25 June 2011

accommodation in oslo ...

looking for a twin room in central oslo for one night midweek in July ...

octopustravel have the 2 star Comfort Hotel Express for 66 gbp

venere also have the same hotel for the same price, and also have 3 star Anker Hotel for 97 gbp

laterooms have the Anker for the same price

opodo have the Comfort and the Anker for similar prices, and they also had a good price on a centrally located Radisson Blu - but it turned out that they had the wrong location, it's 5km from the centre - close escape !

expedia (which owns tripadvisor, hotels.com and other sites) had the Comfort and Anker Hotels, and also has the Anker Hostel, but the poor reviews (dirty) put me off the Hostel. They also had Thon Astoria, another 3 star for the same price as Anker but closer to the station - but some reviews about the bed & noise put me off

otels had the Comfort for the same price

travelocity (which owns lastminute.com) had the Comfort for the same price, and the Anker for what appeared to be 74 gbp but was actually a single room - the price for a twin was the same 97 gbp. they also had a 4 star "top secret" hotel near the station for 95 gbp. after some painful investigations, i worked out this was probably the Scandic Byporten (both had 2pm check in times, where as other 4 stars in similar location had 3pm check in times). The list price for the Byporten is 113 gbp and the reviews aren't great, so not really worth it

ebookers prices started at 97 gbp (for Anker) and went rapidly upwards

travelrepublic annoyingly don't let you filter by area, so you have to click through their (nice) map - they didn't have anything useful

I ended up booking the Comfort Xpress through their own website, as it allowed me to just guarantee the booking (instead of being charged immediately) and I always hope that the hotel will look on you more favourably if you have booked directly !

23 June 2011

oslo to bodo ...

trying to get from Oslo to Bodo on Sat 16th July ... there aren't any direct trains or flights available which connect with flight arrival times ...

one option is to fly from OSLo to TRonDheim in the afternoon for about 80 gbp, and then take the overnight sleeper train to Bodo for an extra 93 gbp ...

flights on the sunday or the monday both cost about 95 gbp (plus an extra night's accommodation) ...

another option would be to take the famous Flam railway towards Bergen (departing Honefoss 17:37), overnight in Flam, arriving at 21:45 (well before sunset at 23:11) for about 62 gbp ... then take the 11:00 train on Sunday to Bergen arr 14:22 for about 51 gbp ... and then fly from Bergen 17:25 to TRD on sunday for about 55 gbp ... and then the overnight railway to Bodo for 93 gbp (45 gbp without a bed) ...