Bergen Hotel recommendations.

We stayed in Bergen Bors hotel in September 2022. We wouldn't stay there again. Two main reasons: 1. our room reeked from perfumed air freshening doo-dads - incense sticks, plug ins, hidden air fresheners in the bathroom, scented dried flowers - it was awful; and 2. every morning at around 5 am there was a terrible grating sound from outside like someone was using a snow plough on the cobblestones - turns out it was just the noise of the commercial garbage bins being emptied.

In August 2021, I stayed at a Nordic Choice member hotel, the Clarion Hotel Admiral Bergen (just for one night before catching a boat).

It served me very well, as it was very near the boat dock from where my ferry to Balestrand departed, and being on the opposite side of the harbor from the iconic Bergen buildings, has a gorgeous view from the breakfast room of them.

The room was nicely appointed with a great bathroom.

I would absolutely stay there again.

I've also stayed at the Admiral. Great location.

The fish market is a block away so lots of little places to eat, the airport bus is two blocks away, and everything else is fairly close.

The hotel is right on the water and if it is nice outside you can have breakfast outside on the terrace.

We stayed at the Radisson Blu which is a great location near the old waterfront. We will be staying there again this summer.

We stayed at the Thon Orion twice prior to boarding a cruise. Nice modern hotel, clean rooms, included breakfast and dinner buffets. It was the closest hotel to where we embarked/disembarked. A 5-minute walk to the ship with our rolling luggage.

https://www.thonhotels.no/hoteller/norge/bergen/thon-hotel-orion/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=infoboks&utm_campaign=GMB

We also stayed at the Thon Opera in Oslo, a nice hotel chain.

I've watched this thread carefully. For weeks, I've been going back and forth on hotels in Bergen. I was looking at the Orion but my sister wanted something a little nicer because it's our last stop. (We like to save the best for last.) I'd been going back and forth between the Admiral and the Radisson Blu because both seem well-situated and lovely. It's nice to read that people have good things to say about both of them. However, we're booked at the Radisson because I was able to leverage some credit card points into a better room. If both hotels had been available in that system, it would have been a very hard call.

I would also avoid the Bergen Bors hotel.

Staying at this hotel is a noise lottery. They have not soundproofed the room from outside noises, and so many rooms face the streets or public square. So it was noisy until 2-3am in the morning, unable to sleep.

The rest of the hotel is good. Rooms, breakfast, etc. The location is perfect. But a noisy room and a bad nights sleep, that's the basics.

Unfortunately, they were full that night, so we couldn't move rooms. Reception was proactive to offer a move the following night, to a room facing the inner courtyard. Which was much more quieter. So the second night was at least good.

When we complained, it looks like there is no management to speak to. No manager on duty on the weekend. On weekdays, not available at 10am, nor at 3:45pm. Reception also won't take down our phone number to pass to the manager, only gave us the general email address for the hotel, to email in.

For a hotel at this end of the quality scale, the lack of managerial service is shocking. And for a hotel in the middle of the city, the lack of soundproofing is shocking.

Unless you can guarantee an inner courtyard room when booking, I would not recommend this hotel. Also, as I can see they have alot of cruise guests staying, I can see why management don't really care about individual guest bookings and their satisfaction. If you want to play sleep lottery, or can sleep like the dead at night, book here. Otherwise, there are many other choices in Bergen.

We stayed this year at Magic Hotel Kløverhuset which has a nice harbor view from Superior rooms and is also close to fish market but in total it was disappointing (huge waiting times at reception, freezing aircon, breakfast quality esp. bread). Just stylish (not designed) but not enough customer oriented.

For dinner Fjellskål Seafood Restaurant in fish market hall was expensive but the meals tasted really good.

When we were in Bergen in June, there was an Iron Maiden concert at the outdoor area next to the Thon Orion. They were doing a sound check, and I have never heard anything louder in my entire life. We were so grateful not to be staying there. We stayed at Opus XVI, using points, and loved it. Great location, nice, quiet room, and best breakfast of our trip.

That would be a nightmare to me, to go to Norway for some rest and relaxation and end up next to an Iron Maiden concert ! Thank goodness you weren’t staying there !

Edit to add: OMG Iron Maiden is playing again at Koengen (near the Thon Orion) on September 30 ! Warning to anyone who is considering Thon Orion or Havnekontorer for that date!

Katrein, have you been to Bergen yet for your cruise ? What hotel did you end up choosing ?

We stayed at the Thon in August 2022 as suggested in Rick's guidebook. One of his tour groups was staying there while we were there. Honestly, I was kind of disappointed in this hotel. The breakfast buffet was nice but we had read that there was a small dinner buffet as part of our stay. Well we learned that is not offered during the high season. Rooms were just okay. It was terribly hot when we visited and like much of Scandanavia no air conditioning so we had to open windows which let in light and noise. Staff were not super friendly either. I would stay elsewhere if I go back.

Which Thon did you stay at Jen ? I am sorry you had a disappointing experience and THANK YOU for sharing that here so that others can be aware.

CT, we stayed at the Radisson Blu for 4 nights last month. Nice property, wonderful staff. Front desk does get busy at Oslo-Bergen train arrival time and cruise ship arrival and departure. Breakfast can also be busy with cruisers trying to meet a schedule, but they have a system in place to manage that. I would stay again.

I stayed at the Clarion Hotel Admiral in Bergen for three nights in late August and absolutely loved it. Location is perfect, room and breakfast were the best I had for my entire trip.

Kim, we stayed at the Thon Rosenkrantz which is suggested in Rick's guidebook. We often stay at places suggested in his guidebooks but this was not a place we were impressed with and would not stay if we return.