Getting to stay inside the Vaxholm Fortress, an island all by itself sounded fantastic, however it turned out to be quite a frustrating an underwhelming experience.
First of all the island consists of the fortress museum, the b&b and a restaurant. So if you plan on spending a day and a night here you'll quickly run out of things to do, especially when the restaurant doesn't open. We had to go to main island of Vaxholm to get our meals by the boat that leaves every half hour. Which you need to pay 40k for each time.
When we arrived at the b&b we weren't greeted by anyone. Our key was in an envelope on the reception counter. A bit impersonal but maybe it was because it was a national holiday.
Our room was a twin bed, nice an clean, comfortable bed. The bathroom was shared at the end of the hall, nice stalls with showers.
All seemed good until that night.
I can honestly say that was the worst sleep I've had in a very long time. The rooms are along a long corridor, with the shared bathroom at the end. The rooms have incredible thin walls and the hall having wooden floors meant that every tiny noise echoed through the corridor. So every time someone got up to use the bathroom, left there room, entered there room etc was quite loud and made it really hard to sleep.
On top of that we unfortunately had a young family staying the same night that had a young baby and a very hyper child screaming, crying, running through the halls from 6am that morning. My complaint by no means is towards the family but really to the b&b, you have no idea who is going to be staying the night with you an your business should be equipped to handle this type of guest without disturbing your order guests.
Something as simple as a carpet in the hall instead of a wooden floor would go a long way in avoiding noise for sleeping guests.
The breakfast buffet was a continental spread, with fresh bread, meats, cheeses cereal.
The selection was good and I loved having freshly made Vienna bread but my coffee was horrible. It was a self service machine, that took 3 different attempts to get something that even resembled a cup of coffee. The first cappuccino was literally just watery hot milk, the second was half hot chocolate half coffee that only filled half a cup and then the third I went for just a plain black coffee which made me feel sick. This combined with a crap nights sleep, breakfast being served in a very dark and bleak looking dining room ended my experience as quickly as I could get out of there.
By all means come check this little island out while visiting Vaxholm, but I don't recommend staying here. read more