Hotels in Sturgeon Bay WI Split Into B&B Inns and Chains

The big decision in Sturgeon Bay is a street, not a room. Sleep on the Victorian blocks of North 3rd and North 5th Avenues and breakfast comes with a host and a doorbell. Sleep along Green Bay Road and you park outside your door, with a Target across the street and an indoor pool down the hall. Hotels in Sturgeon Bay, WI fall into those two camps, with a few waterfront and retro oddities in between, and the right one depends on what the weekend is for.

Once the bed is settled, the wineries, museums and parks nearby fill in around it. Everything below is checked against each property's own site or its brand page, and anything that could have changed is hedged.

The downtown inns: Victorian B&Bs within a few blocks

Three of the downtown B&Bs sit within about 0.3 miles of one another, between North 3rd and North 5th Avenues, a short walk from the shops on 3rd Avenue. They are White Lace Inn, The Foxglove Inn and The Pembrooke Inn, and the local lodging directory lists White Lace and Pembrooke by name. What you buy here is a room that has a personality and a breakfast that has a cook.

Pick the room before the inn here, because the layout of four houses means a room in one is not the same stay as a room in another. Google lists parking for guests with disabilities but not a step-free entrance, so ask if stairs are a problem.

The Pembrooke Inn is the quieter of the three, a Victorian mansion that its site says has five suites, each with a jacuzzi and a fireplace. It serves a home-cooked breakfast and runs a nightly happy hour, the inn's description adds a wrap-around porch, and reviewers mention balconies. One recent guest loved everything except a firm bed, which is worth knowing if you are particular about mattresses.

The odd one out in this group is the Inn at Cedar Crossing, built in 1884 when downtown was busy with shipbuilding. It has nine individually decorated rooms above a restaurant, and overnight guests get a continental breakfast in a second-floor common room kept for them. Dinner reservations at the restaurant are taken by phone only. Sleeping over a working kitchen suits people who want to eat downstairs and fall into bed, and suits light sleepers a little less.

None of the three B&Bs is a family choice on paper. Google lists White Lace, Foxglove and Pembrooke as not good for children, so ask about kids before you book. Couples, anniversaries and a quiet weekend of shopping on foot are what these houses are built for.

Chain hotels on Green Bay Road: pools, free breakfast, a car at the door

Green Bay Road is where Sturgeon Bay behaves like a highway town, and the hotels there act accordingly. The chains sit about 1.2 to 1.7 miles in a straight line from 3rd Avenue, so downtown is a drive rather than a stroll. What you get for that distance is parking at your door, an indoor pool at two of the three and a free breakfast at all of them.

Super 8 by Wyndham at 409 Green Bay Road lists a heated indoor pool and a whirlpool, plus a free light breakfast item with coffee, tea and juice. Reviewers are split on the pool temperature and on whether breakfast changes day to day, with one describing eggs, sausage and waffles and another the same spread every morning. Reviewers mention that dogs are accepted, but one says the pet rooms are at the back of the lot, so ask which room you will get.

Quality Inn & Suites at 923 Green Bay Road lists a free continental breakfast with waffles, cereal and fruit. Its page also lists pets at $15 a night with a 30-pound limit, and asks you to contact the hotel for a pet room. It has no elevator, with all king rooms and suites on the second floor, though a ground-floor accessible queen room is listed. The brand page does not mention a pool, and recent reviewers say the pool was empty or unavailable, so do not book it for the pool without asking.

AmericInn by Wyndham on South Ashland Avenue lists a heated indoor pool, a hot tub and a sauna, with a free homestyle breakfast of eggs, waffles and coffee. A guest who stayed five nights noted a Target, a McDonald's, a gas station and a Starbucks right next door, and called downtown a five-minute drive. Another reviewer said breakfast gets crowded when the hotel is full.

These three suit families, groups and anyone who wants to be in a pool at 8 PM, with a waffle iron waiting in the morning. Dogs are accepted at some of them, though the rule is different at each, so confirm before you drive up.

Motel 57 at 1161 Green Bay Road is the budget choice with a story, a 1950s motel its site says was rescued from demolition and restored to its mid-century look. Rooms have kitchenettes with a fridge, microwave, coffee maker, pots, pans and dishes, which matters because a reviewer notes there is no place nearby for breakfast. Dogs are welcome at $15 per pet per night, and they cannot be left alone in the room. Reviewers describe a turquoise-and-white retro exterior and a Target across the street for groceries. It has no pool, and reviewers say so plainly.

In between: the waterfront and the music motel

It is the one downtown stay that sells a mood instead of a Victorian bedroom or a pool. If a motel with a recording studio sounds like your kind of weekend, nothing on Green Bay Road competes with it.

South of downtown, White Birch Inn at 1009 South Oxford Avenue is an older inn with a pub, Samuelson's Creek Pub & Grill, inside the building. Its site says the pub opens at 11 am daily, but the site itself looks old, and one guest reported arriving to find the bar and restaurant closed. Another found the entrance confusing, as the door is at the back centre of the building and doubles as the pub entrance. Call ahead to confirm the pub is serving that night, and treat it as a plain, older inn rather than a resort.

Season, booking and sleeping outdoors

White Lace Inn says it is open every night of the year, which is the only year-round claim among these properties that we could source from the owner. Destination Door County's B&B search shows live rates for the dates you pick, so availability is something to check against your own weekend rather than guess at. We found no published peak-season calendar or booking-ahead rule for any of these properties, so none is claimed here.

If a tent or camper is the plan, Harbour Village Campground and Water Park at 5840 WI-42 is a seasonal tent and RV campground with a water park, about 8.4 miles north of 3rd Avenue. Some reviewers report that the splash pad, pond or hot tub were closed during their stay, so confirm which amenities are running for your dates.

Which to choose

Choose the downtown B&Bs for a couples' weekend where you want to walk to dinner and have breakfast brought to you. Choose Green Bay Road for kids, a pool, a dog, or a stay where the car stays beside the door. Choose Holiday Music Motel or Stone Harbor if you want to be on the water side of downtown without a Victorian bedroom. Pick the street and the room follows, 3rd Avenue if you want the doorbell and Green Bay Road if you want the pool.