City Box Hotel Bergen

Wendy, I haven't stayed in these hotels. We stayed at the Thon Rosenkrantz in May 2023.

The Citybox Bergen is better located for the sights in Bergen. It is about a 15 to 20 minute walk to the Bryggen, the harbour and the cable car station for Mt. Fløyen. And maybe a 5 minute walk to the train station and the KODE Museums.

The Citybox Danmarksplass would require taking the tram to reach the same places.

I may have stayed at the Bergen City location in 2022 (probably did, but my records are unclear). I definitely stayed at the Oslo Citybox at Prinsens Gate 6 and the Tallinn Citybox. They are fine budget options as long as you don't expect hand-holding from reception staff (you probably won't see any). Like most of the places I stay, they weren't memorable, else I'd provide more information. At the rates I prefer to pay for lodging, unmemorable is a good thing.

Citybox is one of the newish (I think) chains meeting the need for affordable lodging in a very high-cost part of Europe. They do it partly by cutting back on staffing, rather like the Premier Inn chain in the UK. I'd say Citybox is even leaner than Premier Inn. And it doesn't have Premier Inn's especially comfortable beds, though I had no complaints on that score. Citybox, like a lot of my lodging choices, is reminiscent of sleeping in a college dorm room. If you haven't already done so, I suggest looking at reviews on booking.com so you're aware of what might be missing. You can only leave a review on booking.com if you've actually stayed at the property, so the reviews are generally reliable.

I will mention that Norwegian hotel breakfasts can be really good. I'm pretty sure breakfast isn't an option at Citybox, and I wouldn't expect much there if it was on offer. If you are also considering a somewhat higher-level hotel that includes breakfast in its rates, you can figure the breakfast is probably worth a fair amount if you're prepared to take advantage of it.

Thank you all for your feed back! Now that I look closer, there are a number of hotels in this prces range...just takes time to sort through them.

Hi Wendy, we stayed at Bergen City Citybox in July last year. It is in a good location, easy walk from the train station and the tram to the airport and as Jean pointed out the Bryggen etc. If you haven't already done so, it would be worth checking out the Citybox website to get a feeling for their service model, I would agree it would not suit everyone, but it worked perfectly for us. In fact on that trip we stayed at 5 Citybox hotels but we did plan ahead a bit for the reduced room facilities. We took a Thermos flask and a couple of cups for in room tea and coffee, some paper bags for storing cold items in the communal fridges and a reusable shopping bag to carry food items from our room to the shared kitchen areas for breakfast etc. We found the hotels to be clean and tidy and while staff were not always in the office they were never far away and were always helpful. Our rooms were always serviced every 2-3 days and extra towels etc were available from the office when needed.

Thank you Adelaide!

Another questions...as I scroll throughdifferent hotels, many add a daily charge for breakfast which can range from $12-$35. $12 sounds great but wonder what the food might be like. An thoughts? Thanks

You should read the online reviews, even Google reviews, and filter for breakfast to see what is included for the price.

We stayed at 4 different Thon hotels and 1 independent hotel around Norway and breakfast was automatically included in the room rates. While each hotel was different, all the breakfasts were true feasts with a huge assortment of hot and cold dishes including breads, pastries, fruits, smoked fish, cheeses and cold cuts, yogurts, cereals, eggs and bacon and more.

I pass on hotel breakfasts any time that is an option, because they are either flat-out expensive or overpriced for the crummy food you get. However, I had at least two occasions in Norway when opting out wasn't possible. I have no idea what they were (effectively) charging for those breakfast, but they were very good. You can start with lots of varieties of bakery-quality bread. Not just yogurt, but yogurt with all kinds of mix-ins--dried fruit, nuts, etc. And the other goodies mentioned by jeanm. Obviously, there has to be a difference between a $12 breakfast and a $35 breakfast, so I'm not sure what you'd get at either price. I'd say my Norwegian breakfasts fell in the middle of that range.

You might check the reviews on booking.com to see whether you can get useful information there. I wouldn't go back more than a year, though; hotels can adjust their breakfast offerings at any point, and I'd expect those adjustments usually to be downward.

I don’t know the City box hotel, but I stayed at the Thon Hotel Bristol Bergen back in early September of 2024. I remember it was reasonably priced (I booked waaaay in advance so got a great rate) and very well located. A bit corky and very colorful inside, but had an incredible breakfast which helped me save money eating out. Few minutes walk to Fish Market. I took the tram from airport and hotel was really close to the last stop.

I love hotel breakfasts especially traveling alone. It gives me a wide range of food options which would be exorbitant pricey if I were to pay at a cafe. Food in Norway was really expensive. Thon Bristol had juices, smoothies, eggs, pastries, bread, oatmeal, smoked salmon, vegetables, fruits, gluten free options, and an incredible coffee machine and everything else someone else posted before me. It was truly a feast! I would take a pastry and fruit to-go for late morning snack/lunch. I think it was included in the reservation price and well worth it.

I don’t know what are the nightly rate these days but I remember it came out to $165 (I just checked my old receipt) when I booked it for a single person on Hotels.com (but they gave a huge room with skylight). But it was shoulder season in September.