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With ABBA releasing (however half-heartedly) their first new album in four decades, Sweden is having a moment in the sun.

Ironic since, this time of year, it doesn’t really have a sun.

But who needs that ol’ smirking celestial orb when you have the aurora borealis? (Yes nerds, the northern lights require solar winds — we get it, just go with it.)

Don’t let drooping mercury and a thinning 2021 cat calendar deter you from visiting Scandinavia in the winter.

With its husky-driven sleigh rides and just flat-out gonzo hotels, fun- and Absolut Elyx-oozing Sweden makes the Arctic Circle seem more like an Arctic hula hoop.

Skål!

A Dunn deal


  You’ll get all mushy on us when you meet your loyal team of huskies. Sweden Travel You’ll get all mushy on us when you meet your loyal team of huskies. Sweden Travel

You could call it the Lap of luxury — but don’t. Sweden’s Laplands are very merry serious about their fam-friendly yet romance-making allure, and luxe trip operator Scott Dunn doesn’t play. Instead, they arrange dog-driven sleigh rides through pine forests, hot and cold bathhouse dunks and northern lights-peeping itineraries starting at $4,800 per person, including private transfers. Their customizable “Limitless” package is what’s up.

L-odd-gings


  Frozen assets: The famed and pubbed Icehotel is never the same objet d’art year over year — aurora pour-ye-all-of-us! Asaf Kliger⁠ Frozen assets: The famed and pubbed Icehotel is never the same objet d’art year over year — aurora pour-ye-all-of-us! Asaf Kliger⁠

When it comes to weirdo hotels in Sweden, pick your kink: How would you like your room … on the rocks? Everyone’s heard of Sweden’s 1989-born Icehotel, first of its name, old news, but did you know each year artists gather in Jukkasjäarvi to redesign/rebuild it after it melts every spring (global warming might be pushing that date up)? Straight chill, from $195 to $508 for an ice room.


  Splinter sell: A night at the funky Wood Hotel starts at $125. Wood Hotel Splinter sell: A night at the funky Wood Hotel starts at $125. Wood Hotel

Or, there’s the Viking-worthy Wood Hotel by Elite in Skellefteå, one of the world’s tallest buildings made of timber, though they might be a little sensitive about that particular choice of word (from $125).


  Saucerin’, saucerin’, I’m saucerin’ on you-oo — at Treehotel. Hufton+Crow/View Pictures/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Saucerin’, saucerin’, I’m saucerin’ on you-oo — at Treehotel. Hufton+Crow/View Pictures/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

And somewhat kindred, there’s the Treehotel in Harads, just outside the Arctic circle. With its quirky-themed suites — from a bird’s nest to a UFO — it has all the charm of the arboreal abode of your childhood, minus the prepubescent boy misogyny of “No Girlz Allowed” signage (from $675).

Lucia self in the music, the moment, you own it

The four-century-old celebration of Saint Lucia in Scandinavia is a lot different than how things roll on the martyr’s eponymous Caribbean island — here in Sweden, it’s cold, it’s church-y and it’s likely to involve candle headpieces. Be that as it may, the three-day religio-musical celebration — Dec. 11 to 13 — is joyous and best enjoyed in Skansen, Stockholm’s resident outdoor museum and zoo, which is funiculared and already strange in a good many ways. It’s better not ask too many “Why is this a thing?”-type questions and just go with the flow and/or floe.

The Donner party


  Slay ride: Reindeer is best served de-antlered. Getty Images/iStockphoto Slay ride: Reindeer is best served de-antlered. Getty Images/iStockphoto

If you’re dead-set on a jaunt to Sweden, you have to at least entertain the idea of reindeerphagia. Home to just under 300,000 of the Christmas caribou, Sweden — and especially among its native Sámi people — does not frown upon a little McRudolph consumption here and there, especially at the multi-day Jokkmokk Winter Market in February.

Capital fun-ishment


  One man’s trash is another man’s schuss at Hammarbybacken. VisitSweden One man’s trash is another man’s schuss at Hammarbybacken. VisitSweden

Urban skiing is most definitely a thing in Sweden’s national seat, which is both unsurprisingly very snowy as it is surprisingly very island-rife. And if you think South Central LA is hardcore, try South Central Stockholm: Hammarbybacken is the city’s man-made ski hill built on a former trash dump. Ignore its sordid, hopefully sorted past and instead celebrate its three-decade-long transition into a five-slope, two-lift resort.

Up to scratch


  Vinyl fantasy: The Avicii Experience is … just that. VisitSweden Vinyl fantasy: The Avicii Experience is … just that. VisitSweden

First and foremost, RIP Sweden’s late, great stentorian son Tim Bergling, aka Avicii, who raised the art of DJing to such a level that Google even crafted a video Doodle in his honor this past September.

If you can’t take a pill in Ibiza to likewise memorialize him, plan-B it by visiting Stockholm’s interactive Avicii Experience “tribute museum” inside the soon-to-open, seven-floor and gamer-targeted Space digital culture hub.

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