Eagle-eyed visitors of ARRIVE Wilmington will catch on to a subtle circus-animal theme throughout the property. It’s not a cute design trick—it’s in honor of the history of the original building, which, in 1922, was ransacked by an elephant named Topsy who’d escaped from a nearby circus. Back then, it housed the Eureka Dye Company and Topsy sent dye flying in every direction. Eventually the building was converted to a motel and was revamped into ARRIVE in 2019. Hurricane Florence became the next agent of chaos, causing the hotel to close from 2020 until 2023.
Today, the 34-room property feels as revived as the rest of Wilmington, a seaside town on the Cape Fear river that serves as a gateway to the North Carolina beaches. Stretched out over three buildings, ARRIVE provides a casually comfortable launchpad for exploring the town. The buildings surround a sprawling, lushly appointed courtyard where seating nooks, firepits, a cornhole court, and a Gazebo Bar provide plenty of communal gathering space. The rooms, most with views out to the courtyard thanks to floor-to-ceiling windows, are compact but well supplied.
Open from 3 to 10 p.m., the Gazebo Bar is just that—shutters open up to invite guests to gather around the square-shaped bar where bartenders will whip up a drink based on what you typically enjoy. Look for nightly specials and events, like Wine Wednesday, Topsy Thursday, and Surf and Sip Sunday. The Dram Yard, housed in the original Eureka Dye building and helmed by chef Nick Chavez, provides breakfast, dinner, and weekend brunch, with a menu that leans heavy on seafood as well as global flavors. You can count on oysters to start, a pillowy shrimp toast drizzled with fish sauce caramel, and Xinjiang cumin lamb, as well as a burger and larger dishes like a Tomahawk pork chop. The breakfast menu includes simpler fare, like biscuits and gravy, avocado toast, and a breakfast burrito. Don’t miss the tiki latte.
Though the rooms aren’t made for all-day loafing, they are comfortably chic, with sage green wainscotting and pastel pink bathroom tiling. You won’t find closets or a lot of storage but there’s a stockpile of local snacks serving as a minibar and a retro mini fridge tucked inside the bathroom. See if you can spot circus animals in the decor. Mostly the rooms are built for relaxing in between moments spent outside and exploring downtown.
Speaking of which, the hotel is within walking distance of Wilmington’s best restaurants and coffee shops, including Hidden Grounds Coffee, with its dinosaur-decorated secret garden, Seabird, the area’s preeminent seafood spot, the wood-fired Italian spot Olivero, and Bespoke, a recently reopened coffee and cocktail spot with everything from cold brew to negronis on tap.
