Sommarøy Arctic Hotel: What to Know Before You Book

First, the disclosure: we don’t sell hotel rooms. This is a guide, not a booking page — you’ll book the Sommarøy Arctic Hotel directly at sommaroy.no or through the usual hotel sites. What we can do is tell you what’s actually there, and how it fits into a Sommarøy trip.

The island’s only hotel

The Sommarøy Arctic Hotel is, by every account we’ve found, the only hotel on the island — which on an island of roughly 300 people, an hour’s drive west of Tromsø, is no surprise. That gives it an unusual role: it’s simultaneously the accommodation, the main restaurant, and the social hub for visitors. If you’re staying overnight on Sommarøy, this is almost certainly where.

The upside of that monopoly is location, not laziness: the property sits right on the water, with the beaches, the marina, and the bridge all within a short walk. Wake up here during the midnight sun window and the island’s best hours — the ones after the day-trippers leave — are yours by default.

Rooms, cabins, and fishermen’s cottages

Accommodation comes in several tiers: standard hotel rooms in the main building, plus seaside cabins, fishermen’s cottages, and apartments spread along the shoreline. The cabins and cottages are the memorable pick — the rorbu-style waterside sleep is the one people photograph — while hotel rooms keep things simpler and usually cheaper. Groups and families tend toward the apartments.

Food and the sauna situation

The hotel’s restaurant, Stornaustet, works from local sources — fish landed nearby, in season — and is open to everyone, not just hotel guests, daily from 12:00 to 21:00. That matters for day-trippers: it’s the island’s reliable proper meal.

Wellness is a genuine strength. There’s a sauna inside the hotel (free for guests, fitting around 15 people, with views over the lagoon), a jacuzzi, a wine lounge, and — the star — a seaside bath house near the lagoon with a hot tub and sauna for about a dozen people. Sauna-to-Arctic-sea plunge is the local ritual; our beaches guide covers just how cold that plunge is.

The day-tour connection

Here’s a data point from our own tour tracking: the top-rated Sommarøy day tour from Tromsø — 4.9★ across 509 reviews at around $277 — includes lunch at the Sommarøy Arctic Hotel, plus reindeer feeding on the route. So even if you never book a room, there’s a good chance the hotel is where you’ll eat if you visit on an organized trip. That tour is covered on our Sommarøy fjord tour page, with alternatives on the tours overview.

Should you stay overnight?

If your Tromsø itinerary allows it, yes — and not because we earn anything on it (we don’t). The bus timetable makes independent day trips awkward (details here), midnight sun and northern lights both reward being here late, and the island at 11 p.m. is a different place from the island at 2 p.m. A common pattern that works: arrive by rental car or tour, do the beaches and hikes, sauna, dinner at Stornaustet, and a shoreline walk under whatever light the season is serving.

Book direct or via the big hotel sites; compare both, as prices vary by season. Then build your day around the island — starting with the map.