Stavanger - Norway - page 236

beds in this hotel won an award as the most comfortable in town; these results
still hold true today.
Ny Olavskleiv 8, N-4004 Stavanger. & 51-50-25-00. Fax [phone]. www.choicehotels.com. 249 units.
Mid-Aug to mid-June Mon-Thurs 1,990NOK ($283) double, 2,100NOK ($298) suite; Fri-Sun year-round and
daily mid-June to mid-Aug 990NOK ($141) double, 2,400NOK ($341) suite. Rates include breakfast. AE, MC,
V. Amenities: 2 restaurants; bar; health club w/saunas and a view over the town; laundry services/dry clean-
ing. In room:A/C, TV, dataport, minibar, hair dryer, iron/ironing board, trouser press.
Radisson SAS Atlantic Hotel This is the oldest and best known of the
SAS-sponsored hotels in Stavanger, and until its height was surpassed around the
turn of the millennium by a taller contender in the suburbs, its 13 stories made
it the tallest building in town. Everything about it evokes the artfully spare min-
imalism of the heyday of Scandinavian modern design, thanks to lots of care-
fully finished hardwood and stone, plus glass and stainless steel. Bedrooms here
are well conceived and very comfortable, each with a tiled bathroom and a
tub/shower combination, but if you're at all able to afford one of the suites,
you'll find them large and supremely comfortable refuges, replete with leather
upholsteries, macho-looking hardwoods, and in many cases, big-windowed
views over the town.
Olav V's Gate 3, P.O. Box 307, N-4002 Stavanger. & 51-76-10-00. Fax [phone]. www.radisson.com. 354
units. Mon-Thurs 1,695NOK-1,895NOK ($241-$269) double; Fri-Sun and daily mid-June to mid-Aug
995NOK ($141) double; year-round 2,500NOK-4,500NOK ($355-$639) suite. AE, DC, MC, V. Amenities:
Restaurant; cafe; reduced rates at a nearby health and exercise club; sauna; laundry service/dry cleaning.
Inroom:TV, dataport, minibar, hair dryer, iron, safe (in some).
Radisson SAS Royal Hotel Built in 1987 and radically renovated in April
2002, this is the smallest, and the most plush, of Stavanger's Radisson SAS hotels.
Its rooms rise around an atrium-style lobby that's outfitted with pale oak panel-
ing and pale blue carpets and upholsteries. Bedrooms are outfitted in four differ-
ent decorative styles: a warm but minimalist version of Scandinavian modern, a
generic Oriental (Pan-Asian) style, a high-tech design, and a style that the hotel
refers to as “ecological,” featuring lots of handcrafted ceramics and weavings
made from nonsynthetic materials. All units have tub/shower combinations.
Løkkeveien 26, P.O. Box 307, N-4002 Stavanger. & 51-76-60-00. Fax [phone]. www.radisson.com. 204
units. Mid-Aug to mid-June Mon-Thurs 1,850NOK ($263) double; Fri-Sun year-round and daily mid-June to mid-
Aug 995NOK ($141) double; year-round 2,500NOK-3,600NOK ($355-$511) suite. Rates include breakfast. Park-
ing 100NOK ($14) per night. AE, DC, MC, V. Amenities: Restaurant; bar; indoor pool; entrance to a nearby health
and exercise club for 30NOK ($4.25) fee; sauna; laundry service. In room:TV, dataport, minibar, safe.
Skagen Brygge Hotell This is the most architecturally distinctive
and perhaps the most visible hotel in town, thanks to its prime harborfront loca-
tion in the center of Stavanger's historic core. About 10 of its rooms occupy a
19th-century brick building that's partially concealed on the hotel's back side.
But the genuinely dramatic part of this hotel fronts the harbor. As a replacement
for warehouses that, throughout the decades, burned to the ground, architects
duplicated the look of an interconnected series of steep-gabled, tall and narrow
town houses, modernized with oversize windows and a sense of postmodern
flair. Queen Sonia, accompanied by one of her sons, selected this hotel for her
lodging in Stavanger in the late 1990s, favoring this hotel (which is all Norwe-
gian owned) above the more international hotels that compete with it on many
different price levels. Rooms in the original 19th-century brick core are com-
fortable, cozy, and warm, with exposed masonry and flowered Laura Ashley fab-
rics. (Check out the wood-beamed health club within this older section, where

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