Stracta Hotel Hella (Iceland)

Stracta Hotel Hella

186.50 EUR

3.9

Rating

3.9/5

Flyctory.com Pros

Very good location
Nice services (hot tub, saunas)
Very good breakfast

Flyctory.com Cons

Parking rather large, but still too small
WiFi too weak
Room rather small

The pictures already suggest it: this hotel review is in fact not based on a recent stay. My wife and I had a lovely trip following the Icelandic Ring Road in April/May 2023 (there was still snow…). The first night we had was at the Stacta Hotel Hella. As we knew the Golden Circle and Reykjavik already, we aimed to pass this area before we had our first night after an afternoon arrival at Keflavik Airport (KEF). Here is my review of our experience.

Stracta Hotel Hella – Location

Hella is a town in Southern Iceland with a little less than 1,000 inhabitants. Nonetheless, it is having all the services you need as a tourist, like gas stations, grocery stores as well as hotels and restaurants. The hotel is located South of the Ring Road (Icelandic Road 1) in contrast to most of the town, which is North of it. Driving distance to Reykjavik is a little less than 100km. The city is also a hub if you want to do highland tours and other activities in the interior of Iceland.

There are regular (even if not too frequent) buses from Reykjavik to Hella. The bus stop is rather close to the hotel. Nonetheless, most visitors likely arrive at the hotel by car. The place is also very popular among locals. Thus we were quite surprised that when we arrived at the hotel, there were no free parking lots, including the ones usable at adjacent streets. Luckily, the hotel could remove one of their vehicles. Nonethtless, this should ideally not happen, especially as the hotel was not at all sold out.

Stracta Hotel Hella – Room

For our stay in April 2023, Saturday to Sunday, we booked a superior double room, including breakfast. The room rate with a one week cancellation period was 186.50 EUR. The hotel consists of several buildings, most of them are somehow linked by corridors. The hotel is rated as a four star. However, Icelandic standard are a bit lower on the countryside, so that we were not too surprised that the style of the room was comparably basic. I would have loved to have a bit more space in the living and sleeping room. You have to state, though, that the hotel was really nicely maintained and absolutely clean, despite the unfavorable weather.

The bathroom, though, was really nice and also rather large and comfortable, compared to the room. The shower came with a shower curtain, but worked out well and did not “flood” the bathroom like this happens in other places.

Stracta Hotel Hella – Breakfast

The hotel drives a really nice and popular restaurant. However, the breakfast buffet is served in a room above it. Especially in Icelandic relations, the buffet was really nice and had quite some items. I also liked the lovely view over the hotel and the nature from there. Thus, the breakfast was overall a lovely experience.

Stracta Hotel Hella – Service

The staff in the hotel was very kind and helpful. Between the buildings, there are saunas and hot pots. It was lovely to sit in the warm water chatting with locals (who had quite some beer) and enjoy the lovely dawn in the evening. The WiFi was not overall pleasing. However, the hotel is quite large, which might make it more challenging. There is also a rather large souvenir store close to the reception.

Stracta Hotel Hella – My View

In Icelandic relations, the hotel was really a nice experience. The services were really nice, I loved the hot tubs and sauna. The breakfast really nice as well. However the poor WiFi and the inappropriate parking situations are just two things on the negative side you just cannot neglect. Thus, I cannot assign an excellent rating to Stracta Hotel in Hella.