Seaport Hotel — Hotel in Churchill

We stayed at the Seaport Hotel for 3 nights as part of a NatHab polar bear tour. The hotel is small, cozy, and challenged by the inundation of tourists during the polar bear season. The housekeeping, dining room, and reception staff are all friendly and try to be helpful. The rooms are very basic, which is good for Churchill accommodations, so one needs to lower expectations about accommodations and focus on the real reason for the visit -- polar bears. The room was generally clean, but for some reason, the mugs and glasses were dirty when we first arrived and even through daily use, was replaced or put back, apparently wiped but not cleaned. The heating is central even though there is a thermostat in the room, so heat is difficult to control. They offer laundry service upon request, and the charge for a "load" of wash was reasonable and returned the same day folded and clean. If you are wondering why we needed to do laundry -- layers of clothing were needed for the cold, but it got very warm and sweaty when we were indoors or on the polar rover. ||||Our room was quiet overlooking a side street. We didn't hear any noise from our first floor room, and even didn't hear the siren or crackle gun shots indicating polar bears in the town. The hotel exterior lights are on all night, so we had to draw our curtains. We kept looking for wildlife out our window but weren't lucky enough to see anything -- although other members of our tour group did so.||The hotel has one of 3 restaurants in the town. The breakfast is a small buffet of canned/ some fresh fruits, scrambled eggs, meat selection, oatmeal, cereal, juice, muffins/toast, coffee/tea. There is an egg station but with only one person preparing the eggs, and the rush of guests trying to eat and leave at the same time, this option had limited appeal. The staff worked hard to keep up with the crowd but timely replenishment of food was sometimes a problem. The menu for lunch and dinner offered a limited selection, and was generally better than average, considering the challenges and expense of air shipment of fresh food to the town. While organized tour groups seemed to dominate the hotel, there also appeared to have other guests in the dining room, perhaps local townsfolk or independent travelers. There is a bar and live music on Fridays but we were so tired after a full day on the tundra that we didn't check this out. ||In short, don't expect accommodations at even a 3* level in this remote location, but the hotel provided acceptable accommodation and food service, enhanced by hardworking and friendly staff. And, most importantly, we saw over 30 polar bears, several up close and in our faces -- well...

Nice hotel and was within expectations in Churchill. Room was clean and had satellite TV, wifi, coffee maker and microwave in the room. I think a lot of contractors stay here so it's set up for them. On the main drag as all the other accommodations are. Churchill is tiny so everything is next door to everything else. You don't come to Churchill expecting luxury. It's not easy to get things into town- there is no road so it's either plane or train.||We had a power outage and the management and staff had zero plan. We arrived back to a fully dark hotel. No candles, no staff to direct you, no information. A better hotel would have greeted guests with candles or had a generator. They would have poured us all a glass of wine and taken care of us. ||The owner was very kind and picked us up at the airport and drove us to the town station. We were going to walk and we appreciated that as it was very slippery and foggy. We didn't walk through the town a lot; it was bear season, there was ice fog and it twas icy. Not many places to go anyway. The locals are friendly and helpful.||The restaurant food is passable. Don't expect what you would in the city. Everything is frozen. That is to be expected in winter in a remote community. But the cooking isn't interesting. The chef doesn't seem to be motivated to create interesting or tasty food. It's not that hard. If you're a vegetarian, good luck. Other than a boring salad, not a fresh veggie on the menu. Chickpeas and beans are cheap and you could easily create good meals with that. The soup was likely canned. Wait staff might be fed up but they are only as friendly as they need to be. Had to eat there the whole time because at end of season, restaurants close. And tour groups book...

Nice hotel and was within expectations in Churchill. Room was clean and had satellite TV, wifi, coffee maker and microwave in the room. I think a lot of contractors stay here so it's set up for them. On the main drag as all the other accommodations are. Churchill is tiny so everything is next door to everything else. You don't come to Churchill expecting luxury. It's not easy to get things into town- there is no road so it's either plane or train.||We had a power outage and the management and staff had zero plan. We arrived back to a fully dark hotel. No candles, no staff to direct you, no information. A better hotel would have greeted guests with candles or had a generator. They would have poured us all a glass of wine and taken care of us. ||The owner was very kind and picked us up at the airport and drove us to the town station. We were going to walk and we appreciated that as it was very slippery and foggy. We didn't walk through the town a lot; it was bear season, there was ice fog and it twas icy. Not many places to go anyway. The locals are friendly and helpful.||The restaurant food is passable. Don't expect what you would in the city. Everything is frozen. That is to be expected in winter in a remote community. But the cooking isn't interesting. The chef doesn't seem to be motivated to create interesting or tasty food. It's not that hard. If you're a vegetarian, good luck. Other than a boring salad, not a fresh veggie on the menu. Chickpeas and beans are cheap and you could easily create good meals with that. The soup was likely canned. Wait staff might be fed up but they are only as friendly as they need to be. Had to eat there the whole time because at end of season, restaurants close. And tour groups book...