Chena Hot Springs Resort — Attraction in Alaska

We stayed at Chena for four nights three days in March on a mom-daughter girls trip. The hot springs were very relaxing and a fun experience, but everything else left much to be desired. |We arrived early, after traveling for almost 24 hours, and were unable to check in early. The lodge has plenty of seating on comfy couches and space for luggage. You could also grab a late lunch at the restaurant or browse the gift shop, so waiting was not too bad. Our room was ready right after 4pm. We had a fox room, which was conveniently located right by the activities center and a short walk from the pool house + hot springs. That was a bonus! Loved our room location. The inside of the room was a different story. For starters, it was 82 degrees when we got to our room. We were unable to adjust the thermostat. The shower was also broken, the knob would not adjust the temperature. It was either scalding hot to the point that we couldn't use it, or freezing cold. We took navy showers the first night. When we spoke with the front desk about this, we were informed you cannot adjust the temperature in the rooms and we would need to open a window. Throughout our stay we saw multiple people asking the same question. If this was upfront information on check in, it would decrease the headache for patrons and staff! Second, maintenance staff were RUDE. The front desk attendant told maintenance over the radio about our shower, to which he replied "what do I need to come teach them how to work a shower?" the front desk attendent was extremely apologetic and went to a back room to continue this conversation. When maintenance came to our room, again they were extremely rude. We ended up taking showers in the hot springs locker room. Housekeeping was also subpar, we asked on day three for more linens and to empty the trash, which never happened. I know they came to our cabin because I saw them cleaning the room across from ours. Aside from the front desk staff and activatorium staff, the staff we encountered were very rude and unhelpful. ||Room: aside from the shower issue, the room was clean and modest. Nothing fancy but was comfortable for our stay. Lots of extra blankets which was great considering it got down to -11 at night! Beds and linens were comfortable. They do have a sulfar smell because of the natural hot spring minerals. There is a TV with 8 channels, but who comes to Alaska to watch TV?! So we did not use it. Our chain lock on the door was also broken but there was another lock on the knob. The keys are still old style keys, no swiping your card!||The pool house + hot springs: the pool house also left much to be desired. On our first trip to the locker rooms, the lockers were very confusing and the one we were using did not have instructions. Other women were having to explain how to use them as they are coin operated, single use lockers. Our locker was broken, and ate our change twice. The next day we witnessed another group trying to use the same locker and before we could tell them, it also ate their money. One of the showers was also broken. The pool, hot tubs and hot springs themselves were very nice, clean and obviously well maintained. The hot springs are 18+ which was GREAT in keeping a calm, relaxing environment. ||Activities on the property: This is another area where things were not clear at all. We only learned about several really cool things to do via chatting with the workers at the cafe. There is an auroratorium, which is a nice heated cabin up the mountain. It offers great views of the aurora at night and the forrest during the day. The path is a moderate, 10 minute up-hill hike to the cabin. We never would've known about this if it wasn't for the grounds manager making small talk with us at the cafe! The cafe closes at 11pm, but the activitorium stays open 24 hours. It is equipped with vending machines, a toaster, microwave oven, couches and another indoor aurora viewing room. Again, we wouldn't have known about any of this if it weren't for him! Things could be better explained at check in or even just a guide placed in your room. ||Pro Tips: |- temperature in your room CANNOT be adjusted, you have to open a window and use a box fan. The floors in the rooms are also heated, which cannot be adjusted. |- the water smells like sulfar from the natural hot springs. Your hair, clothes and skin will get this smell. Use bottled water if you don't like the taste! |- there isn't a fridge in the fox rooms BUT we made our own fridge by cracking the window and placing bottled water in front. Several of my waters actually froze, so it really worked! |- go to the activitorium! They have so many recommendations for activities for free and for purchase as well as tips and tricks for the property! ||Overall, our stay was enjoyable but way too expensive for what we got. The hot springs were incredible and we loved seeing the dogs on the kennel tour. Unfortunately, rude staff and broken/run down facilities put a damper on our stay. I do not want to have to take a navy shower on vacation THEN be questioned by maintenance if I know how to work a shower! If there was a guide book in your room or handout at check in explaining some of this I think it would...

Our one night stay at Chena was by far the worst part of our trip to Fairbanks. This is our honest review of the experience. The problems with Chena began before we even arrived. We called around TEN times across 5 days to ask questions and never once did they pick up. Then when we arrived, the problems continued. Our room was cranked up to 85 deg, made it completely impossible to sleep. We couldn’t control the temperature. We had to leave a window open and use a fan to cool off the room. Up next, the rooms were lacking many basic amenities you’d get in a hotel like a fridge, microwave, decent wifi, and onsite parking (the parking for the lodging is a 5 min walk). The tap water in the room reeked and tasted like sulfur. That was the only option for drinking water in the building, so you would have to venture out through the arctic weather to buy water (for $1.50, but you need to make a minimum $5 purchase to use your credit card) or to the pool house for the ONLY drinking fountain on the entire property. Both of these places close by 11pm and 11:45pm respectively, so if you’re up late watching the northern lights, don’t expect to be able to get any drinkable water. There were also just lots of little problems with the room as well. There was no bathroom sink, just one in the main entry to the room. The hot and cold shower controls were flipped, the water stank, the handle was falling off, and the water pressure was weak. The plugs on the alarm clock didn’t work. There were microwaves available to use in the activity center since they didn’t provide them in the rooms, but these microwaves were really weak and in high demand by other guests. The main reason we came was for the hot springs, and this was a disappointment as well. It started with having to use the gross locker rooms. You have to pay to use a locker. The spring itself was really cool at first. The water was a nice hot temp, there was snow all around and tons of steam coming off the water. However, there was so much smoke that it was hard to breathe after a while. You couldn’t even see the sky cause of all the smoke. When it got to hard to breathe, we went back into the pool house to sit in the hot tubs instead — of which there are only two of, so they are usually full of people. Even these had gross brown sludge in them and brown marks on the tub itself. We were originally planning to stay after our checkout in the springs and hot tubs, but after these experiences, we decided to just leave and go back to Fairbanks for our last day. The next issue we had with our stay is that all the experiences were overpriced and completely manufactured. They offer two $90 northern lights tours from 9:30pm-2:30pm and 10:30pm-3:30am. On these tours, you are stuck with a large group of tourists for the entire 5hr time slot and you have to hope the lights are strong that night. The vehicles that bring people on the tour line up right outside the lodging and are VERY LOUD. We did NOT pay to do this should be free activity. As far as we could tell, there were only two other spots to view the lights. Both of which were small and cramped. Other activities they offer include dog sledding, snowmobiling, and touring their ice museum. All of these are overpriced, shorter, and less authentic than what is offered in actual Fairbanks (besides the ice museum). Additionally, they do not provide enough information on their activities in what they give you or on their website (prices and meeting times). Our stay was not all bad though. As mentioned before, the ice castle was pretty cool and our guide was great. Our only complaint was that it was a little short for the price ($20 each for 45min). Additionally as said before, the hot springs water and vibe was nice. It was only ruined by the smoke. Overall, we will absolutely not be going back to Chena, and would not recommend anyone else to visit. If we had stayed at Chena for our whole trip to Fairbanks, we would not have wanted to go back to Alaska. Chena Hot Springs Resort is not really a “resort”, it’s a lodge and not a...

Chena Hot Springs, enter at your own risk. No, really enter at your own risk because at least 2 people have died here. There is no life guard on duty to monitor signs of dehydration, hyperglycemia, or burning and they make you sign a waiver to acknowledge that any injury or death in the hot springs is your fault.

They do have an attendant to take your money. According to the owner in the news article the resort does have staff trained in emergency response, however it should be noted that it is often guests of the hot springs that have responded first before any attendant could provide life saving service. When I looked up the position at Indeed the attendant position didn’t seem to mention job duties as providing emergency life saving services to guests nor did it indicate CPR training as a preference or requirement. I suppose staff could be trained… but it’s interesting guests have been documented as first responders. It should also be noted that calling an ambulance will take an hour for them to get their and an hour back into town. Enter the hot springs at your own risk.

Besides the potential risk for personal safety, the resort is absolutely filthy. Multiple reviews have stated the same. When I went to the hot spring, multiple toilets were over flowing with feces and toilet paper. If you go late at night you may also see interesting “adult” activities out in the open as there isn’t any staff in the hot springs to stop guests. I can only imagine what is really in the water, but imagine when other reviews complain of getting infections from the hot spring, that their complaint is valid.

Water did not appear to circulate in an adequate fashion as evidenced by the amount of algae build up on the rocks. Staff does not appear to be in charge of scrubbing the algae off the rocks either. I can’t blame them it’s literally not in their job description. Swinging by the hot springs at roughly an hour before it opens up to the public, it didn’t appear that there was any maintenance being done nor testing. I do not know how often or if the staff even test and maintain the water.

Staff at both the resort and hotel spring appear to be rude and apathetic. I listened to a guest trying to get into the restaurant become upset when quoted a wait time that would interfere with a scheduled activity. He was left with a dilemma of either miss the activity in which no refund or rescheduling could be done as explained by the hostess or be forced to buy food like a lean cuisine at the activity center because the restaurant would be closed upon his arrival. As the man left, the hostess mumbled “what the F did you expect, you should have came sooner”. At first, I was surprised by the hostess reactions but then realized that it’s likely poor company policy that forces these feelings. The hostess can’t offer a good solution because the company won’t allow her to create a good solution to the problem. It also seems like staff are underpaid and forced to reside at the resort as part of employment. I could see these factors resulting in discontent and overall apathy to guests.

Talking to locals in Alaska, some of them remember the hot spring fondly… 15 years ago but cringe at thinking about visiting it now. Once again the locals echoing the current dirtiness of the place.

Staying at the Fox Cabins the floors appeared to be caked in dirt. The walls had dirt on them. Because the room was so dirty, the dirt transferred to the bed and I slept in dirt. The heat is controlled by the resort and neared 80 degrees with both windows open to 40 degree weather and both fans going. I slept and sweat in dirt and couldn’t ever feel clean. Nowhere was...