SENSATIONAL

Saunas and chocolate

Whether you visit in summer or in the depths of winter, you can experience the urban sauna culture that has taken Oslo by storm. Get out your swimming gear and head to the promenade along the Oslo harbour for a oating sauna session followed by refreshing dips in the ord. Floating sauna operators include Kok Oslo. Finish o with a chocolate treat from Freia, located near Karl Johans Gate that inspired Norwegian-American author Roald Dahl’s book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. koknorge.no/kok-oslo/

Top Tips

Take a walking tour when you arrive to take in the main sights and buildings, get your bearings, and then decide where you would like to revisit.

Shop wisely because Oslo isn’t cheap. If you need to buy outdoor wear, you’ll find discount stores on the side streets around the main shopping area.

Try a classic Norwegian bun, Skolebolle, the Norwegian name for a type of sweet roll made from yeasted dough filled with custard and decorated with icing dipped in grated coconut. Wash it down with a co ee – the Norwegians know how to make a good one.

Considered as the place to stay, dine, relax and socialise in Oslo, this new five-star hotel, located in one of the city’s landmark buildings, is an urban retreat with a distinct design that pays homage to the Art Deco era e hotel features 231 rooms and suites, 56 branded residences, meeting and event spaces with a capacity for up to 150 people, a 100-seat gilded theatre, a wellness space and the city’s rst year-round roo op pool, sauna, and terrace.

Those in the know stay and play at Sommerro, a new luxury hotel in the heart of Frogner, in Oslo’s West End. Since the property opened its doors in early September last year, it’s become the place to dine and socialise in the neighbourhood, with every venue packed with visiting guests ‘in the know’, as well as discerning residents. Even royalty love Sommerro, with the Norwegian Crown Prince, whose residence is close by, o en spotted hanging out at the property at the weekend, blending in with high-society gatherings where glasses clink, people chatter excitedly and live music entertains guests enjoying the good life.

With seven restaurants and bars and a café, it’s more a dining destination than a hotel, particularly as it’s housed in a treasured landmark – the former headquarters of Oslo Lysverker, the city’s original electrical company. is heritage has been beautifully preserved and revived, with the building transformed into an Art Deco masterpiece. e attention to detail is incredible – even the font used for signage is Art Deco.

In true Norwegian style, it is cosy and not pretentious, prioritising comfort, quality, simplicity, sustainability and above all, the feel-good factor. Here are some of the other highlights of the hotel:

Bespoke architecture, design and artwork

Sommerro was designed as a community in its own right, which encompasses all aspects of its design. The hotel’s social spaces and six varied guest room categories, from snug Loft rooms to lavish Junior and Heritage suites, are embellished with opulent Art Deco details and lush textiles, including oak parquet flooring, custom-designed furnishings upholstered with 1930s Norwegian motifs, hand-knotted rugs, beds from innovative Swedish sleep brand Hilding Anders, and slick bathrooms with custom tiles. Rooms are practical too, featuring a handheld and rain shower – some have bathtubs – refillable glass water bottles, a steam press instead of an iron and an umbrella. Appealing to the GCC market there are plenty of suites with adjoining rooms.

A premier dining destination

Sommerro is home to the city’s only rooftop restaurant, Tak Oslo, a Nordic-Japanese venue by award-winning Swedish chef Frida Ronge featuring hyper-local, seasonal dishes using sustainable Norwegian produce and seafood. There are also outposts from local favourites Barramon, a Spanish tapas and wine bar, and Plah + Ahaan, one of the city’s most popular restaurants showcasing elevated cuisine by chef Terje Ommundsen. Ekspedisjonshallen, an all-day dining spot located in the former hall where the public once paid their electricity bills, comes to life with musical performances and a lively cocktail bar serving drinks inspired by the Roaring Twenties. Next door is the afternoon tea venue of Søstre where its tea is designed by British chef Jonathan Howell.

Need To Know

Sommerro is part of Nordic Hotels and Resorts, a collection of luxury properties, boutique hotels and conceptual resort destinations, as well as a member of Preferred Hotels and Resorts’ Legend Collection. Rates start from £215 per double room including breakfast. sommerrohouse.com

A wellness retreat with a difference

Vestkantbadet, one of Norway’s last remaining public baths from 1932, has been restored and reimagined as a subterranean urban wellness retreat. It features treatment rooms, original restored Roman baths, an infrared sauna, a gym, and a cold plunge pool offering a traditional Nordic thermotherapy experience. Sommerro is also reportedly the first hotel in the Nordics to offer specialist medical aesthetic treatments, along with a range of additional innovative therapies including laser therapy, Wim Hof-style cold water breathing technique sessions, nutritionist workshops, twoday electric sauna boat retreats on the fjord in partnership with Kok, masterclasses with a sleep expert, and a complimentary Why We Sleep book in the guestrooms.

Norway’s largest-ever preservation project

Sommerro has made a commitment to using quality green materials for products and services, sourcing sustainable seafood and local produce, and investing in relationships with some of Norway’s greenest businesses and creators. These include social entrepreneurship Sisters in Business which employs female immigrants who create textiles and repair broken items; sustainable footwear brand New Movements which provides shoes for all its staff as part of the uniform; and Røros Tweed which produces highquality wool products based on a centuries-old local crafts tradition. The hotel is powered by 100 per cent renewable energy, provides bikes for guests to rent, and offers EV parking with free charging – besides banning all plastic water bottles at the hotel.

Coming soon...

Sommerro will open Villa Inkognito, an 11-suite retreat, in March 2023, housed in a former private residence dating back to 1870. It will have its own private entrance and offer the option to be rented in its entirety.

Words April Hutchinson

THE MALDIVES

Iconic scenes of overwater villas, turquoise-hued horizons that never end, curvaceous white beaches, and an unbelievable underwater world that leaves you feeling like you’re part of a David Attenborough documentary are all part of the appeal of the Maldives, but there’s even more to this country if you scratch beneath the surface.

People have been settling in the Maldives for 2,500 years, particularly from the Indian subcontinent, and the Maldivian language of Dhivehi has its origins in Sanskrit.

The garlanded islands sit on vital trade routes, making them a natural stopover for those transiting the world’s oceans. This includes Abdul Barakat Yoosuf Al Barbary, who introduced Islam to the island nation in the 12th century, and whose tomb is a popular sightseeing spot in the small, densely-packed capital of Malé. As a Muslim country, the Friday Mosque in Malé is deemed the nation’s most important heritage site. It is one of the largest coral stone buildings in the world and has been in continuous use since 1658.

Over on the island of Kaashidhoo – about two hours from Malé by speed boat – one of the country’s largest archaeological sites reveals a Buddhist past, too. The excavated site of Kuruhinna Tharaagandu shows the ruins of an ancient Buddhist monastery complex, abandoned 900 years ago.

The place to tie everything together is the National Museum in Malé, built by China as a gift to the country. Among its treasures are examples of the lacquer-work boxes for which the Maldives is famous, along with the minutes of the famous underwater cabinet meeting held by President Nasheed in 2009 to highlight the issues of climate change and its impact on the country – some predict it may even disappear by 2050, given the islands’ low-lying nature, with around 80 per cent of the landmass less than one metre above sea level.

The archipelago sweeps down 750km of the Indian Ocean with 1,190 coral islands lying within 26 ring-like atolls. Maldives’ population nudges in at just under half a million, and a third of its people live in Malé, with the rest of the population living on 200 ‘inhabited’ or ‘local’ islands – so-called to distinguish them from the 100 islands which house resorts. Nowhere else does the