I stayed at the Thon Polar for three nights in June 2008. The first room we were given was tiny, cramped, badly in need of refurbishment and right opposite a building site ( part of the hotel is under renovation). I simply refused to accept the room as it bore no resemblance to the picture displayed on their website. After much arguing, we were given a different room in a completely different league. Essentially, half of the hotel has been renovated to a high standard for a budget hotel. The renovated rooms come complete with a good size bathroom and plasma TV. The other half of the hotel is stuck in a 1970's timewarp and is very down at heel. Norway is expensive; it is hard to find a decent hotel for less than ?150. We paid ?120 a night excluding breakfast which is good value compared with similar stays in other hotels. I'm not sure when renovation is scheduled to be finished but would recommend ensuring you're in the renovated part of the hotel.

Tromso, and Norway in general, are not cheap places to stay. I got my deal through expedia and paid ?50 per night for my 4 night stay which turned out to be a bargain - many others in the hotel paid a lot more. For that i got a budget hotel and a small but clean and functional room. I didn't expect much more. TV, small desk, sofa and tiled bathroom (with a reasonable shower). No room safe, tea/coffee facilities etc. I stayed on the second floor in the main building which did have wireless (?10 for 12 hours) - the annex and some rooms higher in the building do not have Wifi (or so i was told). There is a PC in the lobby but you still have to pay for internet access on it. The hotel is is a good position right by the town centre - everything is within easy walking distance. Turn right out of the hotel and 2 minutes walk down the street is Tromso library - a great place with free WiFi and PCs for you to use. Although i had a room looking onto the street, my room was quiet (although there was renovation work going on which meant the standard breakfast needed to be taken at another place nearby). There is a pub next to the hotel but there was no noise from it. Of course, there are far better hotels in Tromso (The Rica looks nice) but i preferred to save on the hotel costs so i could spend on other things....which in Norway cost much more than usual. If this is your plan, I would recommend the Thon Hotel - its cheap and well positioned, but not luxurious by any means.

We stayed here for 3 nights and found it to be very reasonable. Everything is expensive in Norway when compared to English prices, but the Thon was clean, the staff very helpful and friendly and the buffet breakfast excellent. The rooms are pretty small (we stayed in the annex across the road) but have a good shower and are lovely and warm. The hotel is within a 5 minute walk of the town centre and the airport bus stops within a 30 second walk of the hotel reception. As a base to explore Tromso, rather than spend all your time in your room, I would recommend the Hotel Thon.

smelly , mould on the walls , very cramped , buffet breakfast good , could not get past the chair in the bedroom to get to the bed without climbing over it , reception booked me on a wrong trip which cost me ?240 instead of ?92 and offered no refund after numerous attempts , would not go to the place again .

One thing we've noticed about other reviews here is that most people fail to realise is that Norway is EXPENSIVE. The "Thon" Hotel chain (formerly "Rainbow" if you try to look for it in some Sat Nav systems) offers excellent value for money in Norway with their "Budget" range of hotels. We thought the hotel was superbly located in Tromsø. You can get around very easily on foot. The excellent "Flybus" service drops you off from the airport just round the corner at the Grand Nordic Hotel. This costs around £4 and takes under 30 minutes. We were here mainly for the Dognvil Festival with top headline act "a-ha". A good point to make about Norway is that the prices, although very expensive for tourists, seem consistent. In other words, once you're in a "trapped environment" such as a sports stadium or boat trip, the prices are roughly similar - in some cases cheaper - than on the high street (if only BAA were this honest!) Breakfasts featured a good range of items. I got quite addicted to the Goats Cheese! The bedroom was a good size, but bafflingly, as the one place in the world that would benefit from "blackout" curtains during the summer months, the room didn't have any! You will almost certainly be woken by the sunlight around 4am as a result. The street outside can also get quite noisy on Friday and Saturday nights, so you could end up with very little sleep if you're not careful. The people of Tromsø are great, very friendly and speak embarrassingly good English. If you are a beer lover then this place is heaven. Although it's very expensive, Mack (pronounced "Muck") beer is to die for. Unfortunately the brewery tours are quite limited, so check beforehand if this is on your must-see list. One of the best pubs is "Tromsø Railway Station". It's not a real railway station,as Narvik is about as far north as you can go in Norway via rail, but the pub is a great tribute to the magic of rail journeys. We loved "Polaria" with its cute seal shows and the Polar Museum was a treasure trove if you want to know more about the brave Arctic explorers. We ate at "Emma's Drømmekjøkke" (Emma's Dream Kitchen) restaurant, which had reasonably priced food a short walk from the hotel. There was also an outstanding baked potato and baguette food outlet, but unfortunately we can't remember its name. You should have no trouble finding it though, as Tromsø is quite small. Highlight of the trip was being lucky enough to go whale watching. Due to the poor weather, we managed to get on the only trip for that week. Our guide was great and explained everything to us in great detail. The boat was a modern catamaran with good on-board facilities and a little snack shop. However, you are taken out into the bumpy North Atlantic Ocean, so keep a sick bag to hand and spend £1 on a sea sickness tablet from the shop. Much to our surprise we saw some whales close-up! It cost around £70 per person, but it was worth every penny and we hoped sent a good message to the Norwegian Government that the killing of these graceful creatures is totally unacceptable.