‘I’ve never considered taking a summer holiday in Spain or Greece – I’d regret, too much, missing out on a perfect Swedish summer day,’ Hårken tells me. We’re standing by a lighthouse on Valö, a rocky speck of an island in the Gothenburg archipelago, and the sky is a cloudless colouring-book blue.
Hårken’s family has lived and worked on the island of Vrångö in West Sweden’s Gothenburg archipelago for centuries. He points to a tiny maroon hut on the island’s highest point. ‘That’s the pilot house. My father and grandfather and his father before him would guide ships safely to the harbour from here.’
Nowadays, however, he owns and runs Kajkanten, harbourside self-catering accommodation where I spent a few idyllic summer days. He offers kayaking trips around the island and boat trips to neighbouring islands, like Valö.
I saw plenty of ingredients for a perfect summer holiday on the boat tour: inviting sandy beaches, wooden jetties with swimming steps leading to glistening, calm waters, and colourful clapboard summerhouses replete with reclining chairs on verandahs.
‘There’s not really anything to do here – and that’s precisely the point’
After mooring on a tiny stone jetty on Välo, Hårken guides us down a narrow path, flanked with an abundance of red campions, cowslips and speedwell. It swiftly takes us from one side of the island to the other. There’s not really anything to do here, except perhaps loll in the rocky coves, listen to the waves lapping at the shoreline and eat a picnic. And that’s precisely the point. I meander among fields of fluffy white cow parsley and let the fresh, warm air unwind my mind and body.
The rise of the ‘coolcation’
‘Fifteen to twenty years ago, the sea would freeze and you could ski to the mainland,’ Hårken tells me. ‘Winters simply aren’t that cold anymore.’
He’s borne witness to the growing ‘coolcations’ trend – where travellers seek out cooler climes in the blazing summer months – and nowadays welcomes more visitors than ever from across Europe and the US, many of whom admit they’re avoiding the heatwaves and unpredictable weather patterns in more traditional summer holiday hotspots.
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This year, Intrepid (with whom I’m discovering Sweden) has seen a 50 percent increase in UK customers booking Scandinavian trips in peak summer season (June-August) compared to 2024, and a decrease in bookings for hotter destinations like Italy (-72 percent) and Croatia (-19 percent) in peak summer season compared to last year.
According to research conducted by Booking.com, 42 percent of travellers prefer to holiday in cooler locations, and Expedia’s analysis on search trends from Hotels.com found that interest in cooler countries is on the rise. Notably, searches for Norway (+24 percent), Switzerland (+20 percent), and Sweden (+3 percent) have increased compared to last year.
Warm summer nights, Sweden-style
While daytime temperatures reach a pleasant 20-22C during July and August, it’s true that evenings can still be pretty chilly. But you’re in one of the world’s sauna capitals, and no matter the time of year, indulging in Swedish sauna culture is a must. Hårken has built a little floating sauna on the other side of the harbour, and alternating between the sauna, cool sea dips and the bubbling outdoor jacuzzi is a pure delight.
The food: sustainable, sea-foraged meals (and, of course, fika)
There’s no shortage of locally sourced, fresh and seasonal ingredients on the islands and an evening with expert forager and sustainability ambassador Karolina Martinson was a revelatory introduction to nature’s vitamin- and mineral-rich undersea pantry. Sugar kelp, sea lettuce, Irish moss, mermaid’s necklace and bladderwrack are all on her menu, along with shoreline flowers like sea campion.
Back in the kitchen we get to work turning it all into dinner: sugar kelp is softened in apple cider vinegar, shredded and added to salad of carrot, chili, rape seeds and coriander; halloumi wrapped in sea lettuce is deep fried; flatbreads are toasted on hot plate on an open fire and dessert is dulse de leche.
The next day we sampled a delicious classic Swedish seafood dinner at harbourside Hamnkrogen Lotsen, thanks to owners Andreas Wijk & Jennie Wijk; crayfish cooked with lemon, dill and beer, smoked blue mussels, smoked shrimp eaten traditionally with white bread and aioli, mayonnaise and a mango, honey and chilli dip.
And, of course, no visit to Sweden is complete without indulging in fika. It’s essentially a 15-minute coffee, cake and chat break, yet taken with religious fervour around 10.45am and mid-afternoon every day. Whether you’re at home, work or in a café, as we learned on a guided tour around the town of Alingsås, the self-styled capital of fika, it’s time to down tools and socialise.
If you’re a cake fan, the tour is not to be missed – it provided an excellent introduction to the cakes of Sweden; from cinnamon or cardamon buns (my favourite) from Nolbygårds Bakery to Silvia (vanilla syrup soaked into soft sponge, topped in coconut) at Café Viola and celebratory Princess cake – a creamy, spongy sugar explosion covered in green marzipan – at the Grand Hotel.
The European summer holiday, reimagined
Until very recently, the Nordics haven’t been top of mind for international travellers seeking a summer break; many associate this region of Europe with winter activities like snowshoeing and chasing the Nothern Lights. But Sweden alone has over 200,000 islands – more than any other country in the world – and the region’s near-deserted sandy beaches, paired with manageable summertime temperatures, present an ideal alternative to the heat and crowds of the Med. Fresh air, outdoor adventures and fantastic food: the Nordics are fast becoming the new face of the European summer holiday.
Diana Jarvis travelled to Sweden with Intrepid. You can visit Sweden on Intrepid’s Taste of Scandinavia (from £1,564pp) or Scandinavia Explorer (from £3,650pp) which includes accommodation, some meals and activities, services of a local guide and ground transport while on the tour.
is launching in the Nordics this year – keep an eye out for further details.
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