Brace yourselves. This is a short novel about the Navigator Inn in Iqaluit.

I stayed at the Navigator Inn on 2 occasions in November of 2007 and I would rate the quality of accomodations, food, staff and safety as poor.

The sign outside the hotel proclaims that it is Iqaluit's Premier Hotel. The condition of the building, its rooms, and the front desk staff, whose service was sloppy at best, tell a different story.

The battered steel doors at the entrance and the tilting staircase with the peeling linoleum should have been my first clue. There is no information at the front desk or in the rooms to orient the guests to hotel services. Nor is there any mention of local attractions, taxi's, take-out food establishments or any of the other things that make a hotel feel welcoming. There is one brochure at the front desk which I would describe as promotional, to attract guests to the hotel but once you're there you have to fend for yourself.

My room phone wasn't configured for long distance when I checked in so I thought I didn't have a working phone. I went down to the lobby to use the phone at the front desk as well as the pay phone for long distance. The front desk person on duty the night i checked in noticed this and said I should be able to phone from my room but then shrugged mumbled and said I don't know and left it at that. No explanation, no"i'll get someone to fix that." Dead end, nothing she could do. It wasn't until the next morning, when I went to the lobby to make another phone call (on the payphone) because of my unsurmountable problem, that someone told me I could use my room phone for long distance and hooked up my phone in my room.

Both of my rooms had windows that were stuck partially open and 80% buried by a massive snowdrift that prevented them from opening any further and blocked all the natural light out of the room. Good luck using them as a fire escape route if there was a fire in the hotel. There was also a pile of snow on the windowsill inside the room. This was good because I figured I could roll around in it or rub it on my face when I couldn't take the stale ripe air and sweltering heat in the room.

The food is greasy spoon quality but the waitress was warm and friendly and the food was served in a reasonable amount of time at breakfast.

Solo female travellers beware. Like many northern travelers I don't expect more than reasonably clean and safety. Safety being the most important, and in the end this is the main reason I wouldn't stay here again. The walls are paper thin modular panels and there were people from the bar going up and down the halls and sometimes knocking on my door. I was startled awake by hall noise every night.There are no security locks or chains on the door and the door locks and the doors are flimsy; panel doors that you can put your foot through or break open with ordinary household objects.

If you're a business traveller looking for a clean comfortable place where you can work and get a good sleep go somewhere else.

If you like urban adventure travel, where you live on the edge and encounter strange and unpredictable characters, and situations, I would recommend staying here. its a cheap trip on the wild side and you can get all the unfiltered reality you want in the hotel bar any night of the week or stick your head out your room door at 2am to see what's making all the noise. Or play Sherlock Holmes and try to figure out how to get service out of the hotel staff.

I compare this place to a lightly jazzed up Atco trailer camp with a couple of embellishments like internet and couple of pieces of fitness equipment thrown in to deceive you into thinking its something better. I've stayed in tree planting camps that were better.

The Navigator Inn will be my last choice for future travel through Iqaluit. I stayed there overnight in mid July, and was disappointed in the quality of my visit. The front desk tried to get me to agree to a smoking room, then aquiesced to a non smoking when I made a strong appeal for one.

The room minimally provided the essentials, though both beds had old, sagging mattresses, well-used furnishings, and caused questions to be raised regarding cleanliness.

I traveled alone, and was profoundly snubbed at the hotel restaurant. I waited over an hour to be served, then was served the wrong meal, only to be embarrassed by the staff when they realized their error, (I was hungry, and was going to eat it anyway!) and brought the meal I had ordered. My meal was overcooked and nearly inedible.

I almost went there the next morning (because it was convenient, and they may only have been very busy the night before...)but was again snubbed by the staff, so I crossed the street to the Discovery Inn for breakfast. There I was greeted by friendly staff, and was promptly served a delicious meal.

I took a walk at 10:40am because my flight was not scheduled to leave until 2:30 and the airport is 5 minutes away. The town is lovely and the people charming and friendly. I returned at 11:10 and was scolded by the front desk staff that check out time was 11:00! I went to my room, gathered my belongings (no offers of assistance of any kind on arrival or departure!) and checked out, then waited at the airport for 3 hours reading a book...

When I met the remainder of my group further north, many of them had stayed at other hotels in Iqaluit, and all had better experiences than I had. I am generally a low-maintenance kind of traveler - just provide the basics (and a little respect!) and I am happy. I found the Navigator to be sub par, and I will choose other accomodations in the future!