Scan Magazine | Special Theme | Our Big Swedish Winter Wonderland Guide
Watch the northern lights or the midnight sun from the tree tops
By Sara Wenkel | Photos: Treehotel
The spectacular Treehotel introduces a new, highly anticipated ‘room’ to its collection of tree houses. This seventh room brings you higher up and boasts more space, and you can even lie in a net watching the magical starry sky of Lapland. Just an hour’s flight from Stockholm, Sweden, is the small village of Harads. Harads is home to the ever popular Treehotel, which attracts guests from all over the world. Each tree house has its own unique design created by leading Scandinavian architects. A new, seventh room is currently being built and will be ready for guests from 20 January 2017. “We are always fully booked during peak season, so it was time to add more room,” explains Kent Lindvall, who created the Treehotel together with his wife Britta. The new tree house, which accommodates up to five people in total, is located ten metres up in the pine trees and features large panoramic windows facing north,
allowing guests to watch the magnificent northern lights. An impressive terrace made of net is bound to create exhilarating experiences. “Guests can either lie face down and gaze into the forest or lie looking up at the starry sky,” says Lindvall. The Norwegian architecture firm Snøhetta is behind the design of the seventh room, which aims to bring visitors up off the ground. “Our guests usually say that their stay is like a fairy tale and we hope this new room won’t leave anyone disappointed,” Lindvall concludes. For more information, please visit: www.treehotel.se/en
Explore Sápmi by reindeer sled How does whistling along the snowy landscape of Swedish Lapland driving your own reindeer sled sound? The peak season is here for Nutti Sámi Siida – an ecotourism company offering insights into the indigenous Sami culture with reindeer and nature in focus. “No one drives reindeer this way anymore. It is old knowledge that is about to disappear, but we preserve it and let our guests experience it,” says Katja Bechtloff, sales and booking manager at Nutti Sámi Siida in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden. It all started during the icy winter of 199697, when Nils Torbjörn Nutti’s reindeer could not access their natural food, reindeer lichen, in the wild. Instead they had to be kept in an enclosure and fed there during wintertime, which eventually became the start of Nutti Sámi Siida – an ecotourism company today holding the Swedish Ecotourism Society’s label Nature’s Best.
traditional food, sauna and an array of exciting day trips. The most popular option is Vouján – a day trip where you get to handle and drive your own reindeer sled in a convoy across the winter wonderland. “The reindeer excursion is the coolest option. Afterwards you also get to sample and learn more about Sami food and enjoy the northern lights,” says Bechtloff. The winter season lasts from November to mid-April, but guests can also visit during
Sami culture and reindeer Guests can stay overnight in one of the five cabins at Reindeer Lodge and enjoy nature, 42 | Issue 95 | December 2016
In the new ‘room’ a natural pine tree grows through the terrace made of net.
Reindeer feeding. Photo: Asaf Kliger.
By Ellinor Thunberg
the summer to explore local Sami handicraft and food.
Photo: Lola Akinmade Åkerström.
Vouján daytrip with a guide and leader reindeer. Photo: Johan Adermalm.
For more information, please visit: www.nutti.se