate on the spectacular sunsets.