Pancakes at Night at the Holiday Inn Express Fairbanks

When I first decided to spend a night in Fairbanks (about a week before arriving), it was a no brainer as soon as I saw the Holiday Inn Express Fairbanks come up for $209 or 15,000 points. Since you can buy points at 7/10 of a cent, this was a great value.

The hotel is located north of downtown, pretty much in the Walmart shopping center. It had a new feel to it and the front desk staff at check in were quite pleasant.Â The lobby and breakfast area also had a charming outdoorsy theme.

They seemed to have vending and ice on every floor. Claustrophobically so since it is directly in front of the elevators.

My room was on the third floor with no view, but didnâ€™t seem like there was much of a view from anywhere in the building. My room was typical for aÂ king size bed, abet new and comfy, and a little sitting area.

The bathroom was normal, and the shower had great water pressure though the shower head directed it at you in a pummeling stream.

There was a tiny gym with a couple of machines, weights, and yoga balls adjacent to a decent sized indoor pool. Both were in use so I abstained fromÂ taking pictures.

And for once I was actually at the hotel during one of their free happy hours, social hours, promo things. Holiday Inns are doing Pancakes at Night in August so I made my way down at 8:30 and waited in line for the pancake machine to spit out my portion. It smelled amazing, it tasted ok.

The floors and doors are a little thin so I could hear neighbors thumping around, but otherwise slept well. Breakfast the next morning had decent biscuits and gravy, the fake egg omelets and a good array of the other usual breakfast fare. I was impressed they even had mini Chobani yogurt cups.