Hotels worth the journey

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The sauna at Ytri, with a panoramic window facing the jagged mountains of Sanna across the water

Latest review · Træna, Norway

Ytri, Træna: the island where nothing is urgent

Far out in the Norwegian Sea, a new hotel has swapped spa slippers for yellow rubber boots, and made the weather part of the treatment.

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The curved, pale facade of Eilert Smith Hotel glowing in evening sun in central Stavanger

Stavanger · Norway

Eilert Smith

Twelve rooms above one of the best restaurants in Norway, where they know your name before you say it, and breakfast arrives on a trolley.

A long wooden pier stretching into a calm blue sea under summer clouds at Falkenberg Strandbad

Falkenberg · Sweden

Falkenberg Strandbad

A long wooden pier, clear water, a glasshouse pool club and a peach sour served with a kiss. One night on the Swedish west coast was not enough.

A cobbled lane between white wooden houses in Old Stavanger, a few minutes from Hotel Victoria

Stavanger · Norway

Hotel Victoria

Free bikes in the lobby, a view of the harbour from the room, and a restaurant with real buzz. More than a century of history, and it still feels fresh.

The glass tower of Jacy'z Hotel & Resort with its copper lattice frame, seen from below

Gothenburg · Sweden

Jacy'z Hotel & Resort

A copper-and-glass tower in the middle of the city, a rooftop pool deck, a fire-lit pool club and shrimp tacos we still dream about. Gothenburg has never felt this much like Los Angeles.

The whole pale stone manor at Maryhill Estate, with the outdoor pool, daybeds and white parasols in front

Glumslöv · Sweden

Maryhill Estate

A stately manor, a pool right in front of it, lavender on the lawn and music that starts in the car park. For one night in August, we felt like royalty.

A long indoor pool under a curved glass roof, lined with daybeds and parasols, at Rox Resort

Outside Copenhagen · Denmark

Rox Resort

A long pool under a curved glass roof, beef tataki served to your daybed, a fire room for reading, and a DJ when the sun goes down. Half an hour from Copenhagen, and unlike anything in the city.

A row of red rorbu cabins on stilts reflected in calm water, with jagged Lofoten mountains behind

Svolvær, Lofoten · Norway

Svinøya Rorbuer

Red cabins on stilts, still water, kayakers gliding past and a walk at midnight in golden light. A family summer in Lofoten, in the place where Svolvær began.

The sauna at Ytri, with a panoramic window facing the jagged mountains of Sanna across the water

Træna · Norway

Ytri

Far out in the Norwegian Sea, a new hotel has swapped spa slippers for yellow rubber boots, and made the weather part of the treatment.

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We are a couple with three kids, living in Oslo. We’ve worked many years as journalists and editors in the Norwegian media industry, and travelling has always been our happy hobby. We stay at far more hotels than we write about, and share only the ones with something that stops you in your tracks. No sponsored stays, ever. More about us.