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Jaunted Field Trips

Rough Guides Gets It Right: Nordica Hotel

August 28, 2006 at 12:30 PM | 0 Comments

The Rough Guide to Iceland was our weapon of choice, during August 2006 Jaunted Field Trip to Iceland. Sometimes these guide books get it right, and sometimes they are off. In this feature, we will tell you what the guide pros said about a place and then give you our take.

Nordica Hotel

Rough Guides says:

ttp:Another Icelandair moneyspinner and the largest hotel in Iceland, with around 300 rooms. Although this place, formerly the Esja, has had a serious Nordic makeover--glass, chrome and natural wood everywhere you look, it still conspires to be overly big, impersonal and unjustifiably expensive. Make sure to at least get a room at the front, with views over the sea to Mount Esja. The walk into town from here is a good 25 min.

Jaunted says:
As local paper Reykjavik Mag, (the print organ of Reykjavik.com) explains, the Nordica is the "quintessential business hotel" though you "may luck out and get a room here as a part of a package holiday" which was our case. Coming to Iceland from New York City, possibly the capital of massive, sterile, pretentious, overpriced business hotels, Nordica was not a jarring transition. In fact it was exactly like one of the midtown glass tower or boutique hotels where we might attend a work party, visit friends in for a convention or hit the bar for celebrity spotting. Other similarities were that space in the "double" was tight, the gym costs extra (luckily the walk into town doubled as a workout) and that we had a fairly uninspiring rear view of a parking lot and strip mall (well, in New York that'd probably be another building's AC vent). On the positive side: outstanding buffet-style breakfast (totally worth it if included, not bad as an additional charge), uber-comfortable beds, thick walls and a helpful staff. All in all it's not a bad place, but if you're sinking a minimum of ISK 20,000 a night you'd be justified in hoping for more. Investigate other options unless you've either scored a great deal or have money (or a corporate expense account) to burn.

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· Hotel Nordica reviews [TripAdvisor]