On Monday I posted about the various ways we cope with being stuck inside for long periods of time (because of the extreme cold and dark). As you can imagine, despite everyone's best efforts, around mid-winter being cooped up inside and feeling isolated starts to get to you. The kids have been bickering frequently (board games and tea can only take you so far). School has been cancelled every time it is colder than -50, and it looks like the winter camp I signed the kids up for this week will be cancelled tomorrow with temperatures falling to -54. Even the dog is starting to get antsy. My mother is in town this month, so this past weekend JJ and I escaped for 2 nights to enjoy a local "getaway" alone, no kids invited. We decided to stay at the Frobisher Inn. What started out as a simple weekend getaway unexpectedly turned into our "Tour de Frob". This is great for you readers, because you get to see more of the hotel!
The Frobisher Inn
Known as "the Frob" (rhymes with "robe"), the Frobisher Inn has everything you could possibly need during your stay in Iqaluit under one roof. There is a movie theatre, a sit-down restaurant, a lunchtime sandwich spot, a convenience store, conference rooms, and of course typical hotel rooms. The rooms are decently appointed, clean, and smoke-free. If its cold outside, you NEVER NEED TO LEAVE!
That said, staying in a hotel in Iqaluit isn't exactly like staying in a hotel elsewhere. Yes, there is a lunchtime cafe, but they had one kind of sandwich on Sunday at 12:30 (ham and cheese), and one type of soup (seafood chowder). The convenience store did not have apple or orange juice, but lots of pop and energy drinks. You know how most hotels have options to watch movies on demand? Not here. The satellite television at the hotel is the same satellite television offered anywhere else up here. (We watched the Olympics.) The hotel is kind enough to provide you with a list of channels. The internet is extremely slow, so slow we both used the personal hot spots on our iPhones. (By slow internet I mean all but unusable.) The fireplace didn't work in one room we stayed in, and in another room the remote wouldn't work to turn the TV off (turning it on worked fine). No one living here in Nunavut would be bothered by this, its just an accepted part of life in an isolated area. Repair people and contractors are in short supply up here, as are replacement parts.
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| Educating southerners about internet rules in the north. |
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| To the right of reception. Down the hall is a convenience store, bar, and lunch cafe. |
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| Left of reception is the movie theatre and conference rooms. |
We began our stay in room 406, a regular guest room with kitchenette. To our surprise the room had 2 microwaves and 2 mini-fridges. I'm assuming this was NOT simply a case of poor planning, but is in fact in case we both decide we need to warm up two different things simultaneously that won't fit in the same microwave--a problem often encountered in hotel rooms. (Ha!) And because two refrigerators are better than one. (Unlike the hotel in Kimmirut JJ stayed in, you can have the fridge and microwave plugged in at the same time.)
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| Queen size bed. |
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| Microwave and fridge next to the bed. |
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| Microwave and fridge in the closet. |
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| JJ shows off a food magazine... |
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| ...and hosts "Welcome to our Room", a made for cable TV special. |
Shortly after we got to our room JJ slipped away, saying he was going to "get some drinks" for us from the vending machine. He came back up 15 minutes later and announced we were upgrading to a different room. Apparently he told the woman at the reception desk that his wife is a famous blogger, (with over 5000 page views!) who wanted to showcase the "best" that the hotel had to offer. She immediately upgraded us for free, and offered us a free bottle of champagne.
OK, so that last part didn't really happen. (But wouldn't that have been awesome?) JJ wanted our stay to feel more like a getaway, so he had upgraded us to a room "with a fireplace and jacuzzi tub". We packed everything up that I had unpacked, and off we went to room 501.
Room 501 was much more spacious corner suite, also with a kitchenette (slightly disappointingly more like a normal hotel room with only one microwave and one mini-fridge). Technically, there was a fireplace. It was electric and blew hot air into the room, but was broken so there were no flames (or more accurately, no light to simulate flames). The jacuzzi upgrade meant that our bathtub now had jets. It was a nice, clean, comfortable room. We also had FOUR chocolates on our pillows, as opposed to the measly two chocolates we had had in the regular guest room. Wahoo!!! We spent our first night there. Then came "the incident"......
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| Our sitting/dining area. |
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| Fireplace, and king size bed this time. |
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| A room with a view. |
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| Our house is on top of that hill! |
A couple of years ago JJ purchased something called the "Thing Charger". It's basically a charger that still allows you to use electrical wall sockets while charging phones, iPads, etc. on the top of the charger. This has never given us a problem and we have taken it multiple places. However, as Justin was unplugging it in the morning the metal cord for the blind (that was hanging right next to the electrical outlet) hit the prongs of the Thing Charger. We heard a loud SNAP, JJ saw sparks, and we promptly lost power in our hotel room. Nothing worked. Our bathroom lights, lamps, television, etc. had no electricity flowing to them. The wall outlet now a big black patch on it, as did the Thing Charger. While it was very interesting to consider the science behind how this all happened, we now needed a room with power. We called the front desk and were promptly given keys to another room, room 401.
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| An accident waiting to happen? |
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| Thing charger. |
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| Thing charger converted to "charge no more". |
I guess nobody told housekeeping the room was now occupied.
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| You can't tell, but this fireplace has real simulated flames. And it works. |
So, where else can you stay in town?
The Discovery
We haven't actually stayed at the Discovery, so I can't comment as to the quality of the rooms (or how modern they are). Like most places in town, the place isn't much to look at from the outside.
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| source |
The hotel advertises itself as Iqaluit's only "boutique" hotel, and the photos of the rooms I found online are quite nice. We have been to The Granite Room, Discovery's restaurant, on several occasions. They have a great (if pricey) brunch with lots of selection. The Granite Room is known in town as the most expensive, but also the most posh, place in town to have dinner. A popular dish is the "Surf and Tundra", which consists of arctic char and caribou cooked to perfection.
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The restaurant has low-lighting, which I love, but which also makes
taking a good photo difficult. No worries, I stole more from the web.
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| source |
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| Screen shot of the Granite Room. source |
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| Our surf and tundra (char and caribou). |
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| Screenshot from the web of the beds at Discovery. source |
Capital Suites
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| source |
This is another hotel I have not stayed in. It is the only hotel in the area that allows pets, so I imagine we will be staying there the last day or 2 before we leave town (while we are having the house we are renting professionally cleaned, packed up, etc.). I haven't heard many reviews of the hotel, other than the rooms are a little "dated" and "worn". Each room comes with a full kitchen, so it's ideal for longer stays. There is also a self-serve laundromat, and like the Frob there is a little convenience store inside.
I kid you not, another way to find a place to stay in town is to ask on Facebook. The Facebook Sell/Swap group regularly has people posting to ask if anyone has an extra room or two to rent out for a week or more. People also offer to housesit for free while you are out of town. Also, a couple of bed and breakfasts advertise this way, (and on a few of the other accommodation sharing websites like Air B'n'B). Trouble is, the Sell/Swap group is a closed group, and you need to know a member of it in order to join. Mostly its used by people who have already lived here, or are currently living in Iqaluit.
And that's it!
Note: The Navigator Inn used to be a place to stay, but rooms are no longer open to guests. It still houses a lounge (bar), and a Chinese food restaurant. The Chinese restaurant is one of those "hole in the wall" places with slanted floors and torn vinyl upholstery. I highly recommend it if you enjoy Canadian Chinese food (like chicken balls). The lounge (located in the same building) is sort-of like a sports bar. The bouncer working the door wouldn't let me in with Captain Jack Sparrow (we were looking for the other restaurant) so at least they are on the ball.
Up next: The story of the walrus continues to unfold. Will it finally make the next post? I'm skeptical, but stay tuned to find out.
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