San Jose is the region in Northern California known as Silicon Valley. It was founded as the first town of Nueva California as a Spanish colony. The city offers a wide variety of cultural, recreational, business and entertainment opportunities. Hence, many tourists decide to stay at the many hotels that guarantee a pleasurable, comfortable and relaxing experience.

Haunted hotels are the perfect place to experience thrill and comfort at the same time. It can also test one’s bravery. Many of the haunted hotels have a past history, sheltering unwanted spirits. Below are the three haunted hotels in San Jose.

Ramada Limited

Ramada Limited is a three story Motor Inn by the San Jose Convention Center. It is located at the center of the downtown area. This hotel is just 3.5 miles from the airport and 3 blocks away from the San Jose State University.

Hotel amenities include free wireless high speed Internet, continental breakfast and a parking area. The hotel also provides modern equipments at the fitness center as well as outdoor pool with Jacuzzi, sauna and a steam room. Guestrooms are equipped with refrigerators, coffeemakers, data ports and direct dial phones. Functions and special events can be held at their spacious meeting rooms.

You can enjoy all these amenities with a thrilling and unforgettable stay for one or two nights. Guests and workers had experienced people screaming because of a green glowing light and rattling locker doors. A dancing couple also happened to disappear on thin air at the ballroom.

Hyatt Hotel St. Claire

Hyatt Hotel is a deluxe Lakspur Hotel at the heart of downtown San Jose. It is just three miles away from Mineta International Airport and a walk-away from San Jose McEnergy Convention Center. The hotel offers elegant and enchanting accommodations that suit one’s comfort. This hotel presents a free-spirited atmosphere with superior services and cuisines. Guests who want to experience business or pleasure can be dazzled with the luxurious and stylish setting of Hyatt Hotel.

Some people who visited the hotel believe that it is haunted. Stories indicate that the hotel has a resident ghost named Julia. She is a prominent young woman who was married at the Palm Room in the 1930s. Her fiancé abandoned her at the altar and she took her life at the basement.

Guests experienced hearing footsteps of a high heeled woman and background pictures that contain a wedding gown train with bride’s feet. There was also a strange incidence at the second and sixth floor.

Unwanted sightings are just one part of the hotel’s exciting offers. The hotel’s first rate amenities and services are the important features you can’t afford to miss. This includes complimentary Internet access, a mobile office, business center, lobby and restaurants. Guest rooms are equipped with flat screen televisions, Microsystem CDs with MP3s and audio cables.

Hyatt Hotel also offers a relaxing evening entertainment at the restaurants like I1 Fornaio and Panetteria. I1 Fornaio offers authentic Italian dining for 220 seats, while Panetteria has a wide array of baked goods. The hotel also offers more than 10,000 square feet of meeting spaces. The modern authentic venues can accommodate 450 guests. Hyatt also recommends exclusive perks for discounts, gift cards and hot deal pricing on packages.

Winchester Mansion

Winchester mansion is a 162 acre residence of Sarah Winchester. The mansion is continuously constructed from 1884 until her death on 1922. It was estimated to cost about $5.5 million.

The story of the haunted mansion started when Sarah Winchester’s husband and son died. A medium told her to move west and build a house for the deceased spirits killed by Winchester rifles of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. Sarah’s family was cursed and the only way to save her life from death is to build a house for the spirit to reside in. Sarah will live as long as she keeps on building the house.

It originally has seven storeys before it was reduced to four after the 1906 earthquake struck the building. It was made entirely with redwood and a floating foundation. There are 160 rooms with 40 bedrooms and 2 ballrooms. It also has 47 fireplaces, 17 chimneys, 2 basements and 3 elevators.

Today, the house is owned by the Winchester Investments LLC and declared as a Historical Landmark in California.

Source by David Urmann

The story of the celebrated Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite Valley is particularly noteworthy because of its status in US National Park history, but also because its very existence is a tribute to one man who had an ambitious dream for America. He wanted to build a National Park System that would be the envy of the world, and the Ahwahnee Hotel helped him do it – here is how.

The first director of the US National Park Service

A wealthy Stephen T. Mather agreed to lead the Park Service in 1915, at a time when there were just 16 national parks and the public was indifferent to the concept. Today there are 58 magnificent parks, and through the years, much of the success of the National Park program was due to the careful planning and inspiration of Mr. Mather.

All are welcome

Mather envisioned the national parks to be places of beauty and relaxation and accessible to all. In Yosemite, he directed the creation of three distinct levels of comfort to cater to the full spectrum of national park visitors.

The highest level of accommodation would be a first-class hotel that provided all the amenities necessary to attract and satisfy the wealthy and influential. A second level of accommodation would provide year round tents with a central area for services such as a restaurant and toilet facilities. He also set aside space for frugal visitors who preferred to camp with their own tents and camping equipment. Today, the national park system pretty much follows Mather’s plan.

How Mather grew the park system

Mather thought that if he built a truly great hotel in his favorite national park in Yosemite Valley it would be of interest to rich and powerful people. They would come to enjoy the many amenities, and in return provide support for his plan to grow the National Park System and the public trust wilderness in the United States.

Concurrent with Stephen Mather’s appointment, the automobile was revolutionizing tourism and travel all across the nation. By 1926, an all-weather highway opened Yosemite Valley to year round access. Because of both, Mather’s plan succeeded beyond his wildest dreams.

History of the Ahwahnee site

Millions of years of glacier grinding smoothed the lofty granite walls of Yosemite Valley into the breathtaking majestic monuments we know today.

Thirty thousand years ago, there was a great lake on the location of the Ahwahnee Hotel. The water left a fertile plain that was subsequently inhabited by Native Americans.

The Miwoks lived in Yosemite for thousands of years before it was discovered by the white man in the mid-19th century.

Reminders of the first people

The Ahwahneechee tribe lived on the land where the Ahwahnee Hotel stands today. Their diet included a staple porridge made from acorns. Hotel visitors can explore the large granite formations and the pockets made in the rock by the Indian workers who ground the acorns into meal.The rock formations are easy to find and are situated immediately adjacent to the hotel parking lot. Any hotel employee will be happy to show you the location.

Kennyville

After the white man discovered Yosemite, it was not long before the word got out about the marvelous wilderness with its 3,000-foot granite walls and cascading waterfalls.

In the 1850s, the first tourists entered Yosemite on horseback. A small town, Kennyville was quickly established to provide visitors with livery services and minimum creature comforts during their stay in the valley.

With the advent of the automobile in the early twentieth century, Kennyville’s usefulness declined rapidly and the land seemed a perfect candidate for repurposing. Mather wanted the beautiful site with abundant trees and views of Yosemite Falls, Half Dome, and Glacier Point for his hotel. He got his wish.

The building begins

In 1925, the Yosemite and Curry Company (YP&CC) was commissioned by the Park Service to build the great Yosemite hotel. Gilbert S. Underwood was chosen as architect. His task was to be one of his greatest career challenges and accomplishments.

A fireproof hotel

Fire is always of great concern in the wilderness, and many park hotels have fallen victim to natural woodland fires. Mather wanted a fireproof hotel. To that end, the Ahwahnee is a true masterpiece of design genius.

The Ahwahnee Hotel structure looks to be made of rock and timber, but in reality the primitive looking exterior siding, balconies, and beams that appear to be timber are actually constructed from cement castings superbly stained to match the surrounding redwoods and pines. We have visited the Ahwahnee Hotel many times over the years, but until we did the research for this article, we had no idea the exterior walls were made of cement.

Building the Ahwahnee Hotel was a monumental undertaking

It was the largest such task for the burgeoning young American trucking industry of the 1920s. Trucks ran on dusty roads day and night, seven days a week for over a year to bring materials to the Ahwahnee worksite.

All building materials for the six-story hotel were imported from outside the park. That meant hauling nearly 700 tons of steel I beams along with 5,000 tons of building stones, and 30,000 feet of lumber and logs with early model trucks along bumpy dirt roads. Add to that the many tons of hotel furnishings, and the kitchen and maintenance equipment necessary to run a luxury hotel. It was a huge undertaking for more than 250 drivers, workers, and artisans to create the timeless lodging masterpiece that we now so revere.

Stephen T. Mather did himself, and America proud.

The hotel had its grand opening on July 14, 1927.

If you go

There are several entrances to Yosemite Park and you can choose your route from the park website.

As you drive through the park watch for signs to the Ahwahnee Hotel. A natural stone gatehouse at the entrance to the hotel gives the visitor an exhilarating sense of arrival. The leafy tree-lined drive beyond the gateway increases the anticipation, and the Sequoia lined parking area provides a warm welcome to all visitors.

You are privileged to be about to enter one of the grandest park rustic hotels in the world.

Happy travels.

We will write more about the grand Ahwahnee Hotel in the very near future. If you liked this story, don’t miss the sequel. We will explore the Ahwahnee’s remarkable interior, and the role that Ansel Adams and the Navy played in the hotel’s history.

We want to thank Lisa Cesaro, of the DNC Parks and Resorts at Yosemite, and Tami von Isakovics of Ellipses Public Relations for assisting us with information about the Ahwahnee Hotel and Yosemite Valley.

If you would like to read more details about the Ahwahnee Hotel there are two short and excellent books on the subject. The Ahwahnee – Yosemite’s Grand Hotel, by Keith Walklet and The Ahwahnee – Yosemite’s Classic Hotel, by Shirley Sargent. Both books are available on Amazon.com.

Source by Wayne Bayliff