World Traveller 73 
Visiting the North Pole & Chena Hot Springs, Alaska, USA
With a spare day around Fairbanks, we had a few extra hours to kill before flying back home. We had an afternoon of dog sledding set up. Since that only took a few hours, we had a few hours to kill around Fairbanks and the surrounding area. We ended up exploring North Pole, Alaska and the giant Santa Claus House. We also took in the adventure of getting Chena Hot Springs for a late evening soak. Please join us on our afternoon of activities at Fairbanks, Alaska. USA.
This post is one chapter on a winter trip to Alaska, United States. This trip was enhanced through Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status, Alaska Mileage Plan and Hertz Gold Plus Rewards. For parts of the trip, please see this index.
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✈️ Read more from this trip:
- Trip Introduction: Skiing Aleyska, Alaskan Railroad and Dog Sledding in Alaska
- Springhill Suites Bellingham, Washington, USA
- Alaska Airlines First Class: Bellingham – Seattle
- Alaska Airlines First Class: Seattle – Anchorage
- My Experience as a Hertz President’s Circle renter in Anchorage, Alaska, USA
- Aloft Anchorage, Alaska, USA
- A Cold War Secret: Visiting Whittier, Alaska
- The Alyeska Hotel, Girdwood, Alaska, USA
- Three Days at Alyeska Mountain Resort, USA
- Marriott Anchorage Downtown, Alaska, USA
- The Alaska Railroad Aurora Winter Train: Anchorage – Fairbanks
- Springhill Suites Fairbanks, Alaska, USA
- Dog Sledding in Fairbanks with Rod’s Alaskan Guide Service, North Pole, USA
- Visiting the North Pole, Alaska
- Alaska Airlines First Class: Fairbanks – Anchorage
- Alaska Airlines First Class: Anchorage – Seattle
- Alaska Airlines First Class: Seattle – Bellingham
Visiting the North Pole & Chena Hot Springs, Alaska, United States of America
With our time in Fairbanks, we were looking for something to do between our dog sledding adventure and our flight the next day. With the downtime after Dog Sledding at Rod’s Alaskan Guide adventure, we found ourselves headed to North Pole, Alaska for a visit to the Christmas house.
About North Pole, Alaska:
North Pole, Alaska is a small town outside of the greater area of Fairbanks, Alaska. While it used to be a n oil and gas town, it’s recent tourist attraction has been with the Christmas House – North Pole, which has drawn a lot of tourists as the primary tourist attraction. Everything is Christmas oriented in North Pole, Alaska, even our destination was on North Santa Clause Lane.
Even with our late March visit, there was full on snow outside at the Santa Clause House. The snow made our approach to the Christmas house even more festive.
In the era of the ridiculous, the Santa Clause House offers the world’s largest fiber glass Santa Claus. We paused for the obligatory tourist photograph.
The Santa Claus House is decorated as a modern day Christmas house that might house santa’s elves. The outdoor is decorated in a mostly festive theme, complete with decorations and holiday themed paintings on the sides of the building.
Inside, the Santa Claus House offers everything you might expect about Christmas. The Santa Clause House sold almost any item that you’d ever want for Christmas. There were a few Alaska themed souvenirs.
There were even displays consisting of Santa’s workshops and all that such a workshop may expect.
There were also the usual themed games. North Poleopoly isn’t one that I had seen before.
Probably the most endearing feature of the Santa Clause House were some of the letters to Santa that the Santa Clause house had accumulated over the years. Some of the letters were quite entertaining. I had a lot of joy reading what today’s children are asking for.
After Santa Clause House, it was a spin through town. We were a little hungry so we stopped at the popular North Pole Crepery. We initially had a tough time getting a seat, but we eventually got ordered and seated at this popular lunch place.
There are about forty sweet, savoury and egg styled crepes on the menu. With plenty to choose from, we had no issues for selection.
With a savoury breakfast crepe, I was fully satisfied after this snack of goodness.
After a day visit to the Santa Clause House, it was time to get ready to visit to Chena Hot Springs.
The Pump House Restaurant, Fairbanks:
Before heading out to Chena Hot Springs, we decided to get filled up with some dinner. It’s about an hours drive up to Chena Hot Springs. Without any idea if there was food available along the way, we opted to fill up for dinner in Fairbanks.
I picked the Pump House restaurant off TripAdvisor has a popular place to dine. It turned out I wasn’t wrong as the place was absolutely packed on our Friday night visit. The Pumphouse Restaurant has a location on the Chena River. It would be a nice setting in the summer, but it was still looking wintery during our March visit.
The Pump House Restaurant has a traditionally Alaskan saloon type feel to its decor. It has everything that you might expect from a traditional Alaskan restaurant and bar.
I had a surprisingly tasty Alaskan halibut and chips for dinner, along with a local brew. The fish and chips was surprisingly well priced, given where we were situated in northern Alaska.
Hot Springs at Chena Hot Springs:
After dinner, on the evening of our last night in Fairbanks, it was time to head out to visit Chena Hot Springs. Departing from Springhill Suites Fairbanks, we headed out in the rental car towards Chena Hot Springs.
Chena Hot Springs is located about an hour and five minutes from Fairbanks. It is in a fairly rural area and we were on the look out for moose at dusk as we headed out there. Navigating through Google Maps Offline, we didn’t have any issues locating the hot springs.
After about an hour of driving, we arrived to Chena Hot Springs. The Chena Hot Springs offers a rustic hotel and spa. The site was cold enough to be at freezing when we arrived, meaning that crystals were in the air.
We paid the $20USD admission fee for the drop in hot springs for our rustic experience. While we didn’t have a luxury tiled pool, we ended up in some old school aquatic centre pool changing rooms.
We were outside in the hot springs for a solid two hours. Despite staying out until about 10 PM, we weren’t cold enough or dark enough to take in the Northern Lights.
We had another hour drive back in the darkness, taking care not to find and roadway moose out and about.
My Thoughts on Visiting the North Pole:
We had an amusing day visiting the North Pole, Alaska. It’s not every day that you get to visit a city called the North Pole. We were able to get in a great visit to the Santa Clause house, in addition to a great crepe at the North Pole Crepery.
The Chena Hot Springs was a neat rustic experience. While the drive out there on moose alert was a little intense, we had a good time but didn’t get the opportunity to see any northern lights.
World Traveller 73 
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