Rapid Travel Chai

Nordic Choice Hotels is a separate beast from Choice Hotels familiar elsewhere. They have their own loyalty program and recently award redemptions from regular Choice Privileges disappeared, then reappeared. See sidebar at bottom for a warning on point earning.

I recently stayed at my first, the Clarion Collection Hotel With in Tromsø, Norway. I thought the name was a typo, however it is named after a ship captain named With.

I picked it because it was the same points price as other properties in Tromsø, yet boasted a free evening meal.

I then looked around, and from what I can see, all Nordic Choice Clarion Collection hotels offer free breakfast and evening meal. They have 49 properties in Norway and Sweden, plus one in Latvia, see them all here.

I thought I missed my chance to try the meal in Tromsø as my inbound flight was delayed and had to run straight to my Northern Lights tour. By the way, standing still in frigid cold for hours waiting for something to happen, on an empty stomach, is not as fun as I expected.

I arrived to the hotel at nearly 3 am. The woman at reception was greatly friendly and, to my surprise, offered to reheat the evening meal for me. It was a simple plate of sausages and potatoes that hit the spot. I had to leave 2 hours later for my flight so did not see breakfast.

The hotel is modern with great common spaces and nice touches in the rooms such as armchair and blanket for winter reading. I was given a candy welcome amenity for my Choice Privileges status.

Dining in Scandinavia is pricey and, set aside trendy new Nordic mega-expensive restaurants, the average busy traveler encounters lots of overpriced pizza places and middling Asian food, so having this benefit is a treat.

This is especially good for families saving the trouble and cost of two meals a day.

Readers, have you tried the evening meals at any Nordic Clarion Collection hotels? Do they do this at any other hotels or countries?

(Sidebar: unfortunately, Choice Privileges members do not earn points at the Nordic hotels, indeed all Choice hotels in the following countries are excluded from point earning: Brazil, China, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, India, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden. Those with paid stays should register with Nordic Choice Club and read Loyalty Traveler’s guide to the program.)