There's not many hotels on Tripadvisor for Trondheim to be honest. We picked this one just because it had a review!! So hopefully we will now double the number of reviews at a stroke...
We arrived by Hurtigruten boat. You can take a bus from the dock to the centre, but we found it quicker to walk. There was also a bit of a queue for taxis when we got off the boat, so be a bit patient. The walk into town is well signed, but it's about 20 minutes, which isn't great if you are lugging bags and suitcases.
The location of the hotel is great. Thankfully, most places in Trondheim can be easily walked from the hotel within minutes. The room size was fine with a surprisingly good view of the harbour and across to Monk's Island.
Complimentary Wifi access was probably the best of our stay in Norway. This hotel had access points on every floor and you didn't even need a login. Apparently, Trondheim has city-wide free Wifi access, but to be honest I could never get it to work on my PDA once we were outside.
The staff at the Tourist Information office in the town square were excellent. We went on a good 2-hour tour of the area, which had a lovely stop at a very ancient church where the lady showing us around the church suddenly started to sing in a beautiful voice. Very moving. (I was almost tempted to say an X-Factor type "You're Going To London!" remark at the end, but thankfully didn't)
The tour of Trondheim Cathedral and the Archbishop's Palace are fantastic. You can see the Norwegian Royal Family Crown Jewels here. If you are fascinated by royalty, I can't think of a better place to visit in Norway. You could pretty much have the whole place to yourself too, as not many people seemed to be there when we visited.
I would recommend buying an "all-in-one" ticket which gives you pretty much unlimited access to the Cathedral grounds for one day. The archaeological finds of the Royal Mint next to the Cathedral were fascinating. The only disappointment was that the crypt was closed, but the graveyard was certainly eerie.
For dining out, it's a pretty typical very expensive affair, but we found refuge near the hotel at the Microbrewery. Here we enjoyed some fantastic traditional Norwegian fish dishes and excellent beer (brewed literally right next to your table!) for under £40 for two.
Another great place to go is "The Good Neighbour" pub, which is just across the "Bridge Of Happiness". Yes you guessed it, there were more beers to sample ;-)
We never got to try the breakfast as we had to leave early for a flight. The excellent "Flybus" service leaves from across the street and is very frequent and about £4. The airport is very close to the city, you can get there by bus in well under 30 minutes.
Overall this is a good value for money hotel for Norway.
- Prinsen Hotell Trondheim
