Iceland Hotel Guide: Sweet Suites at The Hotel Borg

Where: Posthusstraeti 11, Reykjavik, Iceland

October 10, 2008 at 10:45 AM | 0 Comments

HotelChatter contributing editor Tim Leffel is braving the erratic weather of Iceland and reporting on the local hotel scene this week. Most hotels are listed in euros or kroners, but prices have been converted into dollars, which are actually worth something there right now.

There are no frightening alien cyborgs at Reykjavik's Hotel Borg, which is in most respects the best in the city. When most hotels say they "combine old-time elegance with modern style" it means they couldn't afford a full renovation.

In this case, they really did marry the old with the new seamlessly. The 2006 renovations turned the entire 1930s building into a stylized Art Deco palace, but using updated leather furniture, new electronics, and modern plumbing.

The 56 rooms are filled with interesting custom furniture, parquet floors, and lamps that harken back to a time of great industrial creativity. You get all the latest goodies though: flat-screen TVs, coffee makers, electronic safes, Bang & Olufsen telephones, minibars, and trouser presses.

The suites get Hastens beds and B&O stereos. The Tower Suite may well be the coolest room in the country. The highest point in the top right of the photo here, it has a 360-degree view of the city and harbor, with furniture that will make you think you should be in a flapper dress chatting with F. Scott Fitzgerald.

The Silfur restaurant here is also one of the best in the city, serving French cuisine in a dramatic room that would fit right into a Philippe Starck portfolio.

Doubles at Hotel Borg are $257 to $387 on their own site, sometimes under $200 on booking sites like Expedia. The Tower Suite lists for $820 to $1,408 depending on the number of bedrooms booked (from 1 to 3).

Ed. Note: Tim Leffel actually wrote this Iceland Hotel Guide before Iceland experienced a national meltdown due to the banking crisis. That said, Iceland's loss is a traveler's gain. Tim sums it up best in this article which he wrote for Tripso:

As the free-lending banks on the small island nation crash and burn, Iceland is facing a �national bankruptcy� according to some reports. As unbelievable as this would have sounded a year ago, for the moment it is cheaper to vacation in Iceland than it is to do so in New York City. Everything is half the price it was just seven months ago.

Tags: Iceland Hotel Reviews / Iceland Hotel Guide / Sweet Suites

by Tim L.

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