Luxury Vacations in Sweden

Where to begin in a country as vast as this middle segment of Scandinavia? Make no mistake, Sweden is huge – the fifth-largest country in Europe, practically in the middle of the continent where it almost touches Denmark to the south, thoroughly Arctic in its northern reaches. Start with the more southerly cities.

Stockholm is gorgeous, all palaces, waterways and bridges, with a soaring Abba soundtrack over the top. Gothenburg is just as pretty, drifting down to a fractured coastline and the calm of summer islands such as Styrsö and Donsö. Malmö is even more conspicuously seafront-facing, gazing across at Copenhagen, and with a host of beaches – Ribersborgsstranden among them – on its doorstep. Yet Sweden is arguably at its most alluring beyond its cities, in the whispering forests of rural Småland, or on the serene shore of Lake Vänern (the largest European lake outside Russia). Then there is Lapland, serenity itself during summer, an icy dream in winter.