America's Best Value Inn - Spirit Mountain Duluth Minnesota Review

America’s Best Value Inn just outside of Duluth isn’t a place that’s high on my list of good hotels in Duluth, Minnesota. In fact, I actively avoid this chain of hotels. However, my sister and I wanted to add a little nostalgia to a weekend trip to Duluth so we decided to stay here for one night. This particular hotel was often our go-to spot when we would take a weekend ski trip to Spirit Mountain when we were kids. We hadn’t stayed here since 1996, so we wanted to see how things changed. Let’s get into my review of the America’s Best Value Inn – Duluth Minnesota.

America's Best Value Inn - Duluth Minnesota

America’s Best Value Inn – Spirit Mountain Location

Located about 13 minutes from downtown Duluth, this hotel is located right on I-35 and just across the road from the Spirit Mountain Ski Area complex, this is more of a spot to stay if you’re going to be skiing rather than exploring Duluth. If you’re staying in Duluth, the best place to stay is in the Canal Park area but hotels there can be pricey, especially in the summer. Staying at the America’s Best Value Inn isn’t an ideal location but it will save you money.

America’s Best Value Inn – Quick Overview of Amenities

No elevator
Free breakfast
Indoor pool and hot tub
Large outside deck with seating
Game room
Free wifi

Staying at the America’s Best Value Inn – Spirit Mountain Duluth Minnesota

So back in the day, we had an annual tradition of a President’s Day weekend family ski trip to Spirit Mountain — and many times, we’d stay here.

A photo from my archives – the hotel as it looked in 1996

As kids, we LOVED this place, although it did go by a different name back in the ’90s – the Spirit Mountain Inn. We loved the cozy “Up North” log cabin decor…loved the hot tub and the pool (we’d always get poolside rooms back then). And they had an arcade! And vending machines! Yes!

I can’t imagine how much change Mom pumped into the coin slot, just to get us expired Nut Goodies and Hersey Bars out of this crusty vending machine so we’d stop whining.

It’s well-documented that these claw machines are rigged

Yeah, amenities such as those were really important to a kid. Especially the pool! A hotel with a pool was like this big deal when we were kids. If Mom and Dad booked a hotel without a pool, we’d be a bunch of pissed off kids. Of course, years later as an adult, at one time I lived in a condo with a pool that I never used. Why? Because there were too many damn kids using it! What a vicious cycle.

Indoor poolside rooms. I believe we stayed in this exact same room in the ’90s.

Many times, when you go back to a place you loved as a kid and then see it through your adult eyes, well, you’re usually in for a disappointment. That’s what happened at the America’s Best Value Inn!

Don’t get me wrong – America’s Best Value Inn / Duluth Spirit Mountain Inn / Whatever the F they’re calling it these days / isn’t BAD. It’s just your garden variety cheap hotel, with thin walls, creaky floors, scratchy sheets, no elevators and bare bones amenities.

The hot tub area is separate from the pool area.

We arrived at about 10pm on a summer Thursday night. This hotel is located on a hill, with the parking lot located on the top. The parking lot is not very well-lit, and you’ll have to haul your luggage down a bunch of steps just to check in. Hope your suitcase isn’t too heavy….

We got a room on the third (top) floor, which meant that after check in, we’d have to schlep our luggage up three flights of stairs – there are no elevators here. Even though we had to do that, I highly recommend getting a room on the top floor — not just here, but at ANY cheap hotel. Cheap hotels are notorious for noise and you can eliminate a lot of it by not having someone above you.

The room was clean. Basic, bare bones, dated but clean. It was perfectly fine for one night. The room had a mini fridge, good water pressure in the shower and the beds were comfortable enough. I thought the log furniture was nice.

This hotel didn’t look much different than when we were last here, in 1996. The pool area got makeover and the carpeting in the hallway was replaced, but other than that, it was pretty much the same. All those years and no major renovations? I think it’s time, folks.

As an adult, I don’t give a shit if the hotel has a pool. I just want a waffle maker!

America’s Best Value Inn/Duluth Spirit Mountain Inn offers free breakfast until 9am, so we made sure to get up in time to get our eats on. The breakfast area is TINY, crowded and chaotic. Kids EVERYWHERE.
I didn’t see any source of protein for breakfast — just mini cereal boxes, plain donut holes, Wonder Bread, and refrigerated muffins.

They have a waffle iron too – which, like most hotel breakfasts, is the star of the show. Everyone wants a waffle of course, so there’s always a wait. With no staff manning the breakfast area, the inside of the waffle iron gets gunked up with burnt waffle grime and the outside — like the handle — gets all sticky from spilled batter.

Oh well. It’s like this at almost any hotel with a waffle maker – lots of grime leftover from other people’s waffle creations but we still flock to it like horseflies to cow shit.

Final Thoughts – America’s Best Value Inn Duluth

All in all, we had an ok stay. I’d personally pick somewhere else to stay, but this place isn’t that bad. It’s not the home-away-from-home-Duluth-mecca that we thought it was as kids, but it was fine. If you’re looking for a cheap, bare bones place to stay to enjoy Duluth and don’t mind being away from the action of Canal Park, this hotel might be a good option.

Have you ever stayed here? Let me know in the comments!