Stockholm, Sweden

Blique by Nobis

Price per night from$86.50

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (SEK903.13), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

Captain of industry

Setting

Gregarious gallery district

You’ll find Blique by Nobis in a 1930s warehouse that became famous as a paragon of functionalist architecture. In keeping with the movement’s utilitarian ideals, you’ll find no frills or frippery here – the Wallpaper*-worthy design by Gert Wingårdh is heavy on raw poured concrete, exposed iron and stoic steel. Despite all this unapologetic asceticism, Blique’s a social butterfly at heart. We hardly have space to list the convivial gathering spots inside the vast complex – it’s a veritable litany of lounges – but here goes: a lobby bar, a cool courtyard, a Eurasian ground-floor restaurant, a sprawling sauna, a boutique cinema, a hip Korean barbecue spot and a romantic rooftop bar. Who knew function could be so fun?

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

One welcome drink a person in Origo (up to two); Goldsmiths get late check-out, too

Facilities

Photos Blique by Nobis facilities

Need to know

Rooms

249, including two suites.

Check–Out

Check-in is from 3pm and check-out is at noon. Both can be flexible, subject to availability.

Prices

Double rooms from £76.17 (SEK1,012), including tax at 12 per cent.

More details

Rates don’t generally include breakfast; the buffet starts from SEK150 and features Scandi options like seed-filled bread, puffy pastries, overnight oats, juices, fruit, yoghurt and frittatas. If you’ve had your fill of fika, there’s also an Asian corner

Also

Check the hotel schedule before you go – whether it’s a DJ set, a piece of performance art, an exhibition or a screening in the cinema, there’s always something special going on here.

At the hotel

Rooftop, gym, sauna, 20-seat cinema and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: TV, Byredo bath products.

Our favourite rooms

The industrial feel at Blique extends to the bedrooms – if you’re used to flounces and ruffles (fluffles?), they may feel a touch austere, but lovers of minimalist design will be in raptures – though you may not be able to tell, emoting and minimalism not being natural bedfellows. If you’d like to spread out, then it’s worth opting for a studio, which have their own kitchenette and drool-worthy safari chairs by Danish designer Carl Hansen & Søn that you’ll want to fold up and take home.

Spa

There’s no spa, but you can sweat out your sins in the top-notch gym and the sprawling sauna.

Packing tips

Try to channel Marie Kondo when you pack – there’s not much storage space in the bedrooms, so lots of clutter won’t spark joy.

Also

All public areas and two Standard Double rooms are fully accessible for wheelchair users.

Children

All ages are welcome, but little Smiths are not particularly catered to here.

Sustainability efforts

The building is eco-certified and as much food as possible is organic, local and seasonal. The cleaning products and Byredo toiletries are ecologically sound, too.

Food and Drink

Photos Blique by Nobis food and drink

Top Table

The corner tables at Arc get the stunning sunset-over-Stockholm views. In the winter months, the buzziest at Boketto are in the back, closest to the kitchen.

Dress Code

Ditch the kitsch and cull the cute. In fact, you’ll want to channel a secretive Silicon Valley whiz kid who just sold your start-up to Google – high-waisted jeans, a black turtleneck and horn-rimmed glasses ought to do it.

Hotel restaurant

There are two. The sprawling, open-plan Boketto is on the ground floor – it’s an accessible, all-day type of affair where you can watch chef Caroline Ekhult and her team at work in the open kitchen and, in the summer months, it opens its large glass doors to the courtyard outside. The Eurasian menu starts with small plates like Vietnamese spring rolls, salmon sashimi and Korean-style beef tartare, moves on to mains like ‘Tom Kha’ mussels, Tokyo-style mackerel and fried rice with chorizo and squid and finishes with matcha ice cream, rhubarb sorbet and baked chocolate with passion fruit and coconut.

Take the lift to the top floor to find Arc restaurant spread before you, with its adjoining rooftop bar, swinging seats and trendy-looking locals in Ganni glasses. Here, the menu is a fascinating fuse of Scandinavian seafood and Korean barbecue platters to share – start with the daily sashimi or langoustine tails before everyone digs in to the pepper fried ribeye or teriyaki pork belly. The bar has a range of sakes and Asian-inspired cocktails which use home-grown herbs from the roof garden – try a Sigurd (the house martini) or a Kishu Negroni.

Hotel bar

Blique’s vast ground floor serves as a kind of urban living room, with long communal tables for working by day and gallery spaces that host exhibitions and performances by night. At the heart of it all is Origo, a horseshoe-shaped bar dotted with leather stools and decorated with Joel Shapiro prints. Try one of their uniquely named cocktails (Naked on a Balcony, anyone?) or tuck into their brilliant bar food – pizzas, salads and steaming bowls of ramen.

Last orders

Boketto closes down around 10pm – it’s closed on Sundays, except for breakfast. Arc is open until 10pm but Arc bar serves until midnight – they're both closed on Sundays and Mondays. Origo is open from 10am to midnight (but only until 9pm on Sundays).

Room service

There’s no room service, but with two restaurants, two bars and plenty of neighbourhood spots nearby, you won’t miss it. After hours, there are some late-night options (like pizzas) available to order at the front desk and take to your room.

Location

Photos Blique by Nobis location
Address
Blique by Nobis
Gävlegatan 18
Stockholm
113 30
Sweden

Blique by Nobis hangs in Stockholm’s gallery district, where the up-and-coming Hagastaden meets the well-trod Vasastaden.

Planes

It’s a 30-minute drive from Stockholm’s central Arlanda airport. The hotel can organise taxi transfers if you like, but Uber also works well. Or, take the pricey but efficient Arlanda Express train to Stockholm Central station – it’s SEK295 one way and SEK570 return.

Trains

Stockholm Central station, which serves all Swedish cities as well as Oslo and Copenhagen, is a 10-minute drive or a three-kilometre walk from the hotel.

Automobiles

You won’t need a car to explore the strollable city of Stockholm but there’s public parking nearby at Q-Park Norrbackagatan.

Worth getting out of bed for

With two restaurants, two bars, spectacular rooftop views, a sauna, gym and cinema, we can understand the temptation to stay inside Blique by Nobis’ vast complex. But, you’d be missing Stockholm’s secrets, not to mention all the contemporary art galleries on your doorstep. The best are the Andersson/Sandström, Cecilia Hillstrom and Nordenhake galleries, where you’ll find both established and emerging artists. In the summer months, exploring Stockholm’s archipelago by boat is a must – on sunny days, you should steer directly to Schweizerbadet, a little sandy cove popular with swimmers (and tow-headed toddlers). Back on land, shimmy over to the Abba museum, where you’ll need more than just one look to take in the band’s fascinating history, tour costumes and gold records. The home of the actual king and queen (not just the dancing kind) is Stockholm’s Royal Palace which is open to the public, has no fewer than five museums and a daily changing of the guard. If you start to feel shabby while wandering the stately ballrooms, you’re in the right city for a princely wardrobe upgrade. Hop to Hope for quintessentially Scandi style – those perfectly tailored basics you’ll wonder how you lived without. Then, head to the Acne archive where you can find your favourites from the cult denim brand’s old collections.

Local restaurants

If you snaffled too much schnapps the night before, there’s no better cure than a pilgrimage to the edenic Rosendals on Djurgården island for an alleviative alfresco lunch of home-grown organic vegetables and stone-baked bread in their farm-to-fork cafe. Don’t forget to save room for fika – the kanelbulle (cinnamon buns) at Bageri Petrus takes the cake every time. For a stronger spice kick, try the kardemummabulle (cardamom buns). Cult bakery Fabrique has 11 locations in Stockholm, so you’re never more than a scone’s throw from their famous sourdough loaves and blueberry buns. Still hungry? Oaxen Slip is a Nordic bistro serving Swedish seafood dishes like herring, lumpfish roe and grilled turbot. Don’t be fooled by the unassuming moniker at Lilla Ego (little ego) in Vasastan – this is a seriously buzzy neighbourhood spot and you’ll have to book well ahead to sample the seasonal menu. The home of Stockholm’s coolest cocktail bar was once an apothecary that peddled dubious cures with ingredients like mummy powder, peacock stretch and unicorn horn. Now, Pharmarium serves a different kind of palliative – try a Heartbeat City, made with Monkey Shoulder whiskey, raspberry sugar and preserved pomegranate or a Dr. Feelgood, with chai gin and pink grapefruit.

Reviews

Photos Blique by Nobis reviews

Anonymous review

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this modernist marvel in Stockholm’s gallery district and unpacked their kanelbulle and Acne archive pieces, a full account of their Scandinavian city break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Blique by Nobis in Stockholm…

Wherever he is, we think legendary Swedish architect Sigurd Lewerentz is smiling. Though his whitewashed warehouse was originally built as an electronics factory, the landmark has found a new function as Stockholm’s most ambitious hotel and social hub. The Nobis group – hotel and nightlife gurus with the slick Scandi touch: see fellow Smith spots Miss Clara and Nobis Hotel Copenhagen – saw the building’s raw potential and enlisted designer Gert Wingårdh to set the stage for its bravura second act. The result is jaw dropping: imagine an immense art gallery in which you can eat, sleep and play. Wingårdh kept the urban – poured concrete, steel and iron – and added the urbane, in the form of wood, leather and wool accents. It’s tempting to go full Hotel California here: with two Eurasian restaurants, a plant-filled courtyard, the city’s slickest rooftop bar and a calendar packed with hotel happenings, you might never leave. But, if you should manage to drag yourself away, you won’t have to venture far – Stockholm’s most exciting galleries, boutiques and eateries are right on your doorstep.

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Price per night from $86.50