Nunavut sits further north than almost anywhere else you can book a hotel room in Canada, and it looks the part. Sea ice stretches to the horizon for half the year, fjords cut through Baffin Island like something out of a geology textbook, and on a clear night the sky puts on a light show most travellers only ever see in photos.

This isn't resort country, so don't expect a strip of beachfront hotels or all-inclusive packages. Iqaluit has Nunavut's real hotel scene, small but solid, and the handful of hamlets further out run more on lodges and homestays built for polar bear safaris and narwhal-watching boats than for casual sightseers. Book ahead. Rooms are limited and they go fast in the short travel season.

Where to stay in Nunavut

Nunavut's accommodation is concentrated in a handful of communities, each suited to a different kind of Arctic trip.

• Iqaluit. The territorial capital and the only place with a proper range of hotels, restaurants and shops. Base yourself here for city comforts, day trips, and easy onward flights to the rest of the territory.
• Pond Inlet. The launch point for narwhal and polar bear tours into Sirmilik National Park, with a small stock of lodges built around guided ice trips rather than sightseeing.
• Pangnirtung. The gateway to Auyuittuq National Park and Mount Thor's sheer cliff face, popular with hikers and climbers who fly in for multi-day treks.
• Cape Dorset (Kinngait). A small coastal community known for its art galleries and print studios, with a couple of guesthouses for visitors staying to explore them.
• Rankin Inlet. The main hub for the Kivalliq region on Hudson Bay, useful if your Arctic trip is centred on the western side of the territory rather than Baffin Island.

How much is Nunavut accommodation?

Expect to pay more than you would down south. Nunavut has no road or rail links, so everything from groceries to building supplies flies or ships in, and hotel rates reflect that. A typical night in Iqaluit runs from around AU$260 to AU$500, and there's no luxury resort tier here at all. The territory simply doesn't have the visitor volume to support one.

• Homestays and B&Bs. From AU$170 per night. A spare room in a local house or a small guesthouse, often the only option outside Iqaluit and usually including breakfast.
• Self-catering suites. From AU$260 per night. Apartment-style rooms with a full kitchen, handy given how much a restaurant meal costs once everything's been flown in.
• Business hotels. From AU$320 per night. Iqaluit's biggest properties, with on-site restaurants, airport transfers and enough rooms to actually have availability during peak season.

Top-rated hotels in Nunavut

The line-up is short, but each of Iqaluit's hotels does something different well.

• Frobisher Inn. The biggest full-service hotel in the eastern Arctic, with indoor walkways linking it to a cinema, a grocery store and a hair salon, handy when it's minus 30 outside. Its Storehouse Bar & Grill is the closest thing Iqaluit has to a proper pub.
• Aqsarniit Hotel and Conference Centre. One of Iqaluit's newer hotels, with a fitness centre, airport transfers and rooms that come with a kitchenette if you book the right category.
• Capital Suites Iqaluit. The only property in town built entirely around apartment-style suites, with one, two and three-bedroom options that all come with a full kitchen. A smart pick if you're staying more than a few nights.
• Discovery Lodge Hotel. A smaller, central option overlooking Frobisher Bay, popular with visitors who want a quieter base within walking distance of the town's shops and galleries.

Tips for finding the perfect accommodation in Nunavut

• Book well ahead. Iqaluit has only a few hundred hotel rooms in total, and visiting government and mining crews fill a lot of them on weeknights. Leave it too late and you'll be choosing between whatever's left.
• Match your stay to your season. Aim for July to September for milder weather and long daylight for hiking and boat tours, or October to April if the Northern Lights are the whole point of the trip. Light pollution is minimal even in Iqaluit, so you don't need to travel far to see them.
• Fly in through Ottawa. Nunavut has no road connection to the rest of Canada, so almost every visitor arrives on a direct flight from Ottawa, around three hours in the air. Factor that into your budget alongside the room rate.
• Pick a kitchen if you're staying a while. With everything flown or shipped in, restaurant meals add up fast. A suite with a stove and fridge pays for itself after a few days.
• Pack for real cold, even in summer. Nunavut is Canada's coldest region and summer temperatures often sit in the single digits, so check what your hotel offers in the way of heating and cold-weather gear storage before you land.

Whichever community you base yourself in, a Nunavut stay is as much about what's outside the window, drifting ice, wheeling seabirds, maybe a distant polar bear, as it is about the room itself.