Clarion Collection Hotel Grand Bodo

This has been a hotel since 1850, and the atmosphere retains a sense of history and tradition while updating it with modern design touches and extensive sauna and wellness facilities. The hotel’s central location makes it great for exploring Bodo.

Rooms are decorated in a traditional European style, belying the more modern feel of the lobby and reception areas, with polished parquet wooden floors and lavish bedspreads. Unique touches like flamboyant wallpaper and colourful curtains add a dash of colour to proceedings, and each of the rooms is different. Selected rooms also feature a hot tub.

Room rates include an extensive daily breakfast, with organic options also available, and an evening meal, with a buffet of soup, salad, a warm dish and dessert. Dining options close to the hotel include local favourite Bryggeri Kaia, which serves fantastic fish and a good range of beers, and Lovolds, Bodo’s oldest eatery which continues to offer the same traditional, hearty Norwegian cuisine it always has.

The hotel’s ‘relaxation corner’ provides exactly what it says on the tin, with a choice of a sauna, steam sauna and infrared sauna as well as a seating area with reclining chairs. The hotel also has a gym, with a range of fitness equipment available as well as fitness classes. Maps of jogging and walking trails and advice are available at reception. There is also a well-stocked exchange library, where guests are encouraged to leave books they are finished with and take one in return. Pet-friendly rooms are available for an additional charge.

While many people simply pass through Bodo on their way to rural Nordland, it has plenty to offer in and of itself as one of Norway’s fastest-growing towns. Attractions like the Luftfartsmuseet, which tells the story of Norway’s aviation history, and Galleri Bodøgaard, which exhibits religious icons, contemporary art and ethnographic artefacts, are nearby. The hotel is just round the corner from the Glasshuset shopping street if you’re in need of some final retail therapy before you head out into the Nordland wilderness.