Oslo's oddly named Grims Grenka Hotel opens next month with some bold if slightly earnest claims. It's not just stylish contemporary accommodation, but "a lifestyle experiment". As well as a good night's kip, it provides "the cosmopolitan experience of London and New York in the far northern latitudes of Norway".

Gosh. It is, of course, a design hotel, with 42 severely stylish rooms fusing wood, bold colours and clean lines within a tossed herring of Oslo's Akershus Castle. It looks gorgeous, but sorry, it won't change your life.

· B&B doubles from £183 per night. designhotels.com