Man, really back and forth on this. Let's do a pro/con:
Pros:
1) Good location. Easy walk to the shopping and tons of restaurants, little longer to Bryggen, but certainly not far at all.
2) Comfy beds. I love the duvet thing the Nordic countries seem to do, and this bed is very comfy and very warm, perfect for sleeping with the windows open. I feel bad putting them on the list for no fitted sheets, since it isn't a bother with this type of bed, but I have to be consistent.
3) Epic shower. After the Kong Frederik in Copenhagen, I have to admit I checked the shower out first thing, hoping for a change of pace from the little dance I had to do in that goofy tub. And then when I took my shower this morning, I was thrilled. Great shower head. Room to maneuver. No water all over the place. Hells yeah. Alas, no ventilation, so on the list it goes.
4) Quiet. Yes - Quiet, unlike some other people have mentioned. I was not in the reddish-pinkish main building, which may be why I feel that way. The main building does have a pub or maybe even a nightclub in it, which probably generates some noise. But in contrast, the other building, which is yellow, and southwest on Vestre Torggate about a half block on the opposite side of the street) is very peaceful. I don't hear much from upstairs, downstairs, or next door neighbors. So this is great. I did get complimentary ear plugs with the room, as someone noted. But I don't need 'em.
Cons:
1) Crummy breakfast. A very thin sandwich (with what I would call lunch fillings) an apple and a small warm OJ carton. Honestly, they should just skip it and say there's no breakfast. On the other hand, this gave me an opportunity to go get more Yelp reviews at breakfast time.
2) Wi-Fi is painfully slow in the evenings. But then, I'm not in Norway to surf the internet.
Oh yeah, and:
3) Emergency exit for for the floor is inside my hotel room.
Pause for effect.
Yes. Inside my hotel room. See the pictures. Imagine my confusion when the door to my room had an emergency exit sign on it. Is this legal? I don't think you could do this in the States, are building codes different here? I mean, I hope to god that the override button in the pictures is alarmed, and not just a "come in here and browse through my stuff" button. Do I sleep more soundly, knowing escape is possible just by rolling out of bed? Or less soundly, knowing someone could just walk up the exterior stairs, break out a window, open the door, and come on inside?
So in summary, the bed and bathroom work great. the second building is quiet, the breakfast...well...isn't, and the escape plan is sketchy, to say the least. I feel like if you were to get any other room but mine in this second building, you'd really be looking at a single real negative in the breakfast. So I'm sticking with three stars. Now...can you request this second building? Not sure...
*** EXCITING UPDATE ***
File it under the category of "you can't make this stuff up", but there was a fire alarm sounded last night. I FEEL AS THOUGH I HAVE TRAINED MY WHOLE LIFE FOR THIS. "Quickly! Everyone! In to my hotel room!" Seriously though, the alarm goes off, and I think to myself, I have a choice. It's probably nothing, I can lay here. But if I do, people might come busting in to my room to try and escape. And I could just exit through the exit I'm so proud of. But no - I want to see what other people do. So I go out in to the hall. And everyone is using the main staircase. Because, in all honesty, why would you ever flee a fire by going in to a different, random hotel room? No one is going to use that escape route, because it seems like some kind of dirty trick.
Unrelated, but it took the fire department something like 10 minutes to show, and when they did, it was in no great hurry. So unless they somehow already knew it was nothing (and I think it really was nothing, because I was back asleep in about 20 minutes) I am a little disappointed in their sense of urgency. Read some Bergen (and particularly Bryggen) history - Because of the largely wooden construction, Hanseatic merchants were terrified of fires, forbidding candles in Bryggen, and parts of the city burned to the ground about every 50 years or so, including devastating fires that left only small portions of the original Hanseatic buildings standing. Surely...a fire in the city center...should generate a better response than this? read more