There are three Radisson Blu hotels in the central Stockholm tourist zone with two hotels near the train station at Radisson Blu Royal Viking Hotel and Radisson Blu Waterfront and a third hotel, Radisson Blu Strand Stockholm about one mile away from the other two hotels, near the Djurgarden museum island.
After a 2-night stay at Radisson Blu Waterfront Stockholm in mid-July, we stayed two nights at Radisson Blu Strand Stockholm on our five night trip in Stockholm. Personally, I liked the Radisson Blu Strand hotel as the more interesting property and a better location, even though my wife preferred the larger room at the Radisson Blu Waterfront.
The caveat to my hotel stay satisfaction is I had two terrible nights sleep due to the pounding beat of a rave outside, across the street from our room, loudly pounding a steady beat from 10pm to 3am both weekend nights we stayed at the hotel. After relatively sleepless nights in Stockholm due to 21 hours of daylight and loud music for the final two nights, I was ready to leave the country for some peace and quiet in the laid-back party atmosphere of Krakow, Poland.
Stockholm did not appeal to me in the way I anticipated it would for a large European city in mid-summer. In fact, this trip to Stockholm, my fourth time in Sweden over the past year, kind of convinced me that Sweden is not a country I particularly enjoy as a tourist. There are many wonderful aspects of life in Sweden, but as a tourist I find Sweden does not fulfill my European vacation desires. Anyway, that is just my opinion.
Loyalty Traveler – Hotel Review: Radisson Blu Waterfront Stockholm (Aug 7, 2016).
Radisson Blu Strand Stockholm on the waterfront
The interesting aspect of Radisson Blu Waterfront is its Central Station location is not actually on the Stockholm waterfront. You can walk to the water in about five minutes. Radisson Blu Strand is actually on the waterfront with great harbor views from some rooms.
Ferry terminal for Stockholm regional boats is located about 100 meters from hotel entrance.
Our room view from a window on right side of hotel seen in photo above was not one of those good view rooms. The extremely loud rave night time show happened in the courtyard of the building on the far right, both Friday and Saturday nights. The music pounded through the closed window of our room until 3am each night.
Check-in
We arrived around 1pm in the afternoon. The desk receptionist stated there were no upgrade rooms available, but offered me complimentary breakfast. I was kind of surprised since this was the first hotel to not include free breakfast as part of the room rate after staying in about 15 hotels in Scandinavia over the past three years.
The hotel was undergoing a remodel on the first floor guest room level. Our 4th floor room was quite a bit smaller than our room at Radisson Blu Waterfront. Finding space for our luggage was a challenge.
  
  
  
  
Radisson Blu Strand is a historic Stockholm hotel built and opened to provide lodging for the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm.
The décor in Radisson Blu Strand hallways honors many of the celebrities and rock stars who have stayed at the hotel.
  
Sting and Audrey Hepburn.
Radisson Blu Strand Stockholm stairway was a good alternative to two slow elevators.
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Breakfast Room
Breakfast is served in an atrium restaurant. The breakfast was well stocked and relatively uncrowded in contrast to the extremely crowded Radisson Blu Waterfront breakfast buffet where it was difficult to move around all the people.
  
I prefer the room we had with the terrible noise at night than an atrium view hotel room looking into the restaurant dining room and bar.
The lobby and restaurant are separated by a sheer curtain divider.
During the day the front half of the bar/restaurant was the primary serving area and a few tables were outside on the sidewalk in front of the hotel.
The small lobby always seemed to have people sitting around. A young female concierge sat a lobby table most of the day in front of a computer waiting for interaction with guests. I asked her where I can find a fish market? She said there really isn’t a fish market area in Stockholm. I learned we could use our transportation 8-fare ticket to ride city transportation ferry boats located close by outside the hotel, though we never actually did used boats to get around Stockholm.
Radisson Blu Strand Hotel is located about 20 minutes walk to Djurgarden Island with the Nordic Museum, Vasa Museum, Abba THE Museum and several other museums, Grona Lund amusement park, a palace and lots of green space to walk or cycle around for the day.
Radisson Blu Strand Stockholm on Google maps
Radisson Blu Strand is centrally located as a tourist hotel in the center of Stockholm for easy access to Djurgarden Island museums and green space, Gamla Stan and ferries to other parts of the Stockholm archipeligo. Radisson Blu Waterfront and Radisson Blu Royal Viking are more convenient for a tourist new to Stockholm with easy access from airport with their Central train station locations. We used the metro to go from one hotel to the other when we moved our luggage. Otherwise we walked between hotels to attend the TBEX blogger conference held at Radisson Blu Waterfront Stockholm.
Room Rates
I booked this hotel in May 2015 using the Club Carlson Visa card member benefit of one free night on reward stays. Club Carlson Visa ended that benefit June 2015. My stay cost 50,000 points for two nights with one night free.
All three downtown Radisson Blu Stockholm hotels are currently priced at 70,000 points per night. Prevailing rates at Radisson Blu Strand Stockholm hotel start around 1,600 to 1,700 SEK per night or about $190 to $200 per night.
My travel spend hotel rate savings from living on reward stays for 5 nights in Stockholm allowed me to afford about 20 different kinds of Swedish beer from Systembolaget, the government monopoly for real beer retail liquor sales in the country.
Loyalty Traveler – Stockholm, I’ll be back, but probably not stay (July 18).
Loyalty Traveler РSummer postcard beautiful Djurg̴rden, Royal Game Park of Stockholm (July 19).
Loyalty Traveler – Copenhagen is cooler than Stockholm and half price (July 24).
Loyalty Traveler – Stockholm price of food and beer (July 15).
Loyalty Traveler – Hotel Review: Radisson Blu Waterfront Stockholm (Aug 7).
Loyalty Traveler – Stockholm Clarion Hotel Sign great deal on points, convenient airport train access (July 13).
Loyalty Traveler – Review Quality Airport Hotel Stockholm Arlanda 10,000 points Choice Privileges reward night (April 21).
