My girlfriend and I spent a week in Hemsedal, staying in the Hemsetunet apartments. The apartments are located in the center of Hemsedal, in front of the petrol station. Hemsedal is a small town, so the apartments were conveniently located for all the amenities in the town. There is a ski bus to the ski center that runs approximately every hour. It's about a 10 minute walk from the Hemsetunet apartments to the bus stop, which can be tiring when lugging skis, poles and boots.

The Hemsetunet apartments are the upper floor of a two story building, over bars, shops and offices. At night it can be noisy from the bars below, but only for a few hours from about 10pm to midnight. Inside the apartments are simply decorated and cosy with lots of wood, a functional kitchen and a fireplace. Our apartment had two bedrooms - both with bunk beds, to our disappointment. The open fire was great, and we thoroughly enjoyed relaxing and reading in front of the fire. A balcony walkway wrapped around the apartment which was nice, but also meant that on occasion people were walking past the window. Although the Hemsetunet apartments are opposite the petrol station, the views from the windows are great, as the mountains are very close and spectacular.

One of the main reasons we chose Norway for our winter holiday was to try out snowmobiling and husky sleighs. We did both and it was great! The huskies were just fantastic and we thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon zooming around the Norwegian wilderness pulled by six dogs! The skiing in Hemsedal was good, and as we expected. The mountains are not as high as the alps, but the skiing is varied and can be challenging. The slopes were quiet during the week and busy on the weekends.

In fact the whole town of Hemsedal seemed to come alive at the weekend. There are a number of bars and restaurants throughout the town, although not as many as expected, and the Ski Center area has a couple of bars and restaurants. It was fairly dull compared to the après ski scene in the alps. We also found food and drink to be expensive. We took taxis to the snowmobiling and husky sleighs which were also expensive – in hindsight it would have been better to rent a car.

Overall we enjoyed Hemsedal and the Hemsetunet apartments. The highlights were snowmobiling and husky sleighs, and relaxing in front of the lovely log fire. The Hemsetunet apartments were cosy and functional. On the downside the town was a little too quiet and expensive.