This is a review of a four day/three night stay in late July, 2004. Built in 1874, Nobel Prize winners have stayed here since 1901. There are 304 rooms including 21 suites and is located right on the waterfront directly opposite the Royal Palace.

This is one of the grand hotels of Europe and is priced accordingly. While we stayed, there was a high-end cruise group coming or going every single day. Clearly the hotel does some group business and the lobby ambience suffered from the constant presence of cruisers--either gathering or checking in or out. The lobby is fairly functional and not overly large.

The hotel has a large number of rooms facing the harbor and we had one of the nicer ones up high and in the center of the hotel. The room itself was nothing particularly spectacular except that the air conditioning tended to work better than in many hotels in Scandinavia during warmer weather, the view is terrific, the bed linens are of a very high standard (high thread count cotton and utilizing duvets) even though the bed itself was actually two beds pushed together (as is not uncommon). The bathroom was reasonably spacious and contained high-quality toiletry amenities, hair dryers, lighted makeup mirror, high-quality cotton bathrobes (2) and a very good shower. The room itself contained a good trouser press, electronic safe, minibar at customary prices, and adequate lighting (although the combination of summer evening sunshine late into the day minimized the need for very strong lighting). The a/c thermostat is electronic and registers to the tenth of a degree Centigrade. The volume of air conditioning was barely adequate and would not permit much open window time before it could not adequately recover except over a lengthy period. The rooms are being renovated to improve the air conditioning and I cannot say whether what we had was "before" or "after." I sincerely hope it was a "before" room, however.

We did not have a computer and needed to rely on the two computers in the Business Center to the right and behind the Concierge desk. There appeared to be considerable confusion about the terms of usage of the computers. If a concierge entered the password (and not someone from the Business Center) then no charge ever appeared on the bill. There was no policing the rule of limiting your time if someone was waiting, so be forewarned that it could be frustrating. Since the bulk of the occupants in late July were tourists the load seemed fairly light for computer use. If the computer request went through the Business Center the charge to use it was, as is frequently the case, extremely high.

The Concierge desk was very helpful and particularly guided us to two extremely good restaurants (Pontus at the Green House and "Paul and Norbert"--the latter having good skilletry, albeit at a cost of $335 for dinner for two with only two glasses of a pretty good wine.) The Stockholm archipelago tours by boat start from the front of the hotel and the concierge assistance greatly aided us in making good use of time yet seeing a variety of the surrounding islands.

Our room rate included the buffet breakfast and the breakfast itself was of a high quality. The continual breakfast presence of large groups of package tourists made the experience a bit less than it might have been. There are a few English-language newspapers on a complimentary basis each morning, mostly UK.

English is widely spoken in the hotel (servers, front desk and maids). A few words of warning: the VAT in Sweden approximates 25%, taxis are very expensive for the distance traveled (!!!) and restaurant meals are fairly pricey. We did not eat in the hotel at all except at breakfast so I cannot comment on the food standards other than as noted above.

The Vasa Museum (the most visited museum in Scandinavia) is a fairly easy walk (maybe a mile plus or minus) along the waterfront and is one of the most enjoyable museums Mrs. Experience and I have ever visited. The Vasa is a warship that sank on initial departure from the quaiside in the 1628 and only raised and restored in the last forty years after lying on the harbor floor all the intervening 300+ years. The museum opened in 1990 and contains multimedia presentations of the recovery of the ship as well as the original inquest when it sank that are extraordinary in themselves. It's worth the trip to Stockholm.

Recommended: Yes