Best area to stay in while visiting Spokane (South Hill, Pacific: appointed, fit in)

[fleeingdesert]

Our family will be driving up from California to decide if we want to relocate to Spokane (I know, another Californian, but we really are nice).
We are wondering what is a good area to stay in as far as hotels go. I found a condo as a vacation rental off of W. 2nd street. Would this be a safe, good area to stay for a few days? Some of the posts about crime have me nervous and is probably the only reason I'm hesitant to move there.

Also, if anyone has any suggestions on how to really see the whole area enough to know if we want to live there, I'll take any advice I can get. (Which places are must see's, must eat, lakes must visit... plus neighborhoods.)

Thanks

[WendyK]

what's the address on w 2nd? I can take a drive by there and see how it looks, if you'd like.

[Jey K]

We stayed at the Doubletree adjoining the convention center when we came house-hunting back in May/Bloomsday Run; It was relatively inexpensive via Priceline advanced re-bidding - $50/night. It is located in a convenient area downtown, has almost limitless parking via the convention center w/ in&out privileges ($16/day) and is adjacent the river as well as close to the park. Fine downtown dining is a few streets away, as is the River Park Square Mall.

If you want to rent a condo and have kitchen amenities, a traditional hotel would be out I suppose; During our stay however, we'd often pickup salads and other foods from Huckleberry's in South Hill, Mexican from DeLeon's and pizza from Bennedito's to dine back at the hotel - Huckleberry's also has a wide array of beer selections by the bottle.

If you're dining in Spokane Valley, I'd recommend Hay J's (via RetChef's post); Spencer's located inside the Doubletree has some decent steaks, albeit a touch pricey. Gordy's is supposed to be the best Szechuan/Chinese food in town. The Oatmeal Brulee is excellent for breakfast at Huckleberry's (mini-version of Whole Foods/Central Market).

There's a good thread re: dining (RetiredChef has some good rec's), as well as some good threads on Chowhound. You'll find a lot of RetiredChef's reviews on Yelp as well.

[fleeingdesert]

Thanks for the great reply. Wendy, the address is 3406 W. 2nd It looks nice in pictures but we don't want to stay somewhere in a bad area for our first look at Spokane. There is 5 of us so it is hard to find something big enough. I will check out the Doubletree though.
Jey, did you ever move to Spokane since your trip? Wondering how you like it and how one manages to get a feel for the area in a few days.

[Jey K]

fleeingdesert - What a strange coincidence... I tried to look at your condo via street view on Google maps, and interestingly enough, the street your condo is on does not show up (Google car didn't drive down that street).

However, strangely enough, when I looked at the surrounding streets, I recognized one of the streets - W Pacific Ave which is one street north of where your condo is (if it is indeed in the neighborhood just south of Greenwood Memorial Terrace Cemetary and Riverside Memorial Park). Turns out we'd looked at a home right on that street - a modern construction home by Nordic Construction. The home had some nice modern architecture, decent view and lots of space, however the deal breaker turned out to be the row of townhomes directly behind the home which shared the same alleyway. These were run-down, had molding sofas out on patios littered w/ empty beer cans, chain link fencing, etc... Caveat - We didn't actually SEE that street and the condos/homes; Wife says, "Well, maybe they look nice in the front, or the other side of that street."

I'm still surprised by this coincidence; Who'd have thought I'd visited the area you're looking at. In fact, if you streetview Google - W Pacific Ave, you'll see the home; It even has this big FOR SALE sign on the balcony in its streetview picture. Wife says it's actually in contingency right now (so I suppose somebody decided it was OK).

BTW - We DID move to Spokane, into a very nice home and neighborhood and enjoy the city very much. You can find out a lot about a city via the internet, wikipedia, chowhound & yelp for restaurants, city-data as you're doing, street-viewing via Google, google mapping stores/locales you tend to visit in your current home and see if you'll be able to adjust well enough. Then when you visit, I'd actually take a look at the parks, stores, groceries and restaurants you'd typically frequent as a local. Live life "as a local" so to speak, versus visiting all the touristy areas. Makes for a boring visit, perhaps, but you'll get a better feel for the neighborhoods and how Spokane would fit into your day-to-day life. Talk with everybody you meet; People are surprisingly friendly, open and talkative IMHO.

You can drive from one end of town to the other no problem, multiple times a day. Explore the neighborhoods...

[David Aguilar]

Originally Posted by fleeingdesert

address is 3406 W. 2nd It looks nice in pictures but we don't want to stay somewhere in a bad area

That's astonishing close to my house, but I've never seen that address.

This is not even close to being a bad area, you'll be more than fine there IMO. This is actually one of the quieter, less dense parts of Spokane. You should enjoy it.

[fleeingdesert]

I am a bit confused about what to think. David, you say it is a good area, but Jey wasn't too sure because of alley way next to it. I just don't want our first impression of Spokane to be bad where we stay. What do you guys think of renting in Deer Lake area for the week there? I know it sounds like a ways out, but is it close enough to still see enough of Spokane as a possible relocation place? This place is in Craigslist... again, I am renting blind though. It's good to know there are people there to give me some advice, it is a long drive from California.
Speaking of California, how do you think locals feel about us CA's moving in? We get a bad rap sometimes-well deserved I'm sure at times- but I don't want to feel unwelcome.
Jey, could you tell me about what neighborhood you decided upon? A few sound nice, but schools will decide. Anyone hear of Northwest Christian Schools? we may be interested in that.
I like your advice of seeing it as a local. Although, it will be nice to see the fun, touristy areas too. Hoping the family likes it and finds there is stuff for us to do. Figuring out how to make it a practical, yet fun trip, will be challenging.

Thanks so much for the great help.

[fy10fyr]

Deer Lake is a great area, beautiful lake. It's about an hour (mol) to Spokane, so if you wanted to use it as a base for exploring, probably not the best choice.

If I was spending a week at Deer Lake, coming into the city everyday would be the last thing I'd want to do.

[jessysunshine]

I haven't read any of the above posts, but I do want to recommend a good hotel to stay at...The Appletree Inn on the northside. It has some of the best rates around (and I just checked MANY recently), and they have kitchenettes and very nice staff. At least this has been my experience.

[David Aguilar]

Originally Posted by fleeingdesert

I am a bit confused about what to think. David, you say it is a good area, but Jey wasn't too sure because of alley way next to it. I just don't want our first impression of Spokane to be bad where we stay. What do you guys think of renting in Deer Lake area for the week there? I know it sounds like a ways out, but is it close enough to still see enough of Spokane as a possible relocation place? This place is in Craigslist... again, I am renting blind though. It's good to know there are people there to give me some advice, it is a long drive from California.
Speaking of California, how do you think locals feel about us CA's moving in? We get a bad rap sometimes-well deserved I'm sure at times- but I don't want to feel unwelcome.
Jey, could you tell me about what neighborhood you decided upon? A few sound nice, but schools will decide. Anyone hear of Northwest Christian Schools? we may be interested in that.
I like your advice of seeing it as a local. Although, it will be nice to see the fun, touristy areas too. Hoping the family likes it and finds there is stuff for us to do. Figuring out how to make it a practical, yet fun trip, will be challenging.

Thanks so much for the great help.

If you are thinking of relocating to Spokane, isn't it important to see the good and bad parts of it? You don't want to come here with rose-colored glasses on, and then be disappointed when you move here because it wasn't as rosy as it was on your previous trip. Again, that house should be nothing less than rosy, but I will drive by it next time I go out.

Deer Lake shouldn't even be an option, it's too far out.

I'm a native-Southern Californian (by way of Colorado), and nobody seems to mind where I came from (but we are typically speaking of Colorado here). I find Spokane to be extremely welcoming, and at worst people are aloof to others previous domiciles. But, keep in mind, if you have yet to live somewhere else other than CA, that you might want to act as a guest in your new hometown and show respect for it until you become accustomed to it. I don't think people anywhere would like somebody to move to the neighborhood and act all "Hollywood" and act overly superior to the more entrenched natives, which is where most hatred for CA'ians comes from.

I believe Jey K lives in my neck of the woods as well.