I Stay In The Most Northern Hotel In The WORLD! - Near The North Pole

Even outside the airport there is a warning sign. Look, the polar bears. I'm about to stay in the most northern hotel in the world, located on an island close to the North Pole. But to get there there's no direct flights from the UK, so last night I flew in from London Stansted to Stockholm. I've got a layover of around about seven hours, which is not overly that great because once you come off the aircraft, go through security and then by the time you've got to come back to the airport you've probably got about four hours, if you're lucky, at a hotel. So next I'm boarding an hour flight to Oslo and then from Oslo I've got another two hour wait until I get another flight to Trosmo in Norway, and that flight is around about two hours. And then I've got another hour wait until I get my flight to Svalbard, which will then take another hour and 45 minutes. I've just got myself a morning coffee. The time right now is five, the flight goes at six. I'll tell you what, if you've never flown from Stockholm and Aleander airport, this place is absolutely huge. I'm in terminal five at the minute, but just to get from one side of the terminal to the other has taken me around about 30 minutes walking, it's crazy. Obviously in these situations traveling light is the best option, and to save a little bit money I'm just going with a backpack. Do you know what, it's actually amazing how much you can fit in these bags. I'm only there for a couple of days, obviously wearing my warm coat which helps. Thank you. So I've got a two hour wait so I thought I'd get myself some breakfast before we head on the next flight. Something they love in Norway is their dried fish, quite sure about that. Look at that, Jamie's Italian. It might have shut down in the UK but I've seen it in other places around the world, in Dubai and here at Oslo airport. That is one long big departure board. How are you supposed to see the ones right at the top? I've got to go through here, scan the boarding pass, and I thought Stockholm airport was big. It's taken me about 20 minutes to walk to this gate, escalator in the middle of the walkway. I actually thought that I might have to change again but it looks like this diverts via Trosmo so I'm not sure whether I get off the plane, stay on the plane. I can't say I've ever done a flight before that goes via somewhere else like a bus. Last time I'm going to see daylight for a few days, obviously this time of year that far north it is dark pretty much all day. They have something called polar night which apparently is very pretty. Hopefully it'll be clear, we can see the northern light even during the day. Good morning ladies and gentlemen, very welcome on board to Scandinavian Airlines and Star Alliance in this flight bound for Södertälje and onwards to Spitsbergen, and finally I'd like to wish everyone a pleasant flight. Okay, yes, just straight forward over there. Okay thank you. Yeah in the middle of a snowstorm. So we are actually going on this aircraft but we've got to get off and wait 40 minutes. We've got to clear the runway again and then we'll get back on. This way, that snow's really coming down. That was quite a scary landing actually in that snow. Literally I've never touched down in a So currently just waiting in here to go back on the plane. The only thing food and drink wise is this vending machine. I don't know if I was reading that machine right but that said 35 euros for a Snickers bar. I hope that's Swedish Kroners. It's funny if we're in the UK right now all the airports would be closed, wouldn't they? Back on the aircraft we go. So it is only one 45 minutes left to go. Last little bit of daylight I'm going to see for the next two days. From the flight deck, I heard you got informed from the purser. We are de-icing the aircraft before our departure and we do that right after arrival because we have a lot of very cold fuel in the wings and this is because Longyearbyen is quite isolated and we therefore need much cold fuel in our wings. This will only take another couple of minutes and then you'll be able to disembark. We thank you for your patience. Well we are the only aircraft on the runway. Hi. First thing that greets you is a polar bear. Tell me that's not a stuffed polar bear. But it doesn't seem as cold or as snowy as Oslo which I guess is a good thing so now I've got to try and find a taxi to make my way to this hotel. I can't see any taxis. This is so slippy though. I said it didn't feel as cold. I was wrong. The windchill is really really cold. Even outside the airport there is a warning sign. Look, the polar bears. Thanks Mr. Bus Driver. I don't know whether you can see those mountains. I don't know if the camera picks it up but they are overpowering over on that side and on that side. They look like they almost protect the town. So this is the main town of Longyearbyen and it stretches all the way down to where my hotel is but down here there's restaurants, there's hospitals, there's schools, there's shops. There is everything you could possibly want from a small little town. Now it's customary here in Longyearbyen to take your shoes off before you go in anywhere so that includes a restaurant, a hotel, a food place or somebody's house. So we must remember to take our shoes off. Let's go have a walk down. Try not to slip everywhere. There's a hotel just over there. There's another tiny little hotel there that looks pretty cute. There are a few nice restaurants in Longyearbyen as well I've heard about but they're all really cozy inside as well with all the little lights in the windows and the Christmas trees on. This is just sheer ice that I'm walking on. In fact some of these shops wouldn't look out of place in Canada actually. There's a polar bear out there. A little gift shop. They also have their own shopping mall. Now I can walk in here with my shoes on. These grates are to collect all the snow and ice. No guns allowed. Loads of little boutique shops in here. They've even got their own version of Starbucks kind of. I noticed that these are little gingerbread houses that people have been making. Look at that. Smells amazing. So they've got a school. They've got a library down here as well. I think that's the school. I think the library's just on the left hand side. Well we're getting closer to my hotel but before we get there I thought I'd tell you some interesting Svalbard facts. Located 74 to 82 degrees north you can expect 24 hours of darkness in the winter and 24 hours of daylight in the summer known as the midnight sun. Svalbard is home to over two and a half thousand people but amazingly polar bears outnumber people. Being the world's most northernmost town there is the most northernmost liquor store, supermarket, cinema, library and kebab van on earth. Svalbard is actually classified as a desert. The air is almost as dry as it would be in a hot desert. There's also no trees that grow here. During polar night you can see the northern lights at any time during the day. You're not actually allowed to die in Svalbard because of the permafrost. No one can actually be buried here and you cannot give birth either. In the event of a global catastrophe Longyearbyen is home to the global seed vault. Almost 1 million of seed samples from all over the world are stored here. Residents of Longyearbyen are not permitted to bring any cats with them to the island. The harsh law is necessary and strictly enforced to protect the local fauna and safeguard the local bird life. Scientists also reckon that this part of the arctic is warming seven times faster than anywhere else on the globe. There is even a co-op. This supermarket is absolutely huge. I mean there's over 2,000 people or maybe 3,000 now living on Svalbard and this is I think the major supermarket but it is just ridiculously big. I mean you can get everything in here. What is that? That looks tasty and festive. Even here in the arctic you can get prime. We got prime boys. Bearing in mind nothing grows here so it all has to be imported including flowers. Lonely little Christmas tree. And here it is behind me the most northern hotel in the world. It's the Radisson Blu Polar Bear Spitsberg and it's literally right on the edge of town. Let's go check in. So they've got a restaurant and they've got a pub in here. Looking forward to this. Let's hope it's nice and warm in there. So the pub's on the right. Reception's in there but I've got to go in here and of course take my shoes off and you put them in an empty hole and you can leave your coats here as well. Hello, just checking in please. My room is 2-3. 2-3 down here. A bit clinical. And here's my room. This is actually my first experience staying in a Radisson Blu. This is very cosy indeed. I like it a lot. Really warm. So I'm going to take the coat off and we'll give you the room tour. So the room rate does include breakfast which is great. There's a pub here and a restaurant as well. But it's not very often I come into a hotel room and say this feels really cosy but the lighting in here is really subtle. There's no big bright lights. It's all kind of lamps and again it's the Swedish Norwegians. They just they love lamps. It's one of my favourite things to make the room. A room is not cosy until you've got a lamp in it right. So having them in your hotel room is definitely a must. Coming in. Got a nice luggage area. Hey, I've even got some Radisson Blu slippers. I haven't got a robe though. I don't think they do robes. Huge big mirror as you walk in as well. Nice big TV. Nice luggage rack. There's a nice little desk over here. Welcome to the wilderness. You're now on Svalbard. The ultimate destination for Northern Lights spotting. Situated just 1300 kilometres from the North Pole. It's the closest I've ever been to the North Pole. They also have excursions here too. What's quite nice is that they're embedded in the desk. Quite a nice idea. Nice chair. So even if you did want to do a little bit of work, you've got a nice desk here. And a very nice comfy chair. A nice place to relax. Maybe read a book. What's the view outside? Obviously I can, well you can't see anything because it's dark but you can see the town in the distance. So the tea and coffee facilities on this nice little leather tray. Very nice. Tea, coffee, Earl Grey in there. Love those cups and a nice little kettle too. Check out the headboard. Suede. That is really nice. Complemented by the light and even the little side tables. A couple of USB charges. Nice little bit of historic information about Svalbard. Let's do the all-important bed test. Oh that is comfy. There's one thing about the beds that I've stayed in in Sweden and in Norway. They are always so comfortable. The night sleeps in them are always amazing. And they are quite different because as you lift them up you have your duvet always folded and then you have your mattress which is very thin but then the rest of the bed is on a big squishy kind of mattress-y type thing anyway. So it's ultra soft and one of the best things about it is that when I'm checking for bb's it's not so difficult to check what lies behind the door. The bathroom. A basic bathroom. Oh very warm in here. Underfloor heating. Nice. Pretty basic though. Arctic Pure hand wash. And they do have a pretty big bath stroke shower. Although the shower head's quite small. I'm not going to complain because I'm definitely looking forward to having a bath. Bathtub. Not too bad. A couple of towels. Fairly rough towels actually. I've got a hairdryer in here. Some cups. Drinking water in Svalbard is perfectly fine for you to drink. In fact it's some of the best freshest water you can probably drink. Tissues there. And there's the loo. So being my first time in the Radisson Bleu just let me know in the comments if this bathroom is standard. Probably not because we're in Svalbard but I'm not sure. I do love the bedroom however. So they've got a restaurant and a pub that I can go in and get dinner. So I'm going to get washed up and we'll go for some food. So the hotel is in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the most northern hotel in the world but it also holds the accolade of having the northernmost pub in the world. So I thought well it'd be rude not to come in here and have a drink. Maybe I should have had a beer really but the wine's good. I mean there's not many pubs where you could walk outside and possibly see a polar bear unless you're really drunk. Anyway I thought I'd try the pub grub as well. There is a restaurant here but I'm going to use that for breakfast in the morning. By the way if you are liking the video I would appreciate the thumbs up and it helps me out more than you know if you hit that subscribe button. Only 69 percent of you that watch the videos are subscribed so make sure you hit that subscribe button. It is free. They actually do fish and chips here. I know I could have done a fish and chip review in the arctic. I didn't think about that to be honest. I should have done however I've gone for a burger. Let's give it a try. I did ask. It's definitely not reindeer. This is the mayonnaise in a tube. They didn't ask me whether I wanted it cooked rare or medium so is it a good burger? It's starting to be good burgers when they ask you right. If you want to cook those burgers where water has been added to it and onion so it's very watery. So in reception there is a real stuffed polar bear and before you say anything polar bears in the arctic are only to be killed because of self-defense. In fact this particular polar bear was shot due to illness. It was later shown that the bear had been suffering from trichleosis an illness caused by parasitic worms. So I'm just literally walking on the streets and there is a reindeer just walked into town crossing the road. I've got a car. Oh he's running away. No he's not. This is amazing. This is a wild reindeer that's just walked into town. I don't want to go too close. This is what's crazy. Reindeer obviously just walk into town. It's their natural habitat but so can polar bears so I just pray that I don't see a polar bear. The last time they were seen in Lonjabin was years ago but never say never. Gotta keep your wits about you I guess. Well I'll tell you what that was an experience eating dinner in my socks but it was great to be in the most northern pub in the world staying in the most northern hotel in the world and tomorrow morning I'm going to have the most northern breakfast that you can have. Well not necessarily officially unless you're probably an adventurer or an explorer but in a fully serviced hotel anyway. I'm going to enjoy this hot chocolate that I've actually just made and hopefully have a long winter's nap and I'll see you in the morning for breakfast. Although you won't see that it's morning because it'll still be dark. Morning. Cheese and cold meat. I've got plenty of fried eggs which is good. I've got potatoes. That was a good choice for breakfast. I decided to go for something quite light though, some cookies and some toast with a nice cup of tea. Very quiet in here though. I couldn't really talk whilst I was having my breakfast but I thought I'd finish my cup of tea at the bar. Mr Polar Bear here. So it's polar night, dark all day. What is there to do? They have a sauna and a jacuzzi here which you have to book and it apparently is private. I booked it for one o'clock this afternoon so I may relax in my room a little bit and then I'll go and enjoy the jacuzzi outside and hopefully if we're lucky we might be able to get to see some northern lights too. Do you reckon Mr Polar Bear? I think Casper would love one of these for Christmas. I'm not quite sure how I'm gonna get it in my backpack though. Do you reckon Ryanair will let me carry it on the plane? No. So here is the sauna and the hot tub. So the sauna is in here. No one else is in here at the minute. Oh that's toasty. It's nice they've got showers. Got towels here as well which is quite nice. Let's have a look. This is outside. Wow it's cold. Look at these hot tubs. Let's feel the temperature. That is nice and warm. Oh that is so nice. My hot tub in Lapland wasn't this big. I don't think I've been in a hot tub this big ever. Yeah you can comfortably fit one, two, three, four, what about eight people in here. I'm enjoying the fact that it's just me. So you do have to pre-book these but it's up to eight people so there may be more people coming so I better film this quickly but there's two big hot tubs. Water temperature is 38 degrees. I've just turned it up to 40 just because I want a little bit more warmth but it's not completely outside. It is covered a little bit and you don't have to pay any extra for this. This is included in your hotel price which you don't get very often do you in other hotels. The only downside is that they don't give you any robes or I didn't have any robes in my room so I had to get changed in there and there was nowhere really to put my clothes so I kind of just had to put them on a chair and then walk out here. I've brought my towels out obviously to go back in. So the hotel costs 146 pounds to spend the night here. That also includes breakfast and the complimentary access into the sauna and the jacuzzi. It's in a remote location. If I'm ever back in Svalbard this will be one of my first stops although there is a five-star hotel here in Svalbard which I definitely need to go and check out. Click the video here you will be utterly amazed. That's where I'm heading to next. Make sure you give the video a thumbs up. I'll see you next time.