(Wasn't sure if I should post this here or in the Budget Travel forum.)

Homepage: www.restandfly.com

Mrs. Swede is from a town about 3.5 grueling hours away (by car) from Stockholm. Now that we have two kids (4 and 1) in tow, taking the overnight bus to catch our return flight to the US isn't as appealing, nor is waking up at 3am and driving. We could fly, but Skyways always tends to keep airfares pretty steep for their popular early morning flight. This past Christmas, we took the overnight train (which worked out well), but that train isn't offered during the summer months (and I really have no idea why).

This summer, the in-laws and my family went to Stockholm two days early to enjoy some sightseeing with the kids (the Royal Palace, Gamla Stan, Grona Lund, and Junibacken). The night before we were to leave back to the US, we booked a "family" room at the Rest and Fly. Night rooms of this size are charged SEK645 (approx. US$108) for 10 hours, with an extra SEK15 (US$2) for each additional hour. We booked 13 hours (6:30pm to 7:30am).

Location: It is located on the lower level of Terminal 4. From Sky City, take the Terminal 4 escalator down. At the bottom of the escalators, turn immediately left, and the entrance is through the sliding doors. Another nice thing about the location is that we wanted to wear the kids out so that they could get a good night's sleep. We had allll of Arlanda to run around in!

Check-in: There were two people working the check-in desk. We gave them the last name used to book the room, and we were given two key cards. The lobby has lots of chairs, a water cooler, a coin-operated coffee machine, a bookshelf of books (probably left by other travelers), and a coin-operated internet station (SEK10 for 15 minutes--but there are plenty of cheaper internet stations, as well as paid Wi-Fi, throughout the airport). We were also travelling with a cooler bag full of food (since Miss Swede has lots of allergies, we always bring food for her to eat when flying). They gladly accepted our cooler bag and fit it into the employee refrigerator until the morning.

Baggage: They do have a small baggage room in the check-in area. Ask for the key, and you can store any luggage you don't need in there. That was a good thing, since we had four large bags, three backpacks, a car seat, and an umbrella stroller (see the room description below). There also seems to be a steady supply of (free) luggage carts in the lobby area.

Room: To say that this is a no-frills hotel is a real understatement. Our family room consisted of a lower 140cm-wide bed and a 120-cm wide upper bed, and that's pretty much it. By my guesstimations, the room measured 7-foot by 8-foot, and you probably had about 16 square feet of floor space to "walk" around in. It also contained lots of hooks for hanging stuff up, small bedside shelves (for both beds) mounted on the walls, a mirror, a reading light for each bed, and a neat table-ish kind of contraption that also acted like a step ladder to get to the upper bed. No TV, no clock radio, no telephone. When you check-in, there will be bed linens and towels already on the beds. You have to make the beds yourself (or you can have them pre-made for SEK20). In the morning (if you didn't shell out the SEK20), you remove all the bed linens and pile them (with the towels) on the bed. For the hotel's simple concept, what more do you really need? Okay, you may want a...

Bathroom: The restrooms are located centrally within the hotel. There are about four WCs as well as two larger bathrooms (one for each gender). In the larger bathrooms, there is a community shower room as well as toilets and sinks. IIRC, there was a sign saying you could borrow a hair dryer from the front desk. Toothbrushes and shaving kits are also available for a small charge at the front desk.

Food: You can pre-order breakfast through the hotel for a fee, but there are plenty of eating choices available throughout the airport all day (McDonald's is open until 11pm). There is also a 7-11 located about 50 feet from the entrance in the main Terminal 4 area.

Comfort: The walls are pretty thin (but it was never noisy), and it's pretty pitch-black inside the room when the all the lights are turned off. We got about six hours of sleep, and I felt rested. It sure beats sleeping on a train (or a bus--or on a sofa in the airport).

Overall: For my purpose: a simple, safe place to sleep for a few hours, this was perfect. The biggest perk is that once you wake up and get dressed, you can easily navigate yourself to the check-in counters. No worrying about catching a shuttle bus or Arlanda Express to start your day. If you're coming in from far outside Stockholm, and you need to catch a morning flight, and all you need is a place to sleep, this is certainly a wonderful option at Arlanda Airport.

It definitely beats paying 3-4 times the price for a room at the Radisson Sky City. The Radisson Arlandia is approximately twice the price of what we paid, and it certainly is another option for those looking for slightly more amenities, but you do have the added hassle of getting to/from the airport.