Introduction: Late Summer in Scandinavia
Flight Review: American Airlines B737-800 First Class, MEM-DFW
Flight Review: Finnair A350-900 Business Class, DFW-HEL
Flight Review: Finnair E190 Business Class, HEL-CPH
Lodging Review: Fairfield by Marriott Copenhagen Nordhavn
Our Time in Copenhagen
Lodging Review: Best Western Hotel Hebron, Copenhagen
Lodging Review: Next House, Copenhagen
Lodging Review: Story Hotel Studio Malmö
Our Time in Malmö and Ystad, Sweden
Lodging Review: IKEA Hotell, Älmhult, Sweden
Our Time in Älmhult, Sweden and High-Speed Train to Stockholm
Lodging Review: Motel L Älvsjö, Stockholm
Our Time in Stockholm
Flight Review: SAS A320neo Economy Class, ARN-OSL
Lodging Review: Comfort Hotel Grand Central, Oslo
Our Time in Oslo
Lounge Review: SAS Lounge, Oslo airport
Flight Review: Lufthansa A320-200 Business Class, OSL-FRA
Flight Review: Lufthansa 787-9 Business Class, FRA-MSP
Flight Review: Delta B737-800 First Class, MSP-MEM
Location
Älmhult is not a large town and the hotel is listed as a four-minute walk from the train station. It may be slightly more than that when wrangling luggage, but it’s a very easy walk and no cobblestones!
We arrived a couple of hours before the official check-in time but fortunately our room was ready. We seemed to be the only people around other than staff, at least for awhile.
How This Stay Was Booked
This hotel does not participate in any points programs I’m aware of and they only accept pre-paid reservations, as far as we could tell. Also, room reservations are not available more than 6 months in advance so we had to wait a few months after the rest of the trip was locked in to make this reservation. We booked a family room which had two sets of bunk beds for $127/night.
Common Areas
Lobby
The lobby has several different seating areas including a section for children. There’s also a small shuffleboard game inside.
Breakfast
Breakfast is from 7:00-10:30 AM on the weekends and 6:30-9:00 AM on weekdays. It is served in this area right beside the front desk. It is quite extensive. I don’t think it’s ever taken so many photos to capture all the choices!
There are quite a few different seating areas. Some are closed off after breakfast but others are available at other times.
Laundry
One of the great attractions of this hotel was that there is free self-serve laundry. You can even get detergent from the front desk, though we brought our own. However, there are only two washer/dryer pairs and they are QUITE slow. The dryers in particular took forever to get our clothes dry. They are not large units – I’d say larger than stackable units but much smaller than what I have at home – so we had to split our dirty clothes into 4-5 loads. The dryers would literally take 2 hours to get a load mostly dry. Fortunately there was not a lot of competition for them for a good part of our day though towards evening some folks did turn up needing to use the machines.
Dining
Grillen is the main restaurant but it is closed for lunch on the weekends. We considered it for dinner but its choices were not favored by my companions, so we went elsewhere, which is fine.
For lunch we ate at the cafeteria attached to the Ikea Museum, which is just across the parking lot. The museum is free for hotel guests although when we arrived there was no one at the front counter so we just walked on in. There are several pre-made choices available. I went with the shrimp salad.
The Living Room
The living room is a communal area on the second floor with a fridge, a couple of microwaves, dishes, coffee, tea, etc. where guests are allowed to make their own meals.
Looking out from the living room the roof of the lobby area is visible and it’s been covered with vegetation making it both prettier and functional.
Gym and Sauna
There’s a small gym on the ground floor along with a sauna. The gym is open from 6 AM to 10 PM while the sauna is heated beginning at 4 PM and I assume closes at 10 PM.
Guest Room
We booked a family room which had two sets of bunk beds built into one wall. There’s only one chair by the window but there is a bench under the TV.
Ikea Hotell Family Room
The bunk had a single A/C port and a light along with a shelf for your phone, glasses, etc.
The room had a connecting door to what we assume was a king room, so that could be considered the “parents’ room” while our double-bunk room was the “kids’ room”. But we never heard anyone in the room next door, which was nice for us.
By the door there’s a hanging rack and a bench where two suitcases could rest. There are also pegs on the wall that can be used for jackets, etc.
The bathroom is by the door to the hallway and was small but functional. We were so glad to see that the shower was entirely enclosed! After dealing with several showers that had water leaking into the main part of the bathroom, this was a treat.
In the end
We didn’t do much in Älmhult other than visit the Ikea Museum, do our laundry and eat. It was a nice day of rest at the end of our first week of the trip. The hotel is a fun and quirky place but sort of in the middle of nowhere. It’s a fairly industrial area, being right beside the Ikea Warehouse, but if you’re looking for a quiet place to stop it’s a clean and surprisingly (to me) large hotel that worked well for us.
2B Traveling 
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