Best Western Havly Hotel

Description:

• This comfortable hotel is hardly the best, but it's the most affordable in a town where virtually every hotel room is pricey. The only member of the Best Western hotel chain in town is positioned on a street that runs parallel to the wharves of the Vågen (harbor), 1 block uphill. Small-scale, boxy, and modern, it was built in the 1960s in a low-rise design that doesn't interfere (too much) with the otherwise antique buildings of old Stavanger that rise around it on every side. There's no bar, no restaurant, and very few amenities, but in light of the well-maintained accommodations, and because of the many bars and restaurants that lie within a few blocks, no one seems to care. It attracts business travelers from other parts of Scandinavia, and there's an aura of brisk, matter-of-fact efficiency permeating a decor that includes smallish, weather-tight windows (without any particularly panoramic view) that you might have expected in a Best Western in, say, a cold-climate region of the Pacific Northwest.

• © Frommer's 2013