‘Riverfront’ is the accurate half of the name. The Radisson Hotel Grand Rapids Riverfront sits on a bend of the Grand River at Ann Street, and the better half of its 162 rooms genuinely look down the water, a view that hotels twice the price in most cities would advertise loudly. ‘Grand Rapids’ in the downtown sense, however, is a five-minute drive south: this is the city’s northern edge, off the US-131 exit, not the middle of town, and anyone expecting to stroll to dinner should know it before booking.
Accept the geography and the trade is decent. Rooms are brand-standard midscale, freshest in the recently touched floors, with the river side worth requesting every time. There is an indoor pool for the lake-effect months, a restaurant and bar that spare you a cold drive, and free parking, which the downtown hotels charge for nightly at a rate that adds up fast over a weekend. The rate difference against the Amway Grand and its neighbours is the whole pitch, and it is a fair one.
Downtown deserves your evenings. Founders Brewing anchors the beer trail that gave the city its nickname, the Grand Rapids Art Museum and the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum sit near the same stretch of river you can see from your window, and Frederik Meijer Gardens’ sculpture park, the region’s genuine heavyweight attraction, is fifteen minutes east. Use this hotel as the cheap, well-parked base camp for all of it, take the river view, and put the savings towards the taproom bill.
