Sylvia Beach Hotel

The Sylvia Beach Hotel is beautiful. The rooms are charming, beautiful, and decorated with loving care. It was very fun to peek into the unoccupied rooms to enjoy the décor. The room we stayed in was clean, warm, and quiet. The hotel has stunning ocean views and is on the beach, with a very short walk down to the surf. It is in a walkable neighborhood with multiple restaurants, shops, and cafes minutes away. The restaurant serves very good, very rich food. The breakfast is convenient, fast, and very filling. The house-​made biscotti is divine! Dinner is served in 4 courses with the option to buy wine. Dinner is served family-​style and guests are seated together. This may be uncomfortable for some introverts but the food makes up for social awkwardness. The library on the third and fourth floors is one of the highlights of the hotel, the perfect spot to enjoy a cup of tea by the fire, reading a book and watching the sun set. No internet, no phones, no TVs.
The staff were friendly but mistakes were made in our reservation that ultimately detracted for the quality of our experience. The staff who scheduled me by phone scheduled our visit for the wrong month. The hotel called me the day they were expecting us to check in, asking why we hadn’t arrived yet and what we wanted for dinner. I explained a mistake had been made, we planned to visit in February, not January. The room we had initially reserved was not available so a different one was offered. There was no disclosure of a difference in price between the two rooms. We took the offered room and when it came time to pay the bill was $ 100 more than anticipated. When I explained the mistake, the front desk staff implied it was my fault and I would be charged for the room I had rented. The manager then stepped in and offered to take $ 45 off our bill in recognition of the mistake.
I’m grateful that the manager attempted to make the situation right and our experience was overall so positive that we plan to return, but it was not the stress free experience we desired for our beach holiday.

This is one of my favorite hotels ever for the following reasons:
1) Cozy atmosphere overlooking the beach in wide, cushy chairs in the top floor library.
2) Mulled wine + book + throw blanket + hearing crashing waves + cat = best times
3) Did I mention there was a cat? On my 2^nd day there, she jumped up onto my lap and started kneading me for 5 minutes. It was like a scene from a quirky movie come true.
4) Cute walkable area
5) BOOKS!
The Jules Verne room was fantastically decorated and has a huge bathroom.

The Sylvia Beach Hotel is a quaint spot if you’re looking for a calm and quiet getaway. The ocean views can’t be beat — really, just incredible, especially from the top-​floor library (which is insanely cozy). Loved the literary-​themed rooms. We had the Emily Dickinson, which was a corner room, and had views of both the ocean and the town street. Very nice.
I deducted one star for two reasons. 1) Though the Table of Content restaurant was top-​notch, I did not like the community table idea. For some people, I’m sure that works, but for others who are here for a quiet getaway by themselves or with their spouse, some privacy would be nice. When we asked for a private table, we were awkwardly sat right next to the community table — we could hear their whole conversations and they could hear ours, I’m sure! Not really private. The dining room is large enough that there could be several small private tables, so I’m not sure why it was set up this way.
2) The second reason I deducted one star is because this place is definitely HAUNTED! The house was built in 1913 as a boarding house and later turned into a hotel in the 20’s. We had a really freaky thing happen — on our second night there, I was abruptly woken up at 3am to ALL OF OUR LIGHTS TURNED ON. I didn’t turn anything on. My husband didn’t either. We were dead asleep. Needless to say, we were pretty freaked out.
All in all, an adorable hotel, but if you’re freaked out about paranormal stuff, I wouldn’t reccomend it. It definitely has a spooky vibe. But if you don’t believe in that stuff, or like me just don’t care, then I’m sure you’ll love it!

This place has been amazing! Stayed in the Shakespeare room, and it was very clean and comfortable. The breakfast was great– served family style with zucchini pancakes and sausage as the entrée. The view from the top floor library of the pacific is beautiful! Hot spiced wine in the evenings was a nice extra touch!

How anyone could ever rate this place fewer than 5 stars is mindblowing to me. It is probably the coolest hotel I’ve ever stayed in. I stayed in the Jules Verne room, which does not have an ocean view, but has the coolest décor of the whole place. The staff was incredibly friendly and I loved how they encouraged me to explore without giving me all of the details. I love that they leave rooms open when they are not occupied, so I was able to explore many of the other rooms. Yes, I did have to call to make a reservation, but that really wasn’t hard. I probably had the best sleep of my life in a room free of phones. (I turned mine off.) I missed dinner, but a delicious, well-​served breakfast in a sweet little dining room was included in an already very reasonable price.
Evenings included hot, spiced wine and conversation in the library. I loved all of the journals lying around the library and rooms. It was really wondrous to read through other book lovers’ thoughts through the years. The beach was cold and windy, as it can be at this time of year, but it was a lovely location for quiet reflection and thoughtful conversation.

Disclaimer. We didn’t stay here. We stayed at the elizabeth street inn a few blocks away (3 star review for them elsewhere). While looking for an alternative to the Elizabeth street Inn, we saw this place online and decided to stop by before leaving town. They generously allowed us to view any rooms that were vacant and clean. Which is why they get one of their two stars. The second is because this place really is quaint. But man, the place is not really big enough to hold all the attitude and pretense they serve up here.
I won’t detail it all, but I’ll just relate the last, brief, conversation with the woman at the desk. She told me that if we wanted to make reservations we would need to call them, because they don’t use that whole «online thing». While holding up her pencil and lecturing me that «this» (pointing to the eraser) is her delete key, I really wanted to point to the laptop on the counter behind her and tell her that I was pretty sure that computer behind her did the «whole online thing» and also had a delete key.
Give me a break and get over yourself. You’re not that important, and even if I do choose to get away for a weekend I don’t want to be afraid I’m going to break one of your Luddite rules. I want to relax. This place seemed like it was more about «shushing» and eschewing technology than it was about being a fun place to stay.
I’m sure people like it. But really I prefer a nice room with a closet (something none of their rooms have) over a clever room with a side order of pretense.
(Oh, one final note, why are landlines okay but cell phones and computers not. Wouldn’t it be more authentic to require people to send their reservation requests via the post?)

Sylvia Beach hotel is a jewel.
Loved the location, perched over the shore, the views of the lighthouse at night, the fact you can leave your window open and hear the crash of the waves. The rooms are small and the bedding in the Jane Austen room felt reminiscent of a great aunt’s softly worn quilts and floral sheets. There is a bathtub in the Austen room and surprisingly lots of hot water. Not to mention a great view of the coastline.
This place just has so much charm, from the library on the 3^rd floor and its resplendent views (as well mulled wine at night) to the resident feline, the painting of the author’s of the hotel, to the quirky gift shop.
The neighborhood surrounding the hotel while a bit scrubby also offers several cute shops and an Irish pub.
The best part of the hotel is the nightly dinner served community style– it’s an opportunity to enjoy a well thought out meal as you drink wine and get to know your fellow guests. What fun!