Five of the wildest adventures in Sweden, from ice-bathing to backwater rafting
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Loading... - Kimberly Morris
- 07 Sep 2022
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In Sweden, nature isn’t worshipped from a distance, it’s lived and breathed in real time. Whether kayaking through the granite islets of West Sweden’s Bohuslän region or holding your breath as a wolf howls in the forests west of Stockholm, to travel here is to see the world with fresh eyes.
Hear the call of the wild on a wolf-howling tour
The hairs-on-end howl of a wolf is a sound that belongs utterly to the north. As the howl echoes through the night, it tugs at our deeper nature. A two-hour drive west of Stockholm leads deep into forests near Skinnskatteberg, where families of wolves prowl. Sign up for an overnight wolf-howling trip and you’ll get a backdoor pass into their world. Treading silently through woods in the half-light of the Swedish summer, you’ll feel your heart quicken as a wolf begins to howl in the near distance. The wolves are free agents, so sightings aren’t guaranteed, but the odds are excellent from June to September. wildsweden.com
Build your own log raft for a multi-day backwaters trip
There’s no finer way to give civilization the slip than by building your own log raft from scratch and tuning into the mellow rhythm of a river as you float downstream past eddies and sandbanks, forests and brooks. Skipping back to a more primitive age, these multi-day tours take to the Klarälven river flowing through Värmland in Sweden’s heart. Time melts away. The summer light is ever changing. Days are spent fishing or spotting wildlife like beaver, moose and deer. Nights are spent by warming campfires and gazing up to skies pinpricked with stars. Tours range from one night to a week from June to August. realscandinavia.com vildmark.se
Take an icy dip at the Arctic Bath
Frozen in winter or afloat in summer, the Arctic Bath on the Lule River in Harads leaves you speechless. Perhaps because you’ve dared to plunge into the numbingly cold water as any hardy Swede would. Or perhaps because you’re stunned by the hotel’s architecture, designed to resemble a beaver’s logjam in a nod to the river’s timber-transporting past. Whether you’re trying imaginative riffs on local game, fish, herbs and berries in the restaurant, getting a pine-oil rubdown in the spa or embracing the dopamine-boosting benefits of cold water swimming, there’s always plenty to do. Of all the seasons, winter has the magic edge: stay in a floating cabin with a private deck as the Northern Lights swoop across the night sky. arcticbath.se
