The Thon Hotel in Arendal is very centrally located, about 5 minutes from anything (or two minutes from the harbour). The views aren't special - overlooking the large church in the heart of the town, but nothing else that is scenic.

The rooms are functional with very comfortable beds. As is standard in Europe, if you book a single room, you get a single bed - even if the room is large enough to accommodate a double bed! The TV has a few channels and the nice thing in Norway is they don't dub, so if the show was originally filmed in English, there will merely be Norwegian subtitles beneath it.

The inhouse movies are outrageously priced though! There is a cinema next to the hotel and a shopping centre selling DVDs a 5 minute walk away, both with cheaper movies than what this hotel is charging!

But that aside, my one real quibble with this place was the shower. It has to be the coldest shower on the planet (in a place that looks like they are providing warm showers). The tap says 38C, but it felt like it could barely be above 20C - there was just enough warmth in the water that you didn't leap out screaming with frostbite... In a country where recycling is so prolific, maybe this is a ploy by the hotel - provide very tepid water so that (a) you don't spend much on heating and (b) you don't spend much on water consumption because no one would linger in that shower!

Overall, I'd stay there again, but defintely not for a long period - I couldn't stand having to psyche myself up for a shower....

We booked this hotel online and got a fabulous price. The desk staff were polite with very good English and everything was exactly as we had anticipated from our online booking - no nasty surprises. The hotel is right in town so you can shop all day and just pop back to leave bags or use the bathroom. The bathroom was white and sparkling and the breakfast included with the price was extremely generous.