A ten-room 1904 Victorian inn standing directly above the Orcas Island ferry landing, restored to working order with a downstairs cafe, a small dining room and a covered porch with rocking chairs looking down on the ferry slip.
"You step off the Orcas ferry, walk thirty paces uphill, and check in to a 1904 Victorian inn that has been doing that exact job for over a hundred and twenty years. The porch is the right place to sit for the next ferry."
The Orcas Hotel stands at the top of Orcas Hill Road, directly above the Orcas Island ferry landing, in what is effectively a single-property village called Orcas (population: very small). The hotel opened in 1904 to serve travellers arriving by steamship to the islands; the building is a three storey wooden Victorian with the classical proportions of the era (tall windows, a wide covered porch with turned posts, and a steep pitched roof) and has been continuously in service in some form ever since. A long restoration in the early 2000s upgraded the building to modern fire codes and brought the room product up to contemporary standard while keeping the period bones intact.
There are 10 rooms across the upper two floors. The room mix is deliberately small and character-rich: most rooms have queen beds, restored period furniture, en suite bathrooms (a few smaller categories share a bath), and the kind of original wooden floors that small heritage hotels usually paint over. The two larger ferry-view rooms on the front of the building, looking directly down on the ferry slip and across to Shaw and Lopez Islands, are the booking; the smaller back rooms are quieter but lose the view. None of the rooms is enormous, which is the trade you make for the historic envelope.
The ground floor is a working cafe and dining room rather than a hotel lobby. The Orcas Cafe handles breakfast and lunch daily; the dining room opens for dinner on most evenings in season with a small Pacific Northwest menu; the bar runs through the evening. The porch is the property's most-used room: a long covered space with rocking chairs and side tables, looking out over the ferry slip and Harney Channel, that fills with ferry travellers between sailings and hotel guests over a glass of Washington wine at sunset.
The case for the Orcas Hotel is the case for small heritage inns with location: the property delivers a particular kind of slow, period travel experience that is otherwise unavailable on the islands. The trade-off is the room product (smaller than contemporary hotels, with character that not everyone wants) and the limited amenity set (no pool, no spa, no fitness centre, no kitchen units). For guests on Orcas Island who want to be at the ferry landing rather than thirty minutes inland, who want the historic format, and who appreciate a porch and a working cafe more than a swimming pool, this is the village inn.
For a solo trip to Orcas Island, the hotel works unusually well. The porch is the right place to sit alone with a book; the cafe and dining room handle the meals without the awkwardness of larger restaurants; the small scale (10 rooms) keeps things quiet. Book a back room if you sleep light and a front ferry-view room if you want the constant minor theatre of the ferry slip.
An anniversary at the Orcas Hotel is the version of celebration that does not feel staged. Book a ferry-view room for the view of the channel, take dinner downstairs, walk the half mile of road into the village, and spend the morning on the porch with the small newspaper and coffee. The property gives you the experience of the 1904 ferry traveller without the discomfort.
For a Pacific Northwest honeymoon at the small heritage end of the islands, the Orcas Hotel is an unusual but valid booking. The ten room scale, the porch, the ferry slip directly below, and the period bones add up to something the contemporary islands stock cannot deliver. Pair a few nights here with a few at Rosario or Doe Bay further into the island for the full trip.
18 Orcas Hill Road
Orcas, WA 98280
United States
Directly above the Orcas Island ferry landing; thirty steps from the ferry slip up Orcas Hill Road
10 rooms across two floors
Shared-bath rooms from USD 165/night
Queen en suite from USD 225/night
Ferry View Queen from USD 295/night
Ferry View King to USD 365/night
Check-in: 3:00 PM
Check-out: 11:00 AM
Hotel opened 1904; full restoration completed 2008; on the National Register of Historic Places
Working downstairs cafe and dining room
Covered porch with rocking chairs above the ferry slip
Ferry-view rooms looking down on the Orcas slip
Bar open through the evening
Walk-off-the-ferry location
Complimentary WiFi throughout
From USD 165/night. Ferry-view rooms book four to five months ahead for July and August; other categories two to three months for the same period. The hotel closes for two weeks in January for deep cleaning. The Orcas ferry crossing books separately and three to four weeks ahead in summer.
See Current Rates →The 1906 Robert Moran mansion turned resort on the east shore of Orcas Island, the larger historic alternative.
The 1886 Hotel de Haro and the McMillin lime village on the northwest tip of San Juan Island.
An 86 room boutique on the bluff above the Friday Harbor ferry landing on the next island over.
Sign up for deal alerts: fifth night free offers, resort credits, and the upgrade windows we would book ourselves.