From: nkjrm@taxus.uib.no (Rolf Manne)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Re: Inexpensive Accomodations/Sweden
Summary: hostels or cheap (nice) hotels
Keywords: Norkoping, Sweden or Stockholm
Date: 30 Dec 92 12:59:17 GMT
Organization: University of Bergen

In article <1992Dec23.164046.3672@news.media.mit.edu> mjb@media.mit.edu (Molly Bancroft) writes:

>Hi Everyone,
>My mom is going to a week-long conference in Sweden in
>January and is looking for ideas on accomodations that
>are less expensive than the $150-$200 hotel rooms.

>The conference is in Norkoping, but she is willing to
>stay outside the city, as far as Stockholm and find
>transportation in.  Any ideas I'd appreciate greatly...

>thanks,
>molly

Noone in Sweden has so far bothered to answer this message. Being a
Swede living in Norway I think that it is a question of the kind that
netters should try to answer. Therefore I give it a try, however imperfect.

I am sure that there is cheaper accomodation available in Norrkoeping 
than a $150 hotel room. 

1. Hotels which don't have a restaurant, are slightly inconveniently
located or are somewhat old, are likely to be cheaper. There are old
hotels with rooms without private bath which are a bit cheaper. 

2. Really cheap but perfectly respectable accomodation for an adult woman 
travelling alone is provided by Svenska Turistfoereningen's (Swedish Tourist 
Association) "vandrarhem" (means literally hiker's homes, used to be called 
youth hostels). These hostels provide beds in rooms with 2-6 bunk beds. If it
is full one has to share room with strangers but it is hardly full in
January. Some of these places are open all year, others close in winter.
- My wife and I travelling together with my mother who is 80, stayed at one
in Denmark around Easter last year. We got 2 rooms, one for us and one for
my mother. Other guests were mainly families with young children.

3. A "big" city like Norrkoeping (when I was a kid it was the 4th biggest
in Sweden) is likely to have a Tourist Information Office, in Swedish
"Turistinformation" which would be open some hours a day even off season.
I don't have access to the local phone book so I cannot help more. They
would give information about the various options available including 
staying in pensions or private homes "bed and breakfast". Some of these
options are available first at the site, so the important thing for your
mother is to have accomodation for the first night, possibly at a higher
rate.

There are few motels in Scandinavia of the type you find in the United 
States. Renting a car is likely to cost more than in the U.S. Renting a
car in order to be able to use cheaper accomodation would not pay. Remember
also that in Scandinavia days are short this time of the year and that
driving may occasionally be difficult because of snow. Staying
in Stockholm or even in Linkoeping (closest city of any size) for a 
conference in Norrkoeping sounds quite inconvenient to me. Within Norrkoeping
there is likely to be a good bus service. - Are the yellow street-cars still
running in Norrkoeping??

One possible obstacle: There has been a large influx of refugees from
former Yugoslavia to Sweden. I know that the kind of accomodation that
your mother is looking for is also used by the immigration authorities for
these people. This might make it scarce.

Rolf Manne
Department of Chemistry, University of Bergen, Norway
e-mail Rolf.Manne@uib.no
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic