If you’re looking for a luxury stay in Halifax, look no further than the Muir Hotel, located right on the Halifax Waterfront. Here is our review from our 2 night stay at the Muir hotel in Halifax.
We visited Halifax in July of 2023, as part of a 2 week road trip around Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and PEI. As avid travelers and credit card users, we had lots of Marriott points to burn, so we were looking at the various options in the city.
As our youngest daughter was turning 6 during our trip, we wanted to make it a special occasion. The Muir Hotel, part of Marriott’s Autograph Collection, seemed like an excellent choice.
The Muir is Nova Scotia’s first Autograph Collection property, and was inspired by the culture and history of Nova Scotia. The rooms have been designed to complement the Muir’s harbour front location and waterfront views.
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HOW MUCH DOES THE MUIR HOTEL COST?
The Muir hotel is one of Halifax’s top hotels, so as you would expect, can be expensive, especially during the peak summer months. Room pricing during the summer can regularly run in to the $500+ per night range for a basic king room, and even during the winter, rarely drops below the $350 price point.
However, we regularly use credit cards, and use the points collected from that spend, plus credit card sign up bonuses, to subsidize our travel. The Muir is a Category 6 property with Marriott Bonvoy, and redemptions were priced at 60k points per night. By redeeming points, the stay itself was completely free (taxes were also included) and the only cost we incurred was parking charges for our rental car, and room service (see below), both which were optional.
I would highly recommend researching about how you can use credit cards to subsidize travel. We have stayed in some wonderful 5 star properties around the world that we could simply never afford if we were paying cash rates.
WHERE IS THE MUIR HOTEL LOCATED?
The Muir Hotel is situated in downtown, right by the waterfront and boardwalk within the Queen’s Marque development. It is surrounded by some high end restaurants, bars, a COWS store and, of course, a Tim Hortons.
As we wrote about in this post on things to do in Halifax, many of Halifax’s major attractions are within walking distance. While we had a hire car for our upcoming road trip, we didn’t actually use the car at all while we were staying at the hotel, instead opting to walk or use the free car that the hotel provides (more about that later).
The hotel is about a 35-minute drive from the airport and a taxi fare costs around $70 one-way. Alternatively you could grab an Uber, or take a ride on the 320 bus downtown, which stops close by to the Muir and is very reasonably priced (around $3.50 per adult, one way).
CHECK IN EXPERIENCE
We arrived in the evening and the staff on the check-in desk were extremely helpful with getting us checked in promptly. I had messaged ahead to the hotel about my daughters birthday and the staff wished her a happy birthday and gave her a little card and a balloon “wiener dog”. In the room, they gave us some little bowls of fruit and soda, which was a nice touch. All in all everything was very smooth and professional.
THE DOUBLE KING ROOM
Our first impression of the double king room was ‘wow’ as we walked in to the room. The room was beautifully decorated and very spacious, and I really loved the nautical-themed design which was very fitting for the hotel.
We had a lovely view over the harbour - well, it would have been a lovely view if we could have seen anything for the fog! I’m pretty sure our kids thought we were in a land locked province for a half of our time in Halifax!!!
One thing that the kids loved (and I’ve never experienced this before) was the automatic window blinds that would open by themselves when tugged! Very cool! The mini bar area looked stunning with its nautical theme, and came with many ‘for purchase’ items, as well a Nespresso machine which always makes Dad happy! Just make sure the kids don’t accidentally go on a midnight feast as the mini bar prices were as you would expect, expensive.
DINING EXPERIENCE
While we did not dine in the main restaurant at the hotel, we did order a room service breakfast on our daughters birthday as part of the special occasion.
We ordered the blueberry pancakes and the sour cream coffee cake and both were very large portions. The pancakes in particular would be more than enough for most people to share between two people in my opinion.
In addition to the items that we ordered, the hotel also brought a special dessert, free of charge, to say happy birthday to our daughter. This was such a nice tough and it’s this type of special treatment that really sets this hotel apart in my opinion, and our daughter was understandably over the moon.
POOL & FITNESS AREA
The Windward Wellness spa is located on the second floor of the hotel and has an indoor pool, spa, and gym. The gym was excellent and well furnished with all the equipment that you could could ever want, including a boxing bag and gloves (which I rarely find in a hotel gym, or any gym for that matter). There were bowls of free fruit and different types of flavoured water - a small thing but it gave the gym a very ‘spa’ feel.
The spa was open from 8am to 8pm and they have designated specific times as ‘family’ and ‘relaxation’ as per the below:
Relaxation hours (16+): 6am-9am, 11am-2pm, 6pm-9pm
Family hours (all ages): 9am-11am, 2pm-6pm
We enquired whether this meant that no kids were allowed during this time - the response we got was that while they do recommend that children generally attend during the non relaxation hours, they are able to attend at all time as long as the ambiance was respected (no cannon balls please!).
The indoor pool was lovely, but not particularly large, so not great for any adults wanting to swim laps of the pool. There was a shallow end to the pool where people could laze and jets could be turned on in that area, however there was no hot tub. The lack of hot tub was probably my only disappointment with the hotel.
The spa did however have a cold plunge pool (why anyone would want to get in that is beyond me!), a steam room, an infrared sauna, and a salt room as part of the facilities. The salt room required booking in advance, but was easy to get a spot and was free to use (although a very weird experience having tried it).
FREE CHAUFFEUR-DRIVEN CAR FOR HOTEL GUESTS
The hotel offers a FREE chauffeur-driven Range Rover for Muir guests to use on a first come first served basis, for lifts anywhere within 2 miles of the hotel. We used this service on quite a few occasions and even called the hotel to arrange a pick up from Pier 21 museum of immigration when the kids were tired. The driver was knowledgeable and even recommended things to do in PEI and Cape Breton, with one of his best recommendations being the hike to the quarry link near Cheticamp.
REVIEW OF THE MUIR HOTEL IN HALIFAX SUMMARY
In summary, we loved our stay at the Muir and wouldn’t hesitate in returning when we are next in Halifax. It’s in a great location, has fantastic amenities, and the service we received was second to none.
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