Hotel Arctic

Staying at the Aurora Cabins at Hotel Arctic was a unique experience, but our stay was marred by disappointing service. Despite requesting room cleaning, it wasn't done, and the overall service fell short of the hotel's claimed 4-star status. It's more like a 2-star service at best, which is a shame considering the hotel's cleanliness and charm.

I cannot recommend this hotel enough. The views are spectacular, the rooms are comfortable and clean, the restaurant is excellent and the staff are amazing. It is located a little out of town, but has a great shuttle service, with friendly and helpful drivers. I had a flight cancelled and the hotel staff made all of the arrangements without an issue.

We stayed four nights at Hotel Arctic at the Quajaq room on top floor. Excellent view and great room. The breakfast is amazing. Their croissants are excellent (and I’m usually very picky about croissants), they serve several kind of eggs, bacon, sausages, bread, fruit, salmon, pancakes etc. The Brasserie Uno is great for dinner as well. A bit more pricey than the other options in Ilulissat (eg Hotel Hvide Falk), but definitely worth the price. The shuttle to town runs one time per hour between 7AM and 4PM. After that you just get a cap. Costs around 60 DKK from mid town to hotel, so no problem at all. Don’t walk! The cars drive like crazy so it feels unsafe to walk from hotel to town. And cap is really cheap.

Ilulissat has only a few hotels and all are pricey so basically no choice. But we were disappointed with he bait and switch. The picture on the website shows a stunning iceberg but we got a bunch of construction equipment ( see picture). Also staff at the reception and restaurant are largely indifferent or rude. Often coffee or other toiletries were not replaced and we had to walk to the reception to get them. Location is otherwise good with free shuttle to the airport and city center and excellent breakfast.

My wife and stayed here twice here recently. We spent two nights in a Umiaq/Superior + room and one night in a junior suite. We liked the place a lot and it would be our first choice in Ilulissat. The place is a bit of a mishmash. There are several different sections of rooms and the numbering system doesn’t make a lot of sense. E.g. the fourth floor magically turns into the 6th floor. Lots of construction going on for new units but there are no noise issues. The construction-related trash around the hotel is very disappointing, though. Both rooms were very nice. As expected, the junior suite had a larger bedroom and a much larger bathroom. Both had good views although the view from the Umiaq room was marred by the construction and related garbage. We were able to get a few English tv channels, including the BBC. On the downside, the curtains were far from blackout. They were white and did very little to keep out the midnight sun. Also, the wi-if was spotty and unreliable. Breakfast was included in our room rate and was very good. We also had dinner at the Brasserie Ulo one night. Both the food and the service were very good. Note that their other restaurant - the Arctic Fine Dining and Wine Bar - is currently closed for remodeling. I was a little concerned about the location but it wasn’t an issue for us. It takes 20-25 minutes to walk in to town and there’s an hourly shuttle that leaves and returns from the town center on the hour. The shuttle worked well for us. The front desk employees were very good and service was at a high level throughout the hotel. I initially debated whether to stay here or at the Best Western. We ended up staying at the Best Western after our flight to Kangerlussuaq was cancelled. It was nice and centrally located but we preferred the Hotel Arctic by a small margin.

We stayed here for four nights and enjoyed our stay. But there are sone issues with this hotel. Transport to and from the Nuuk ferry/airport is included in the hotel prices in Ilulissat. The shuttle was late picking Hotel Arctic passengers at the ferry dock (other hotels were on time). Then, when the two shuttles finally did arrive they were joint shuttles (with other hotels) and wouldn’t let Arctic Hotel guests get on. We had to wait (20 minutes total wait time from when ferry arrived) for one van to come back and pick up Arctic Hotel guests. So you have guests at one of the top hotels in Ilulissat being made to wait as guests at less expensive hotels get taken to their accommodation first. At reception they have shuttle times going until 11:30 PM. In practice this stops at 6 PM. The receptionists will tell you a shuttle is available while the Transport Manager points to Danish text under the shuttle timetable saying airport transports get priority as a justification for not running the shuttle after 6 pm. It’s only a 15 minute walk into the center of town and fine in summer, but in winter this is not ok. Especially as one bus is apparently more often being serviced than on the road. As a result, if coming to Ilulissat in March/April for the Northern lights and winter activities, I’d stay at the more centrally located Best Western Ilulissat Hotel. (Note: taxis are available, but you are paying a premium to stay at this hotel.) Mercifully, transport to the airport is in a shuttle dedicated to Arctic Hotel guests. Shuttle times for your flights are listed at 6 pm the night before. There is still ongoing construction (to build the Northern Lights villas) and bulldozers. There is no mention of this on the hotel website and I’m not sure if guests are getting a discount for this inconvenience? However, we got a Umiaq class room on a high floor which we were very happy with, after asking our Greenland travel agent to call the hotel so that we wouldn’t get a blocked view. Construction activity is expected to be completed end August 2023, so hopefully this issue will resolve itself soon. The Umiaq rooms are spacious and very comfortable. Lovely bathrooms and eveyis very clean. The views from the hotel are incredible but note that they are better further into town as you are closer to the larger icebergs. The restaurant is popular and bookings are essential even for hotel guests. They have a mix of more gourmet items and Greenlandic specialities as well as more hearty fare such as burgers. The only vegetarian option is a mushroom veggie burger with French fries. The buffet breakfast is adequate but not up to the quality one would expect of a hotel of this standing. The hot food is not over a hot plate or kept warm in coverings, so is often cold. A greater variety of nuts and fruits and cucumber and tomatoes would be welcome for health conscious guests . They have efficient sand day laundry service but sadly they don’t follow t