BesteBakken

BesteBakken is a hotel set above Lake Hafslo, where the Sognefjord cuts furthest inland among Norway's fjords. The original house on the site was built in 1910 by Ola Olson Alme, a farmer who raised his family here after his wife died in the 1918 flu pandemic. His descendants opened the property as a hotel in 2001, designed by architect Geir Vetti around that same timber house, which still anchors the dining rooms today. Fourteen bedrooms hold 33 beds between them, each fitted out differently, with tiled bathrooms and, in some, a jacuzzi. Three glass-walled cabins sit apart from the main building, close enough to the resident alpacas that guests can watch them from bed. Meals draw on the property's own garden and local farms, served across two to three sitting rooms that can hold 32 guests, with an orangery added in 2019 for lunch. Breakfast runs to homemade jam and smoked trout; dinner stretches to six courses depending on the night. It is a compact stay. Outside, guests can use an outdoor jacuzzi with a view over the lake and the hills beyond. The nearest airport, Sogndal's Haukåsen, is a 35-minute drive; Oslo is roughly 320 km by road. Old photographs of the Alme family hang beside newer artwork through the rooms, a small, deliberate mix of the farm's history and its present life as a hotel.