A hotel is rarely just a place to lay your head for the night. In Bergen, the city between the seven mountains, some buildings tell stories that stretch back a hundred years, through merchants, polar explorers, writers, and families who built the city stone by stone. At De Bergenske, you don't just stay in a hotel room. You stay within a chapter of Bergen's long history.

The Smørås family has run hotels and restaurants in Bergen city centre for over a hundred years, and across three generations they have collected more than beautiful hotels. They have collected stories. About a polar hero who held his final press conference in a bar before vanishing into the ice. About a merchant who gave his name to an entire street. Or a home for the elderly that became one of the city's finest boutique hotels.

Bergen Børs Hotel: Named One of the World's Most Beautiful

In the basement of Bergen Børs opened what is considered Bergen's very first restaurant, long before the concept was common in this west-coast city. Today, the historic stock exchange building has been transformed into one of the city's most exclusive hotels, with 127 rooms and suites overlooking Bryggen, the Fish Market, Skansen, or Fløyen.

The culinary heritage lives on in fine form in Frescohallen, named one of the world's most beautiful rooms, with the famous frescoes by Axel Revold on its walls.

In the same building you'll also find the tapas bar Fresquito and the exclusive Speilbaren. Bergen's place in UNESCO's City of Gastronomy network is perhaps felt most strongly right here.

"Our food philosophy today is all about our fantastic local ingredients. They represent our very identity," says Kjetil Smørås.

Bergen Børs Hotel is the place for those who want to experience history, luxury, and gastronomy all in one, right in the heart of Bergen city centre.

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Skostredet Hotel & Spa: Wellness in the City's Historic Heart

The newest addition to the family sits in Skostredet, Bergen's historic and lively bar-and-restaurant district full of small cafés and niche shops — but the focus here is entirely different from its older siblings: calm and wellbeing. Skostredet Hotel & Spa is a five-star spa hotel built from natural materials, with natural light and an overall sense of wellness. Inside the spa await a sauna, a snow room, and treatment rituals for those who want to switch off completely.

Behind its doors you'll find the intimate Michelin restaurant Omakase by Sergey Pak and the lively Izakaya, recognised by the Michelin Guide. Here, Japanese craftsmanship meets west-coast Norwegian ingredients in a menu philosophy where the chef sets the course, and the guest simply surrenders to it.

Skostredet Hotel & Spa is the hotel for anyone looking for a spa hotel in Bergen who wants to breathe deeper and live a little slower, even in the middle of Bergen's most vibrant streets.

Skostredet Hotel & Spa — a modern boutique hotel built to last forever

Grand Hotel Terminus: Where the Polar Explorer Was Last Seen

Ahead of the 1928 National Exhibition in Bergen, the city finally got its own Grand Hotel, and it quickly lived up to the name. For many years this was Bergen's most luxurious place to stay, and in 2012 the building was granted protected status by the Directorate for Cultural Heritage as an outstanding example of modernist hotel architecture from the last century. The hotel sits right next to Bergen railway station, convenient for those arriving by the Bergen Line train or the airport bus from Bergen Airport Flesland.

But it's in the whisky bar, today known as Amundsen Bar & Bistro , that the hotel's most dramatic story unfolds. On 17 June 1928, polar hero Roald Amundsen sat down here to be photographed and interviewed by the newspaper Bergens Tidende, before setting off to join the rescue mission for the Italian polar explorer Umberto Nobile. It would turn out to be his very last public appearance. The next day, Amundsen vanished without a trace between Tromsø and Svalbard.

Today the bar is known for one of the country's finest whisky collections, and for a time when great adventures could still begin with a cup of coffee in the centre of Bergen. It is one of Bergen's best-preserved classical rooms, protected for its well-preserved expression of Bergen classicism.

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Villa Terminus: An Intimate and Exclusive Boutique Hotel

Next door to Grand Hotel Terminus lies Villa Terminus, a small and exclusive boutique hotel with just eighteen rooms, each named after well-known authors. The story behind the building is one of care. It was originally the home of the Zander Kaae Foundation, a residence for the city's elderly, established in the name of the Bergen merchant and philanthropist Alexander "Zander" Kaae (1712–1765).

Today that same sense of care lives on, just in a different form: through personal service, exclusive architecture, and an atmosphere that makes your shoulders drop the moment you step through the door. Villa Terminus is the hotel for those wanting a calm, romantic stay in the centre of Bergen. It is perfect for a weekend for two, without giving up closeness to the city's pulse.

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Zander K Hotel: Modern, Central, and Urban

Just a stone's throw from Villa Terminus lies Zander K Hotel, named, naturally, after the same Zander Kaae. Though the building itself is brand new, it carries the cultural history forward. Kaae was known in his time as a generous philanthropist, and on Zander Kaaes gate today, old and new, modern and venerable, come together in a way that is typical of De Bergenske.

The hotel has an urban, lively atmosphere, with Matbaren serving dishes made from local and organic ingredients, and a bar where history can still be sensed among walls of glass and steel. From Zander K, most things are within walking distance: the shopping streets around Torgallmenningen, the Bergen Storsenter shopping centre right across the street. If you want to go higher, the Ulriken cable car takes you up Ulriken, the tallest of the mountains surrounding the city.

Zander K — a green and urban choice

Heimen Hotel: Welcoming Guests Since 1918

The oldest part of the building on C. Sundts gate was built in 1916, and two years later its doors opened as what was then called Hordaheimen. For more than one hundred years the hotel has welcomed guests from all across Hordaland, and eventually from all over the world.

When the hotel was set to reopen after extensive renovation, the idea for its new name came from an unexpected source: the author Jon Fosse, Nobel laureate in literature and a loyal guest for many years.

"Fosse has also had karbonade with fried onions at the hotel," says hotel director Kjetil Smørås with a smile.

Heimen Hotel is, quite literally, a home, for both guests and staff alike: a place with a lot of history in its walls, and a warm welcome for business travellers, families, and youth sports teams on tour. The location is among the city's best: within a few minutes' walk you can reach Bryggen, with its wooden buildings on the UNESCO World Heritage list, or the Fish Market and the Fløibanen funicular, which takes you up Fløyen for a view over the whole city.

Heimen Hotel — check in to Bergen's cosiest hotel

Practical Info: How to Get to the Hotels

All six hotels are located in Bergen city centre. From Bergen Airport Flesland, the Bybanen light rail or the airport bus will take you into the centre in around 30–45 minutes, and Grand Hotel Terminus, Villa Terminus, and Zander K sit right by Bergen railway and bus station. If you're after something more exclusive, the hotels are happy to help arrange a private driver, or plan fjord cruises and experiences around the city.

One Family, Six Stories, One City

What ties the six hotels together isn't the architecture, the price range, or the location alone. It's a family that, for over a hundred years, has looked after Bergen's history and turned it into something you can live in, dine in, and experience. Whether you're drawn to Heimen's warmth, Grand Hotel Terminus's grand past, Villa Terminus's discreet exclusivity, Zander K's urban pulse, Bergen Børs's classic luxury, or Skostredet's Nordic calm — wherever you stay, you'll always find a story worth telling.

"Welcome home to De Bergenske", Kjetil Smørås, Director.