Elite Plaza Hotel Goteborg

Think of a Scandinavian design hotel and what probably comes to mind is an impossibly hip little boutique, decorated like some design academy's furniture competition. A stereotype, to be sure, but no less apt than that of (most) Parisian hotels as museums dedicated to the preservation of pompous fabrics.

Elite Plaza Hotel, then, is a departure from the stereotype. Located in an authentic New Renaissance office building from the 1880's, the hotel is designed in a somewhat classical style. Columns, archways, and expanses of granite and marble are among the elements that lend to Elite Plaza's dignified look.

This is, after all, Gothenburg, Sweden's second city, and such a style is perhaps more at home here than in design-forward Stockholm. The hotel is located right in the city center, with a wealth of shopping at hand, and within walking distance of the Opera House and exhibition center. The central station, as well as Scandinavium Arena, are also nearby.

The guest rooms themselves are decorated in a classic style, some featuring canopy beds, all a bit more lush that the stark minimalism one may have come to expect from Scandinavian designers. All modern conveniences are available, though, from in-room modem connections to conference facilities, and the efficient-sounding Leisure Department offers in-house sauna and gym. The Svea Hof is a first-class restaurant in an outdoor covered yard (hence the hof) and serves a variety of seafood-centric dishes, from classic to modern.


The English-style cellar pub, with its 50 brands of beer and whiskey, is more a cozy armchair sort of place (with a Queen Elizabeth portrait) than the ultra-trendy opium den atmosphere a more painfully hip hotel might aspire to. Then again, this is no Studio 54 - the building's original tenants, after all, were the Svea Fire & Life Insurance company. Sensible folk, most likely - and this is a sensible city, a city of culture and history.