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
It’s hard to beat the location of this hotel. It’s literally connected to the train station, something we did not realize when we arrived on the train from the airport. So we walked outside and over the cobblestones when it would have been much easier to just wind our way through the terminal to reach our hotel!
Comfort Hotel Grand Central, Oslo, Norway
How This Stay Was Booked
We booked two rooms, each with twin beds, for 16K points per night via the Choice Hotels website. That’s about a $96 value vs. paying $275 as a refundable rate or $247 with my corporate discount. Definitely a good deal! One annoying thing about using Choice points is that you can only book 100 days in advance. The good news is that in 2025 that will change and you’ll be able to book 50 weeks out when using points.
When we checked out (at 2 AM!) the desk clerk at first thought we owed money but I explained we paid on points. He assured me it would be all right and had me forward my confirmation email, which showed how many points I paid, to a Strawberry Hotels email address. I assume that’s the company that owns this particular hotel as it is a regional hotel brand. At any rate I never heard anything else so I assume they got paid by Choice.
Check-in
We arrived before noon, knowing that it was likely that our rooms would not be ready. We were welcomed by the young woman at the front desk who was super-friendly. Fortunately one of our rooms was ready so we were able to store all our luggage there while we went out for lunch.
Common Areas
Lobby
There are a few steps up to the lobby if coming from the outside but no steps when coming from inside the train station. If you are mobility-challenged and are out very late or up very early while the train station is closed I’m not sure there is an easy way to enter/exit the lobby from the plaza.
The lobby reminded me a bit of the one for the Next House Copenhagen hostel in that it was kinda funky and rather industrial in design. There were lots of seating areas to lounge and several with tables where it would be easy to work.‘
There was also a mini-mart and I think there may have been cold sandwiches and the like in the unit on the far right of this photo.
I got a kick out of this sign and whole-heartedly agree!
This giant lamp was in front of one of the doors that led to the Italian restaurant just outside in the station (the other was just to the right of this photo). I kept waiting for it to hop into place and turn towards me, ala Pixar!
Gym
The gym overlooks the lobby and can be accessed either via the stairs in the lobby (seen in the photo of the long table above) or via the elevator. It is only available to adults ages 18 and up. It’s not very big but they make pretty good use of the long, narrow space.
Breakfast
The included breakfast is served on the ground floor in an area on the other side of the elevators from the lobby. This area is actually part of the restaurant that is also accessible from inside the train station. So if the tables are all taken inside the immediate area, go on through the doors into the train station and you’ll likely find plenty of tables there.
While perhaps not on par with Asian buffet breakfasts, there was still a lot of choice here. The buffet area can get quite congested but with a little patience everyone should have plenty to eat.
Hallways
It’s clear that while this hotel has been modernized, its roots are in an old building. Nowhere is this more in evidence than the hallways. Just on our floor when walking from one wing to another we encountered this puzzling corner that was a combination of a slight ramp along with steps!
To reach the guest rooms along the corridor where my friends’ room was you had to actually step up two stairs to even reach the room’s door!
Fortunately the hallway to our room was a standard one.
And it provided nice views into the train station.
There was also a recycling center in the elevator lobby.
Guest Rooms
As mentioned above, we reserved two rooms, each with twin beds. Our room was ready upon check-in and it turned out that this was actually an accessible room so it had a bit of a different layout.
In some respects it was laid out like a normal room where you step into a small hallway where there is a place to hang things, with the bathroom on one side and then you step through into the area with the beds. But instead of just a bathroom on one side we actually had parts of a bathroom on each side.
On the left side of the entry area (where you might otherwise find a door connecting to the next room) was a room with a toilet and a sink. It was large enough that it would be easy to put a wheelchair alongside the toilet and there was a fold-down handrail.
The sink was high enough for a wheelchair to get underneath. The hand soap was in a wall-mounted dispenser that could be accessed by someone in a wheelchair before they moved to the sink area. A hairdryer was also available. While you didn’t have to hold down a button to keep it running, it wasn’t especially powerful.
The bathroom on the right side of the entry area had another sink and hairdryer as well as the shower stall.
Once again there was a single, wall-mounted dispenser for a product meant to clean your hair and body. Don’t these people who design this ever use conditioner?! At least the shower panels were enough to keep most of the water in the shower stall.
There were no light switches for either side of the bathroom but motion sensors to turn them on/off as needed.
The guest room itself was long and thin and rather spartan though I think some of the design was due to it being an accessible room. The beds were on the right, just past the bathrooms.
Each bed had a flexible light, a switch for the overhead light and an electrical outlet.
Across from the beds was the wall-mounted TV.
Beside the TV was the desk, which had two electrical outlets as well as a couple of USB-A ports.
Across from the desk, beside the beds, were these two quite comfortable chairs.
Our “closet” area was completely open with three hooks, several hangers and a luggage stand.
Our room, 338, overlooked the plaza, Railway Square (Jernbanetorget), on the west side of the station.
Our friends’ room, which was probably more of a “regular” room than ours, had roughly the same layout though they had an actual hanging rack. Their two chairs were arranged with their backs to the windows.
Their desk was the same as hours but they had these industrial beams inside too.
Their bathroom had the shower on one side, the sink and toilet in the middle and a bathtub on the other side.
Their room overlooked Christian Frederiks Square, the one just outside the hotel’s main entrance.
This hotel had the best air conditioning of our trip. It was so nice not to have to sweat myself to sleep!
In the end
We had a lovely stay. It’s a hotel with character with a location that’s very tough to beat.
2B Traveling 
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