Review: Radisson Blu Longyearbyen Hotel

Good report, although I am not sure why you had higher expectations from a chain hotel... If you want something charming, book some local B&B - and this is true when you visit glamorous and exotic destinations as well.

Lucky
We stayed at that hotel from 7/8 to 7/12 in room 230. We ate all our meals at the hotel. We did not get the points either. When i complained to service manager that we did not receive any recognition, she apologized and come to our room with a bottle of red wine. Strangely we did not get double points on our ClubCarlson visa either. After our visit in Spitsbergen we spend 2 days at a charming Clarion Collection Savoy Hotel in Oslo, where all meals were free and we were walking distance to Royal Palace, which is worth visiting.

To be honest I'm actually surprised that the hotel looks as nice as it does in some aspect for being at such a remote location.

I have stayed at both the Spitsbergen Hotel and the Radisson Blue in Longyearbyen. The bar and restaurant at the Spitsbergen are quite nice but the walk into town on a windy day can seem long. My husband was injured while hiking in Svalbard and I spent three days alone at the Radisson Blu after he was medically evacuated. The staff was so kind and helpful. It is probably unrealistic to expect to expect luxurious accommodations in such a remote place. In modern times it was a mining town. In fact, there was a miners' convention at the hotel during the time I was staying there.
The hotels and the health clinic have shoe racks at the entrance and usually have slippers or expect you to wear your socks inside. This is probably a carry-over from the mining days when miners left their shoes at the door so as not to track dust inside.

I think you mean coat of pAint. Unless you're secretly from the English West Midlands region -in which case coat of point is an accurate pronunciation, which made me chuckle as that's how half my family would say it!

🙂

Looks like you did receive an upgrade. Usually Nespresso machines are only available in the premium / Business Class rooms.

Nice to see that you got a room that looks like the kind I get in my non-Hyatt travels. Especially loved the comments about the shower. Seems like somebody could make a fortune introducing Europe to the concept of shower curtains.

That probaby is luxury given the location. I was looking forward to this review, at least partially to see how different to your usual choice of hotel it would be.

I think if you had visited in winter you'd have had a very different perspective. Temperature sharpens your emotional response to being safe and warm (I've only experienced -30 C and I have no desire to do so again).

Svalbard has excellent Internet connectivity because it's connected to mainland Norway by a submarine fiber-optic cable that was built primarily to serve NASA satellite tracking facilities on Svalbard. Submarine cables carry more than 95 percent of the world's international Internet traffic (satellites are really a thing of the past except for video distribution), but they're rare in polar regions due to sea ice. Northern Canada is still stuck with satellite connectivity -- slow and very expensive.

See that Jack beat me to it.

But here is the link
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svalbard_Undersea_Cable_System

Provides back-haul for this place
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svalbard_Satellite_Station

Lucky..I think you should stick to other parts of the world…that breakfast you photographed is about as typically "Nordic" as it gets…I've stayed in this hotel twice and had great experiences both times. Next time u venture north try Kiruna…and the IceHotel..