I visited the Prince of Wales Hotel when I was 11 years old in 1963. I and my family were on a camping trip at Glacier National Park and then crossed the border to Alberta, Canada and camped at Belly River campground. We met a Canadian Parks inspector who told us about the hotel. We went to see it but didn’t stay there. It was a beautiful, sunny day and the view of the Waterton Lake from those gargantuan windows in the great room took my breath away! At the time, they had beautiful gardens in front and back of the hotel. We strolled around the back, in front of those gargantuan windows, surrounded by the flowerbeds with every color of delphiniums that were over 5 ft. tall! And beyond that, was the lake and the mountains! Spectacular doesn’t capture how beautiful it was. I had to go to the gift shop to buy a souvenir. I heard that the Canadians collect teacups so, I bought a teacup and saucer that I still have to this day! When I saw your pictures of the teacups on display, I couldn’t believe it still looked the same! I’m 71 years old now but I will never forget my day at that beautiful hotel. Thank you for sharing your video and giving my memory a refresh! I can almost smell the scents of the gardens and the pines.
This is probably one of my favorite comments to receive on RU-vid to date. Comments like this gives me an insight that my videos are actually being watched and appreciated with so I thank you for your comment. I cannot believe that im getting a message from someone who has been there in 1963 at the age of 11. Its always nice to hear stories of memories so thank you for sharing them. This is the reason as to why I want to create more memories so that maybe it resonates with somebody else.
@@MRwiteoutt Thank you for your lovely reply. I was wondering if you’ve travelled to Lake Louise in Banff, Alberta, Canada. They have another beautiful hotel facing Lake Louise. We were camping at Moraine Lake and visited the Fairmont Chateau on Lake Louise. It’s very grand. It also had the beautiful English gardens facing the lake also with the delphiniums. In the summer of 1968, they had a concert pianist who would put on a concert for free. It’s truly a huge, beautiful hotel, several stories high and yet dwarfed by the surrounding mountains. I hope they still have the gardens. I was so sad to not see them at the Prince of Wales Hotel at Waterton in your’s and other’s recent videos. But I still enjoyed your video very much! Happy travels!
In case I missed it, what exactly is the hotel's connection to the Prince of Wales? And which Prince of Wales would that be? Did he ever stay there? I am asking because I am looking for the place where I stayed with my parents back in 1952. From what I remember and what they told me, it had been built by Queen Victoria's son back in the 1880's as a magnificent Victorian hunting lodge and only visited by the Prince once!! When we were there, it was newly opened up to tourists. The sheets were still coming off the ancient furniture in the lobby/lounge. The place was old and spooky with massive newel posts on staircases and lots of dark wood. I can't find any 19th century-built hotel anywhere in Canada today with a connection to the (then) future Edward VII. Thank you to anyone who knows anything.
According to what I've heard & read, it was named after the then Prince of Wales, Prince Edward, who later in 1936 became King Edward VIII (elder brother of King George VI and uncle of Queen Elizabeth II). At the time it was built in 1927, they named it The Prince of Wales hoping to lure the visiting Prince Edward to stay there, but instead he stayed at a ranch. So he never visited his name sake hotel in Waterton.
It looks like they do an outstanding job keeping the outside of the hotel looking great- but the inside of the hotel, especially the rooms, looks outdated and worn. And no air conditioning- they just point you towards a fan.
Just FYI since I haven't encountered many hotels without AC until the last 2 years. Lots of colder locals don't have AC. For example I've been to Top of the Village in Snowmass (winter x-games held here), Emerald Lake Lodge (Yoho NP) and ptarmigan Inn (Banff). They're all really nice places but they all don't have AC. As for this hotel it still looks quite nice to me. Is the room small? Sure but it's not that bad for something built in 1927 (I believe he had a typo in his video saying 1972) and the condition looks perfectly fine.
I guess what I'm getting at here is that if you plan to visit - don't expect to have AC. part of the tour basically goes about showing what you will receive if you stayed. perhaps a higher room package might have a window box AC but I do not know. Thank you for the comments! I'm sure someone will find it helpful.
You want creepy, just buy an old shack in the Poconos and the spiders and bats will welcome you, not to mention all the ghost noises that come for free.
