Rating:	Recommended
Price:

This is the most architecturally distinctive and perhaps the most visible hotel in town, thanks to its prime harbor-front location 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 townhouses, 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 Norwegian owned and not a member of any international chain) above the more international hotels that compete with it on many different price levels. Rooms in the original 19th-century brick core are comfortable, cozy, and warm, with exposed masonry and flowered Laura Ashley fabrics. (Check out the wood-beamed health club within this older section, where brick walls and the mechanism for a 19th-century gear-driven windlass or hoist form part of the decor.) Sunnier, more dramatic, and more panoramic are the big-windowed accommodations in the newer section, some of which might evoke greenhouses if it weren't for their leather-upholstered furniture, hardwood floors, Oriental carpets, and sense of high-tech flair. All accommodations come with immaculate private bathrooms with tub-and-shower combinations. This hotel doesn't have a restaurant of its own, but there are at least 14 eateries and lots of bars within a very short walk.

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