Hotel Atlantic Sandefjord, Clarion Collection

Hotel Atlantic Sandefjord, Clarion Collection is a 100-year old hotel in the historic whaling town on the southeast coast of Norway. Besides a visit to the whaling museum, two other reasons to find yourself in Sandefjord are the Sandefjord TORP airport 4 minutes by train north of town and the Color Line Sandefjord – Strømstad, Sweden ferry.

Hotel Atlantic opened in 1914 at a time when the Norwegian whaling industry had achieved global range and made Sandefjord one of the wealthiest towns in Norway. Hotel Atlantic is as much a whaling museum attraction as a hotel destination with its extensive whaling history artifacts and uniquely designed public spaces immersing the guest in Norway’s whaling culture.

The whaling themed public spaces are a unique feature for a hotel and guest reviews of the extensive collection of artifcats is what brought me to Sandefjord to check out Hotel Atlantic. I wrote my intial article on Hotel Atlantic documenting this aspect of the hotel:  Hotel Atlantic Sandefjord offers whaling culture experience and beds too – Loyalty Traveler Sep 11, 2014.

The breakfast buffet dining rooms are several small rooms representing ship cabins with a communications room, food stores room, rope and knots room and other themed rooms filled with whaling ship memorabilia.

Clarion Collection hotels in the Nordic Choice Hotels chain have a great advantage for a tourist in high-priced Scandinavia as breakfast, afternoon tea and pancakes and a light evening buffet are inclusive with the room rate. In Norway the price of a hamburger or fish and chips is $15 to $20+ and the price of food in grocery stores for most items are typically double to triple the cost of food items in the USA. A light evening buffet with salad, cheeses, bread, soup and coffee will save $50 to $100 in the cost of dinner for two adults and two children.

Hotel Atlantic breakfast hours are 6:30 to 9:30am Monday – Friday and 8:00 -11:00am Saturday and Sunday with evening dinner 6:00 – 9:00pm each night.

There is a comfortable seating area in the lobby of Hotel Atlantic.

There is a separate hotel bar and dining restaurant from the lobby and whaling themed breakfast rooms. There is even a top floor beauty salon.

Fancy a 90 NOK ($15) beer or cocktail?

The manager of the hotel was kind enough to let me see a hotel suite, one of the only rooms that was not occupied on a busy day at Hotel Atlantic.

She said she was from Lofoten and that is a region I should try and see while in Norway. Every person I have met who has been to Lofoten says it is gorgeous. I tried, but my transfer of Diners Club Rewards points to SAS did not post when I learned my SAS EuroBonus account had been deactivated after sitting idle for some years. There is always next time.

Hotel Atlantic Suite 220

There are five floors in Hotel Atlantic has 109 rooms. The front part of the hotel has recently renovated rooms while rooms on the back side of the hotel have not been renovated. TripAdvisor reviews are 83% favorable and the hotel received the TripAdvisor Travelers Choice 2014 Award. Complaints primarily are about noise in summer from the street below and no air conditioning on summer days when the weather gets warm.

One of the advantages of booking award stays at Choice Hotels in Scandinavia is many hotels offer different room categories up to and including suites for the same number of hotel points as a standard room. You can see award night price and availability without being logged into you Choice Privileges account, but you must be logged in with sufficient points for the award booking to see which room types are available for your stay.

The bedroom and sitting room of Suite 220 have windows with a view to the hotel’s outside deck seating which could be a good feature or undesirable feature depending on the activity level outside during your stay.

There is a corner fireplace in the suite which is likely a welcome feature on dark winter nights.

The desk by the window receives plenty of light. After staying at Farris Bad spa hotel, a Nordic Choice Ascend Collection Hotel in Larvik, 17 minutes by train south of Sandefjord, I appreciate a desk even more after working two days on my computer while sitting in bed.

Hotel Review Farris Bad Kaupang Suite upgrade

Hotel Review: Farris Bad, Ascend Collection Larvik, Norway

The bathroom off the sitting room offers a double sink and two showers, one with tub.

Hotel Atlantic in Sandefjord is a unique hotel experience celebrating Norway’s whaling culture. The town is a pretty place by the sea originally established as a health spa. Clarion Collection Hotel Atlantic is 16,000 points per night for an award stay using Choice Privileges points. This is good value if your travel takes you to Sandefjord TORP airport or you are in Sandefjord for the Strømstad ferry crossing.

*****

Ric Garrido of Monterey, California is writer and owner of Loyalty Traveler.

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