Scan Magazine | Special Theme | Norway’s Best Guest Farm
Main image: The lambs are very cuddly. Top right: Baking bread the old way. Below right: How to cross bridges in the Tarzan Park.
Learn to take on the world with a farm holiday Sometimes a holiday can be the best time to learn, particularly when it involves feeding animals, cutting sheep wool and ziplining. Families come to Aarholt-tunet Gjestegård for relaxing farm holidays, but often leave feeling ready to take on any challenge. By Helene Toftner | Photos: Aarholt-tunet Gjestegård
Over five weeks every summer Aarholttunet Gjestegård, a holiday farm in southern Norway, welcomes families from more metropolitan areas to enjoy a week as a farmer. While life on a farm was perfectly normal for most Norwegians generations ago, today farm holidays have shot through the roof as the preferred way to relax. “At the farm the family doesn’t just spend time together, but they actually see each other. Most put away their phones and computers and simply take in the experience together,” says owner and 13th generation farmer Svein Aarholt.
activities are organised for all to join in on, be it cutting sheep wool, baking bread or climbing.”
“Many come back year after year, as the children want to go back to ‘their farm’,” he continues. “Families come here to escape the stress of the city, and not least to be together as a family. All
The recurrent theme is creating a feeling of mastering a skill, whether through feeding the animals, climbing or, at a more personal level, learning how to maintain and nurture a personal rela-
50 | Issue 89 | June 2016
tionship. “We offer couple’s workshops during the winter, supporting couples in learning to listen and communicate better, and not least to handle conflicts and arguments in a better way,” Aarholt explains. “It is by no means couple’s therapy, but a far more humorous alternative.” Aarholt-tunet Gjestegård is idyllically located about one and a half hours southwest of Oslo, and is easily reachable by car.
The farm takes up to 14 families at a time, creating an intimate atmosphere where they eat and play together. Every family has a self-serviced flat or room, but most time is spent together outdoors. “There are plenty of activities all day every day, and we wish to teach adults as well as children that they ‘can do it’,” Aarholt says, adding that each family is responsible for looking after an animal throughout the week. The families live in old timber buildings.
For more information and to book, please visit: www.aarholt-tunet.no