I love the arrivals service offered as part of the BusinessFirst service from United Airlines at most of their legacy Continental routes. I’m a firm believer in the power of a shower and a beer to help reset the body clock towards something approximating normal and the arrivals facilities generally make that work out quite nicely. Our request for the service apparently made it to the agent in Stockholm – she acknowledged such in the jetway – but not all the way to the hotel. That delayed our access by about 15 minutes but it was resolved quickly enough.
After our flight in to Stockholm from Newark we were all a bit out of it (I actually managed to forget my laptop on the plane, though I was quickly reunited with it) so having a nap also played into our plans. The arrivals service is Stockholm is a day room provided at the Radisson Blu hotel in the airport so we had the opportunity to get that nap, along with the shower; the beer had to wait until lunch.
The rooms we got were configured with two beds, two very small beds. They’re singles, rather common in Scandinavia, but it was entertaining to hear some of the stories from our group about trying to make that work for multiple people in the room.
Beyond the beds (which I was actually quite comfortable sleeping on), the rooms were reasonably well appointed, if not a bit small. Sliding the chair out from the desk, for example, resulted in hitting the bed situated adjacent to it. That said, it was not the smallest room I had during the week, not by a long shot.
The bathroom was reasonably nice, too, with all the expected/usual amenities provided.
One rather strange bit about the hotel is that the rooms (on at least one side of the hall) overlooked the terminal rather than the outside world (though you could see outside through the terminal windows). That was definitely a bit different for me. I think that contributed to the hotel not using black-out curtains in the windows (the photo above is as dark as the curtains got). I was tired enough that sleep came anyways, but I can imagine that being an issue during the summer when darkness is harder to come by in the region.
In short, it was a very typical and very serviceable business hotel at the airport. It did have the advantage of being literally in the airport making it incredibly convenient, and also allowing for a premium to be charged on the pricing for rooms that I saw in a quick search. Still, faced with an early morning departure I’d either be sleeping there or in the nearby jumbo jet.
Related Posts:
- In flight: Newark to Stockholm in United BusinessFirst
- Nap time in the cockpit of a 747
- Shower, breakfast and a beer at the Lufthansa Welcome Lounge
- A quick jetlag recovery trick
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Make time to go see Vasa http://www.vasamuseet.se/en/ very very kool if you have never see it – rene DeltaPoints.com
I did to the Vasa Museum, deltagoldflyer. I was skeptical at first, but actually LOVED it! That’s in another post, here.
I know what you mean about being “out of it” after a long flight. 150 euros fell out of my pocket the first morning in Madrid (I’m fairly certain it wasn’t a pickpocket, but it was stuffed in the same pocket as my map and a bunch of other stuff). That’s a mistake I won’t make again.