Grand Hotel Opera, Gothenburg

Grand Hotel Opera, just over the road from Gothenburg’s main train station, is really a hotel of two halves.

The older wing at the back of the hotel is where the cheapest rooms are located. These are some of the smallest we’ve seen in the city (including at hostels), and are quite badly overpriced. This whole section of the hotel, with its warren-like corridors, feels just a wee bit cramped.

At the front of the hotel, where the ‘standard’ rooms are located, things are completely different. The lobby is slick and modern, and there’s a comfortable licensed bar serving guests, most of them here on business.

Rooms in this part of the hotel feel considerably bigger and fresher. They’re decorated fairly simply with red curtains and blue carpets, and have a small fridge that you can use for your own drinks and snacks (it’s not stocked).

There’s a gym in the hotel’s basement, which you can use for free regardless of which part of the hotel you choose to stay in. You can also use the wellness area’s sauna and hot tub, though these cost extra. The charge of 95 SEK per person seems quite a lot, considering the cost of the rooms.

One really great thing about Grand Hotel Opera is the staff – the people we met were extremely helpful.