Review - Ocean View Motel & Campsite
The Kroken Airport Hotel, part of the overall complex
Overall - Recommended
Located in Second Norway, The Ocean View Motel and campsite is part of a sprawling two and a half sim hotel / motel / campsite and sailing complex. It also includes the Kroken Airport Hotel, which adjoins the Second Norway Airport, so both locations are being reviewed together.
Newsagent and shop at the Ocean View Motel (free coffee!)
The Kroken Airport Hotel and (especially) Ocean View Motel are pretty basic, and have a 2010 Second Life feel about them.
In contrast the campsite areas are nicely done, and offer the cheapest Second Life holiday accommodation I have seen - 20L a night for a camping spot and 15L a night for a hotel room.
The sims are also connected by road to much of Second Norway, and are sailable, with docks available for you to moor your boat.
The ratings
The Overall Look and Feel
The two hotels and some of the facilities look basic and dated, it’s like going back in time ten years.
However, the three campsites are nicely landscaped. Some sit beside a beach, and others by nature trails. It’s quite easy to ignore the two hotels and just spend all your time on the rest of the sims.
Overall - 3.5/5
The rooms
Ocean View Motel Room - basic and dated, but cheap
As mentioned, the hotel rooms have a very basic feel about them. But they are also dirt cheap and start at only 15L. So if you want nothing more than a private place as a home location, this could be an option.
The Bazar California Surf Campers available in the three campsites however are really nice. This is of course an off the shelf buy, but it’s one that’s quite popular with the SL community (Muti and myself own one), with decent anims and a nice look and feel about it.
One of the campers available for 20L
Note, there’s also the option of bringing and rezzing your own tent or camper van if you choose.
Overall - 3/5
The facilities
There is a lot to do here. The Kroken Airport Hotel has a reception area, a roof terrace and a restaurant. There’s also an underground passage to a swimming pool, and to the actual airport.
The Ocean View Bar
The Ocean View complex has two bars, a bowling alley, showers and restrooms, a small shop, several beaches, a live music stage, a pier and a nature trail.
A particular highlight is the large number of bike racks around the sim, where you can rez a free bike.
You can also rez a free car (a Mini Cooper) outside the Ocean View office, and drive it around the different Second Norway sims.
Muti and myself live in a different part of Second Norway and used it to drive home (with the challenge of having to navigate the various underground roads under the Second Life Norway airport).
Overall - 4.5 / 5
The anims
Some of the anims took a bit of adjusting
If you stay in a Bazar California Surf Camper, you are sorted as the anims are good. Around the rest of the sim it was a bit hit and miss, in particular the PG anims on the different benches and by the chessboard at the Kroken Airport Hotel took a bit of adjusting.
Overall - 3/5
Other things to bear in mind
Is the sim adult? No, moderate
Privacy. Not so much, as the rooms and camper vans are quite close together
Prices. Super cheap, rooms start at 15L a night. Even the most expensive camp space is only 30L a night (with 75 prims included).
Lag. Didn’t seem to be a big issue
One of the Ocean View beaches
Overall - Recommended
I’ve given the campsites especially (as opposed to the hotels), a ‘recommended’ rating for a few reasons.
First of all, there’s the price, you will be pushed to find a cheaper place for a camping vacation. Then with the caveat that some of the facilities are a bit dated, there is a lot to do.
The Second Norway sims themselves are definitely worth a visit over a few days. This is a good place to explore it from, especially as you get a free car - or you can even moor your own boat and sail from sim to sim.
Finally, with the Kroken Airport Hotel being (to my knowledge) the only airport hotel in Second Life, you could even RP an extended vacation. Stay in the Kroken Airport Hotel overnight, head to the airport the next morning, and then “fly” to one of the resorts ranked ‘Highly Recommended.’
