Clarion Collection® Hotel Arcticus

really great place. staff is really friendly. rooms are clean. best thing is the sauna which offers a great view on the harbor. location is perfect to start the city tour. tourist information is within 10 min walking distance. the price is really good taking into account dinner and breakfast is included. definitely worth staying at.

I do not want to seem negative about the Clarion Hotel Arcticus because we did have a fairly good overnight's stay as part of a longer journey through Northern Norway. But it is all the cumulative little things that tend to bring my assessment rating down. After thinking it over all day, I decided that it would be most balanced and fair to just chalk it up to "you get what you paid for" in that we did get a VERY good price (booking early, paying up front) and they delivered essentially everything advertised. The property is very nice, modern and clean, and located at the end of the beautiful Harstad waterfront promenade, nearest the giant water jet in the harbour. It is a wonderful stroll into the charming central shopping district where all the shoppes and restaurants are. There is no free parking for cars, but there are nearby garages behind the hotel for a reasonable fee. Fees do not start until 0800, so we ended up paying about 40 kroner for overnight parking. Perhaps we were given one of the bargain rooms. To be fair, it was a good room, clean, well furnished, and comfortable. BUT, it had several idiosyncrasies that sort of made me wonder. Like the end tables, headboard and accent table were reminescent of medieval dungeon style (dark black, with lots of protruding brass bolts) and a giant neo-classical gilt mirror (incongruent with the design). The lighting design was... eclectic.... and a bit overkill. 2 reading lamps, 2 sconce lamps, a floor lamp with a cylindrical paper shade, a desk lamp, and then overhead spot lamps. And that was just for the main room/bedroom. Ok, one did not have to use all of these lamps of course, but, the problem was that they literally used up every power outlet in the room. This left one useable outlet on the writing desk for all my personal electronics. I ended up crawling around and unplugging half the lamps so I could use my rechargers. Then there is the window. This window, along with dozens of others, opens onto an odd interior atrium with skylight. This sounds like a creative idea, but in practicality, it provides a good glimpse into the rooms across the atrium from you, and vise versa. Almost everyone pulled their blackout curtains closed and left their windows open for ventilation. This led to echoey conversations heard well into the night, followed by a symphony of snoring. Since the room was warm and lightly ventilated, closing the window was just not an option. The bathroom was ok. But it too had some strange little details. Like the shower door, which was a curved piece of glass that neither swung all the way open, nor all the way shut. One squeezed in behind this glass riot shield and showered as it deflected about half the water away from the main bathroom floor. Then... there was the steam situation. Luckily I am a regular cool/cold shower person, but apparently someone in the hotel was not. There is a small sticker on the wall warning guests to close the bathroom door when showering because the steam triggers the room smoke alarm. 10 minutes after I entered my room, alarms blare and the whole hotel gets evacuated. I presume that someone did not read the little sticker on the wall. Note: although the fire alarm was not the hotel's fault, it would be good customer service to APOLOGIZE for the inconvenience of evacuating everyone outside to stand around in the wind/rain. Finally, I have to mention the low flow environmentally conscious toilet. I am all for ecological solutions, believe me. But this toilet did NOT do its function with any effectiveness. Let's just say, one had to flush 3 or 4 times, pull out the toilet brush and other things, to use this toilet. The promised "evening meal" was provided and appreciated. But it was very simple (meatballs, sauce, potatoes, veg, and salad) and although it was adequate and well prepared, it did not accommodate my dietary preferences, and there were really long lines. I know, I know, that is my problem, not theirs. But I am merely reporting what is what here. Again, I guess we got what we paid for (gratis). I was more seriously annoyed at the breakfast. I think that the evening meal service with guests in large shifts (of maybe 40) provided an inkling of what I consider a breakfast disaster to come. It was a major cluster fudge after my appointed 0840 breakfast time. A mob of people descended upon the buffet at once and stripped it bare like hungry locusts. Plates were hidden in a knee level shelf below the buffet island, so guests bottle necked in that area, not knowing who was in line for refill food, drinks, or just a plate. Within 10 minutes, they ran out of eggs, COFFEE, orange juice, cold cuts, cheese, beans, fruit, and even bread. To their credit, staff were trying to bring more as annoyed guests stood around the warming tables (breathing into the food or empty platters as the case may be). I was lucky and had a breakfast of scrambled eggs, the last scrapings from the bean pan, and the last piece (the heel) of bread. The scene was disorganized chaos. Oddly, they knew exactly how many people would be eating breakfast at that time and they made a big production of strictly defining eating times and assigning tables. I can't understand why a sufficient amount of food was not prepared. On the good side, the scrambled eggs were tasty. So to summarize, what could have potentially been a great hotel stay, turned into a bizarre, amateurish travel anecdote that I can compare other hotel stays to. I will not recommend the Clarion Harstad Articus unless you are willing to overlook the quirks in exchange for a good price. Or better yet, stay at the hotel, but eat out.

On this the warmest summerday - we came in early by boat from Tromsø. We were greeted with the warmest of smiles arriving at the hotel at 10 am. We had quite a busy plan for the day. The plan was to walk the fantastic seaside footwalk from down town Harstad to Trondenes church. The stunning church with its 2 m thick stone walls with its cemetery looking like you would imagine Heaven.. My ancestors are burried here. The on site museum worth a visit. Coming back to the hotel, Trine in the reception still smiling and asking us caring questions about our day so far. She arranged for us to have a hotelroom to cool before we complited our plans with a trip out to the Bjarkøy island, to visit my forefather Tore Hunds place. We arrived back quite late and was set to leave well before breakfast the following morning, going back to Tromsø. Breakfast to go and happy people wishing us the best and indeed a heartfelt Welcome Back. And we will be back 👏👏👏👏👏

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.