Scan Magazine | Hotel of the Month | Norway
Every winter, people from across the world travel to Geilo in Norway to experience a traditional Christmas in historical surroundings at Dr. Holms Hotel. As a pleasant bonus, they can treat themselves to a much-needed break in the hotel spa.
Hotel of the Month, Norway
Landing in the mountains More than a century after its opening, Dr. Holms Hotel at Geilo remains a sanctuary of recreation and tradition. If clean Norwegian mountain air and accessible snowcovered nature drew you out of the city, the hotel’s 1,000-square-metre Elemis Spa will tempt you to return time and time again. By Eirik Elvevold | Photos: Terje Bjørnsen
Right between Oslo and Bergen, at the foot of two national parks, lies Geilo. The mountain village of only a few thousand inhabitants, ranked among Norway’s top five ski destinations, is blessed with beautiful nature and pure air, two appealing factors that once led lung specialist Dr. Ingebrikt Christian Holm to choose Geilo for his sanatorium. Dr. Holm’s sanatorium later went on to become one of Geilo’s finest hotels, distinguished by membership in the Norwegian organisation Historic Hotels. “Dr. Holms Hotel is not just another boring beige hotel in glass and steel. On the 120 | Issue 93 | October 2016
outside, it’s a large, monumental, white building. Inside is an institution with a lot of tradition and history in its walls. Some people are overwhelmed by the size of the place, the manorial atmosphere and the large furnaces keeping us warm. It’s a great responsibility to take care of a place like this, and we’re working all day to meet our guests’ expectations,” says director Gro Odden. The hotel was originally constructed in the early 20th century. Back then, patients went to Geilo for a quick recovery, but many did not want to leave their families behind, so they needed somewhere
to sleep. A century later, the grandiose hotel’s historic wing is full of rooms once designed for the newly arrived families. Together with the more streamlined modern wing, built in the 1980s, it can house more than 200 guests, many of them returning to Geilo from Britain, Germany or the Netherlands. Needless to say, comfortable beds are not the only attraction.
Healing in the heights Dr. Holms Hotel is still a place for healing both the body and soul. As a guest, you will have easy and immediate access to hiking paths, the two national parks Hardangervidda and Hallingskarvet, and a wide network of ski slopes and tracks. The hotel also offers a 1,000-squaremetre spa area, designed to bring guests down to earth in the middle of a hectic life. The hotel’s geographic location and huge spaces make it ideal for individuals, couples, groups and businesses seeking