IKEA Hotel and Museum, Part 1 - Worth the Detour?
Updated: 4 days ago
If you've ever met me, you know that the majority of my weekends are spent browsing intently through the multiple floors and showrooms of my local IKEA. I know every product and recognize them in "the wild". My house subtly screams of IKEA furniture and is a gentle reminder of the countless hours my husband has had to slave over the bits and pieces with a hex key. So imagine my joy when I discovered the holy land itself, located in Älmhult, Sweden.
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I was browsing for things to do in and around Copenhagen. We had a few nights to kill in the area and I wondered if maybe Malmo, just across the really cool Øresund bridge: half-bridge half-underwater tunnel to Sweden, had an IKEA. It's Sweden, the home of the IKEA brand, so surely there had to be something. But as I googled "IKEA Sweden" a magical, wonderful thing popped up in my search results within just 2 hours' drive of Copenhagen. It was the pinnacle of retail glory, the flagship of the greatest store on Earth, the first ever IKEA store in Älmhult, Sweden, built in 1958.
My god, I must go! I thought. I must see this store for myself! But the pot was so so much sweeter than I ever imagined. The old store is now an IKEA MUSEUM!! What?! The glee! The excitement!
Good lord take my money now, I'm a-comin!
But hold my beer for a second because I may pass out...right next to the IKEA museum is the IKEA HOTEL AND RESTAURANT!
How to book your stay at the IKEA Hotel in Sweden:
Booking.com or directly on the IKEA Hotell website.
Look for a package deal on the IKEA direct website. We got the IKEA Museum package, which includes:
Overnight stay in a family room
Breakfast
Main dish per person in the restaurant (the rest is a la carte)
Free admission to the IKEA museum
200 SEK ($20 USD) to spend in the IKEA museum store
When I hit the 'book' button, I was full of childlike excitement. I felt like I was going to Disneyland!
What we Expected at the IKEA Hotel in Sweden:
My husband joked that we'd have to build our own beds and furniture and figures we'll be dining on Swedish meatballs with a slide along tray for dinner. My understanding, thankfully, is that it's a full service restaurant with servers, an intimate dining room setting, and alcohol! And, obviously no DIY furniture. He also said the two hour drive wasn't worth it, until I sold him on the journey across the five mile Øresund bridge. What's with men and bridges?
I discovered from photos and blogs that the museum was sort of a time capsule of styles and furniture from the past 60 years, all housed in the decommissioned flagship store. It offers a restaurant, fun photo shoots to make your own IKEA catalog cover, and of course the slide your tray along meatball meal in their cafeteria. The IKEA Museum store looked ah-mazing online and I was geared up to buy one of these t-shirts provided that they still had it.
As an IKEA lover, I wasn't sure if the excitement was going to pay off. Was the IKEA Hotel going to be all I hoped?