Scandic Vaasa

Scandic Vaasa is the Scandic chain's hotel in Vaasa, the bilingual (Finnish/Swedish) town on the west coast of Finland that opens onto the Kvarken UNESCO archipelago. The hotel runs across two adjoining buildings/towers with a garden, terrace and lobby fireplace — a more relaxed format than Scandic's airport and city-centre flagships further south. The wellness side is the chain's standard combination of fitness centre and sauna — the everyday wet area Finnish guests expect, not a destination spa. Restaurant, bar/lounge, coffee shop, room service, a meeting room and a banquet hall cover the social and corporate side. Children stay free; a playground is on site, and bicycle rentals run from the front desk. Vaasa is a useful base for the Kvarken coast — the archipelago is reachable in around half an hour, with ferries onward to Umeå in Sweden. The hotel suits family stays around the coast and archipelago, business travellers in Vaasa's energy-and-engineering cluster, and small conferences and training days.