Hotell Fangelset Vastervik

On my arrival in Västervik I discovered that this hotel was the former prison in Västervik. As I joked with the receptionist over the phone "I'm paying to stay in prison!". Still the room was comfortable if a bit on the small side. The breakfast was fine, could not be faulted. The location wa great, next to the train station and bus terminus and a few minutes walk from the water front and the centre of Västervik. One of the places that I visited in Västervik was the Slottsholmen Hotel, owned by Björn Ulvaeus of ABBA fame, he grew up in Västervik. I visited the Slottsholmen a couple of times for drinks but unfortunately did not get to meet Mr Ulvaeus.

We picked this place to stay primarily because it was an old jail. I think the experience differs widely depending on the room you select, ie: with a bathroom or not. We had a room with a bathroom and the set up was so "fun" with the one cell completely taken up by the bed and the bathroom in the adjoining half cell. The thick walls and iron doors and big locks are all there from the time it was a jail and there is a lot of prison information signs and pictures on the walls for effect. The included breakfast was quite nice with a good variety of items and everything fresh. We did have a little bit of a problem with our check-in. We knew we were arriving late, after their posted check-in time, and had told the hotel that. We expected to receive check-in instructions well before our arrival date, but we had not received anything and it was the day of our arrival. We tried to call them for most of the morning before our arrival and we could never get through. We contacted **********, who also tried to contact the hotel and they spent almost 30 minutes before finally finding a different number to use. Once we got in touch with the front desk person, we did get a text with the instructions for late check-in, but it was quite a bit of stress trying to get information that should have been sent without us having to track it down.