Clarion Collection® Hotel Arcticus

As usual we had a Great stay at Arcticus in Harstad. Very friendly, helpful and welcoming staff, beutiful and delicate rooms, a good breakfast and the location of the hotel is amazing (at the shore with beutiful view and in the middle of Harstad centrum). Its also very good that the hotel offer (for FREE) a light evening meal, you can just relax at the hotel and do not need to go out to find something to eat.

I used this hotel over several years and it’s a pleasure to stay there every time. The staff is excellent and they always make you feel welcome. The location is in the centrum of Harstad, and there is many possibilities for nature experience ore work out, ore only relax. The rooms have high standard and the beds give you very good sleep.

We stayed at this hotel for just one night in July 2020. When we came to the hotel, the first thing that was very obvious was that the hotel was undergoing renovation and there was scaffolding on the front of the hotel and it seemed like they were adding a couple of new floors to the top of the hotel. It would have been good if this had been mentioned on the hotel homepage when I booked the room! Check in was fast even if the lady working there said “I’m not really working here” and she was not able to give much information about the time for breakfast or the evening snack that is included. We had booked a standard room and got a room facing into an internal courtyard (I guess it was not much of a point to have a window with a view to the harbor as there were scaffolding there). The room was decent size and had a brownish carpet, dark furniture and one dark wall. All of this combined with some lights not working, made the room seem quite dark. There was also a couple of chairs, a desk and a flat screen TV on the wall. As the weather was bad, we stayed in and tried to watch some TV but the signal was so bad that we had to give up watching TV – luckily the internet was quite good so it was better to stream a movie to the iPad. The bathroom was quite big with a shower corner that worked quite well. There was just one dispenser for shampoo and shower soap combined. We had to let the front desk know when we wanted breakfast as they wanted to keep control over how many that were in the breakfast area at the same time. The breakfast was OK with some typical topping like cheese and ham, some yogurt, fruits and cereal. I would have like to see fresher bread. It is generous of the hotel to also offer a complimentary evening meal and when were there is was some kind of stew with salad and rice (we did not eat this). Location of the hotel is good, and it is easy to walk to restaurants and shops nearby. Conclusion: I would have liked to be informed that the hotel was undergoing renovation. The room was big but appear dark due to the color scheme and a bit dated. I would probably look for a different hotel option next time I go to Harstad.

As stated in the title: our room was huge! And it was not even a suite or whatever. It was comfortable and bright. One small issue however: the water that was drained in the sink sometimes came out in the shower and it started to smell bad. But this problem only occured 2-3 times during our whole stay! Otherwise, we had a great time. The food was good and you could even make waffles in the afternoon!

The hotel includes both breakfast and dinner buffets. Very filling and tasty. The big windows offer majestic views of the mountains across the fjord. In winter, sunrise lasts over an hour before the sun emerges. The room was big and pleasant with lots of electrical outlets, a spacious bathroom. The staff were so gracious and helpful, as winter is a quiet time compared to summer. The heating was adjustable.