Hotel Birger Jarl

Great Tourist Choice for Stockholm

STOCKHOLM DIARY – July 2008
Hotel and Transportation. Hotel Birger Jarl (http://www.birgerjarl.se/eng/) was a great accommodations choice for our Stockholm visit. I was shopping for price, cleanliness, safety, and convenience. I booked the room on Expedia after shopping Internet sites and travel diary sites for several days. (I noticed the price would fluctuate with the number of rooms available. I booked our room about 2 weeks ahead of our arrival.) The price was significantly under the big name downtown hotels that boasted their city center location. My initial contact with the hotel staff indicated their helpful attitude which was also apparent upon our arrival.
We traveled to Stockholm via train from Copenhagen. From the Central Station, we took the subway two stops then walked 3 ½ blocks to the hotel. (Directions on the website listed above.) One could walk from Central Station (as suggested on the site) but it would be at least twenty minutes in a new city after a long trip and with luggage it would be a struggle we wanted to avoid. (We did taxi to Central Station at the end of our trip and it cost SEK 85 or about $15US.)
The rooms at the Hotel Birger Jarl were small but ample for our needs, clean and functional with that Scandinavian design. The spotless bath afforded heated towels (remember no wash cloths in Europe - we’ll take one next time). Our bed was queen size (very comfortable) with convenient light switches nearby and the room offered two chairs, a desk and a nice flat screen TV upon which we could review our daily digital photos. Another plus of the hotel was the large complimentary buffet breakfast served for a generous period of time each morning – eggs, bacon, cereals, waffles, fruit, vegetables, cheeses, juices, and many breads. It’s a great way to fuel up for a day of sightseeing and reduce some of the high cost of eating in Stockholm.
The Hotel is located just 1 ½ blocks from the #2 bus stop which will get you downtown and beyond to the bottom of Gamla Stan. (Tickets can be purchased at convenience stores like 7-11 or Presbyan (?) stores. A 7-11 is just 3 blocks north of the hotel and a pharmacy is a few doors from that with another bus station nearby.) If your destination is Skansen – the #44 bus is a few blocks east of the hotel although you can ride the #2 to the water front and then switch to the #47 which runs to the Vasa Museum, Nordic Museum, Tivoli, Skansen and other sites on Djurgarden. We didn’t see any pocket maps that had bus routes posted but most bus stops had large maps indicating routes and bus numbers. This was very handy and was quick to learn.
The distance from the hotel to the harbor is about a twenty-minute walk if you don’t grab the bus. The journey follows a major city street with attractive shopping and dining districts. The hotel is located in a quiet neighborhood. While there were late night talkers at the street front café but it was minimal. Street noise from traffic was near non-existent except for an occasional tourist bus unloading travelers to the Hotel Birger Jarl. We kept our window open all the time we were in and the temperature in late July was very pleasant.

We ordered room service on two occasions and the meals were very tasty, generous in serving size (we easily could have split the meal for the both us and did on the second time) promptly delivered and fairly priced.