Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, Arizona – Our Review

Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, Arizona is a motel along Route 66 where guests stay in concrete teepees. We stayed a night there with our family and this is how it all went.

On our road trip to Arizona we decided to do something fun and different, and stay at the Wigwam Village in Holbrook. It ended up being a choice and a very memorable one!

Holbrook is a small town along the Interstate 40 and Highway 180 not too far from the state line between Arizona and New Mexico. There are about 5000 residents in the town.

Holbrook is in Najavo County and there are many businesses ran by Native Americans. It is a perfect place to get some jewellery or other crafts, or even to try out some Navajo tacos.

WIGWAM VILLAGES AROUND THE COUNTRY

The very first Wigwam Village in the United States was built in 1933 by Frank A. Redford in Kentucky. No one is sure where he got the teepee idea, but after a while several other villages were built in various locations.

There used to be a total of seven Wigwam Motels: two in Kentucky, one in Alabama, Florida, Arizona and California. Today only three of them are still up and running. They have all been listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

The word wigwam is actually from the Ojibwe language and means a domed, round shelter that Native Americans used to have. So it doesn’t really refer to the shape of a teepee, even though the name is used in wigwam motels.

Wigwams were usually semi-permanent when teepees on the other hand could be disassembled and packed away when needed.

Wigwam Motels were extremely popular in 1930’s and 40’s. The one in Holbrook was built by Chester E. Lewis, who had seen a Wigwam Village in Kentucky.

He quickly bought a licence to use the idea and opened his own village in 1950. When a new freeway, I-40 was built to bypass Route 66 in 1974, he closed the Wigwam Motel. It stayed closed for years until Chester E. Lewis passed away and his kids decided to renovate and open the village again. They are still running it today.

If you are road tripping in California, consider checking out the Wigwam Village there. It is right on the border of Rialto and the city of San Bernardino, on Route 66. This wigwam was built by Frank A. Redford. but it is a little bit different from the other villages.

First, it has a double row of wigwams and a pool surrounded by palm trees. And second, it was renovated in 2005 and it should be in fairly good condition. Even though we regularly visit Southern California, we haven’t stayed there yet. Maybe some day we will.

The third Wigwam Village still open is in Kentucky.

WIGWAM MOTEL ARIZONA – Our REVIEW

We arrived to Holbrook just in time before it got dark. The Wigwam Motel was very easy to find as it is right by Route 66, on Hopi Drive.

We quickly got our key from reception and headed to our room. The nice thing about the village is that the cars are parked right out front of the wigwams, so it is easy to bring in all the bags.

The rooms are fairly small and round, so they only have the very necessary of things. Our room had two double beds, a small desk and a chair. We also had a small flat screen TV and a mirror.

Each wigwam has an A/C unit and a small heater under the TV. We ended up using the heater all night since the November in Holbrook was already quite chilly. Because the rooms are built from concrete, they are pretty cold and especially the floor felt freezing.

But I’m sure the concrete will stay cool longer during the hot summer months when the temperatures can rise up to 95F (+35 Celsius).

You could say that the room was a little ascetic, but it had everything we needed, and it was clean. At the end of the room we had a tiny bathroom and a shower. We were also pleasantly surprised that the wifi was working fine, as I had read earlier in some reviews that claimed otherwise.

There were two little windows and by looking out we could see that most other guests were also families with kids. Each wigwam had a porch light so the area was nicely lit in the evening.

One special thing about the Wigwam Villages is that there are vintage cars parked in front of the teepees. Many people seemed to stop by just to take photos of the cars.

This particular motel also had petrified trees all over the parking lot as it is very close to Petrified Forest National Park. Small pieces of trees were sold in the reception which was built into an old Texaco station. They also had a small museum there.

Staying in a wigwam hotel is not luxury for sure, but we had fun and our kids loved it! Yes, the wigwams are tiny and they don’t have all the amenities, but they were clean and we got a good night sleep. We took it as a once in a lifetime experience and it added a great memory to our trip.

There was only one major thing that could be improved. Making a reservation was a drag. Their website was difficult to find and they didn’t offer any online reservation option. It stated on their website that you can book a room by emailing or calling them. In reality, their reply to my email just said that I have to call.

Since we were on the move all day long without cell service, and the reception was only open from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m., for a moment I considered forgetting the whole idea. I honestly think that they would get more customers by doing better marketing and making reserving a room easier.

Update! The Wigwam Village in Holbrook now has a new website and their own reservation system.

Check out the video from inside the wigwam on my Instagram and follow us there!

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If you are driving through Route 66, especially with kids, the Wigwam Motel is actually a pretty fun place to stay. Don’t forget to stop at the Meteor Crater and Walnut Canyon National Monument along the way. Also Grand Canyon and Sedona are only a small detour away.

We continued the next day to Petrified Forest National Park which was only about 20 minutes away from the Wigwam Village. A drive to the New Mexico border is about an hour.

We love trying out unique and fun places to stay on our trips, and some of the most memorable ones have been a night in a birdhouse and in an old prison in Finland. Madonna Inn in California is also something worth experiencing.

And if you are not that adventurous, you can still stop by to take a couple photos of the Wigwam Village when you pass by.

What kind of fun and special places have you stayed in on your trips?