Champlin’s is the island’s other capital — the New Harbor one, where the flag is a burgee and the traffic is dinghies. Spread across nine waterfront acres on the Great Salt Pond, it’s less a hotel than a small resort ecosystem: 44 newly renovated rooms, a deep-water marina with more than 140 slips, three dockside bars and restaurants, a waterfront pool, and live music rolling across the docks on summer evenings.
What it’s like
Everything faces the water. You wake up over the mooring field, breakfast on a dock, swim in a pool with sailboat masts for a skyline, and never once need the car you wisely didn’t bring. The crowd mixes boat families who’ve tied up here for generations with hotel guests who discovered that the marina scene is the island’s most entertaining free show.
And credit where the island gave it: Champlin’s took Best Mudslide in the 2026 Best on the Block voting, dethroning the beachfront incumbent — a upset that says the blender game on the pond side is serious.
The honest trade-offs
You’re across the island from Old Harbor’s restaurant row — a bike ride or taxi, not a stroll. That’s a feature for pond people and a commute for town people; know which you are. It’s also a lively, family-boat-crowd kind of energy in peak weeks, not a hushed inn.
Who it fits
Families who want pool-plus-water options, boaters obviously, groups planning a pond-side event — and anyone whose favorite hour is sunset over the Great Salt Pond, which happens to be the house specialty.