Vatnahalsen Høyfjellshotell

The hotel itself and majestic surroundings are reason enough to visit Vatnahalsen, and the food - including daily afternoon waffles with thick cream and berry jam - is enough to keep you coming back. What really makes the hotel so special, though, is the hard-working, super-friendly staff. There doesn’t seem to be any need or want they have not anticipated or are willing to fulfil. Absolute gem of a place, can’t recommend it warmly enough!

It's a quaint inaccessible place with dark corridors, visible plumbing and rooms that needed a makeover long, long ago. It is only reachable by using the expensive Flåm Railway, or walking or riding 20 kilometres. It was originally built as a sanatorium in 1896, but it was never used for its intended purpose. Instead, it became popular as a hotel because of the Bergen Railway. After the Bergen Railway was opened in 1909, and especially after the Flåm Railway was connected with the Bergen Railway in 1940 it became a go to destination but times, tastes and fortune change. My first impression; I thought I was in an old folks home. It's on different floor levels within so one goes up/down a few steps to get to different rooms. It's not for wheelchair users. We arrived here without any welcome as 'cash cows'. We were part of the Flåm £15O a head railway trip off as guests of Norwegian Prima. Our train guide walked us up a slope from the station, in the rain, into the hotel, on a wet dank afternoon, only to tell us to go down two floors inside, for rather poor - tasting filtered cool coffee that sat on the tables in flasks. As we were cash cows other cash cows who were there from an earlier Flam train trip had blocked the narrow hallway which was annoying given the cold rain and wind as we were held outside jostling to get in. As we were a crowd we were put in an ugly nondescript room packed tight with fellow travellers. It resembled a school assembly hall with a public sector school dinner approach. So once we got into the downstairs room allocated for us we poured flasked coffee into tiny hotel style cold cups ending up with lukewarm lousy coffee which is unpleasant. If the (cold, limp, thin) waffles that sat plated on a top table were loving made fresh by the hotel's chef, from the finest flour, mountain butter and cream, treacly cane sugar from Mauritius and fresh free range double yolked XL eggs from happy chickens living their best life on a mountain side then sadly it isn't working as these potentially microwaved limp offerings had all the hallmarks of vegetable oil and powdered egg factory manufacturing. The raspberry jam (I expected cloudberry) and runny sour cream helped but honestly if you were served this stuff in a local cafe you'd be reluctant to pay and you wouldn't return. Given it's a £150 a head they have a cheek serving this rubbish. Having loitered here two hours and looked around the hotel and its surroundings to relieve boredom I was glad ours was a brief visit. If the food served to guests is anything like the poor quality we got it has little going for it except the location. We have no desire to return.