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Winter getaways: the stunning Swedish region with something for everyone

If travel is finally back on your agenda, you may be dreaming of an idyllic winter getaway? Luckily, you no longer have to stop at dreaming.

Winter getaways: the stunning Swedish region with something for everyone
Photo: Anna Holm/Visit Dalarna

Whether you’re a family with children, a couple wanting a romantic break, or a group of friends looking to reunite, Dalarna in central Sweden offers a wealth of winter activities and some of the country’s most majestic sights. 

Here, one family tells The Local about their unforgettable trip to Rättvik in Dalarna last winter, while we also look at some of the many possibilities for exploring the rest of the region. Rättvik is around three hours and 30 minutes from Stockholm by car, while some parts of Dalarna are even closer – and even its mountainous north is only six hours from the capital by car. You’ll also find it easy to get to from even further afield, with two airports serving the region.

Want to escape to a Swedish winter wonderland? Find out more about Dalarna from Visit Dalarna

N-ice, affordable family fun!

In the heart of Dalarna lies Lake Siljan. Sweden’s sixth largest lake, its magnificent surroundings are the result of a meteorite impact 360 million years ago. Today, many towns on its shores, such as Orsa, Mora, and Rättvik, have a timeless quality thanks to the simple pleasures they offer if you just want to get outdoors and reconnect with nature.

Claire Hamilton and Antonio Morveto, chose Rättvik, where Antonio grew up until the age of 12, for their first family holiday with all their kids; Claire has one daughter and Antonio three. They booked a cottage on AirBnB for five nights at a cost of under 1,000 Swedish kronor per night.

“The kids were really excited about the first holiday we’d all taken together,” says Claire, originally from Scotland. “It was a super-cute little cottage with a really nice view down to a small lake.” Swedish-born Antonio, who is half-Italian, says the location is equally ideal for couples without kids. “It’s perfect for a romantic weekend – just get a cabin in the middle of nowhere,” he says.

Both Lake Siljan and the smaller lake, 200 metres from the cottage, were frozen but the family were not short of ideas for things to do. Sledging (or sledding), including with huskies, is hugely popular in Dalarna. “We were sledging down the hill with the girls for a few hours on the first day,” recalls Claire. “The lake was completely covered in ice,” adds Antonio. “We saw lots of ice skaters and everything looked just beautiful.” 

If you’re fond of outdoor ice-skating, take a look at the Skating Dalarna network, which ploughs paths stretching for more than 70km across the region’s frozen lakes every winter.

The family also took advantage of a sauna for hire by the small lake, with the combination providing an opportunity for their own spontaneous ice bucket challenge! “We filled buckets with ice cold water from the lake,” says Claire. “The kids poured it all over Claire and myself,” adds Antonio. “Then we did the same to them! You all want to dive back into the sauna pretty quickly after that!”

The family in the sauna and playing by the frozen lake. Photo: Supplied

The couple are also big fans of winter swimming and would happily have taken a dip if conditions had allowed. “I have a challenge with a friend that we have to take one dip every month all year round,” says Antonio. “Claire and her friend also have to be in the water every week for five minutes.” 

“You get such a buzz from it,” says Claire. “It’s so invigorating.”

From cosy cottages to hotels, check out your accommodation options in Dalarna

Skiing, snowmobile – or just a good old snowball fight?

If you’re looking for a ski trip (or a day or two skiing as part of a longer break), Dalarna has plenty of options. You can enjoy Alpine skiing at larger resorts in the north of Dalarna or smaller options further south. Many resorts also offer activities such as snowmobile driving and snowshoeing. Or you could opt for cross-country skiing. The region has many well-prepared and clearly marked trails, both close to urban areas and going deep into the forest, so why not give it a try?

Photo: Visit Dalarna

When the family wanted to go skiing locally one day last winter, they unfortunately found the slope was shutting for the day due to a lack of snow. But they didn’t let that spoil their fun. “We had a massive snowball fight on the slope with a wonderful view overlooking Siljan,” says Antonio. “It went on for hours!” adds Claire. “It was great fun and one of those moments you’ll always remember.”

Antonio advises anyone visiting this year that the Granberget ski resort, in Siljansnäs, near Rättvik, is ideal for families. “There are several small slopes and it’s perfect for children to learn how to ski.”

Walking on water

One of the most famous sights in Rättvik is the 628-metre pier, built all the way back in 1895 to enable a steamship to berth in the town.

Claire Hamilton and the children on Rättvik’s pier. Photo: Supplied

“We took the girls down to walk on the frozen water underneath the pier, which was also pretty cool!” says Claire. “The holiday was during the pandemic, so we weren’t going out and spending lots of money. But we still found loads to do, just taking the girls on little walks and finding nice places to explore.” 

One special place to explore is Springkällan, just 7km from Rättvik. Here, you’ll find a natural fountain in the middle of the forest and in winter, the water freezes to create beautiful ice formations. If you fall in love with it, there’s even a slogbod available (that’s a wooden shelter where hardy souls can camp out overnight!

Having returned to his childhood home, Antonio is already thinking about the next trip to Dalarna. “It would be a great place for our youngest children, who are five and eight, to learn to ski,” he says. “I only have good memories of Rättvik; it’s the perfect place to raise a family.” Or for a well-deserved getaway when you all need to recharge your batteries! 

In need of a winter break? Discover Dalarna through Visit Dalarna and start planning your own trip to this Swedish winter wonderland

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LIVING IN SWEDEN

What you need to know about owning a second home in Sweden

In most countries owning a second home is a luxury reserved for the wealthy, but in Sweden it's very common to have a summer home or 'fritidshus'. Here's what you need to know.

What you need to know about owning a second home in Sweden

What is a fritidshus

In Sweden, second homes are generally either classified as a fritidshus, literally a “free time house”, or a permanenthus or permanentboende.

A fritidshus is defined as “a house which is not set up for all-year-around living”. Rather confusingly, this does not mean that you can’t live all-year-round in a fritidshus, or, indeed, that you can’t use a permanenthus as your summer house. 

The difference comes down to how the two types of property are treated in Sweden’s building code, with fritidshus allowed, among other things, to have lower ceilings, smaller bathrooms, more basic kitchens, worse accessibility for disabled people, a lower standard of insulation. 

If you decide to live permanently in a fritidshus, you do not need to get approval to do so, but the building committee at your local council can, if they learn of what you are doing, demand that the building be changed to meet the requirements of a permanenthus (although this rarely happens).

There is also a subgroup of fritidshuskolonilott, which are houses with a small amount of land which should be used for growing food (although lots of people just use them as attractive gardens). This is different from an odlingslott, which is just an allotment, essentially a kolonilott without the house.

These are usually in designated kolonilott areas close to or in cities, and are not intended for year-round living. In most kolonilott areas, water supply and drainage is cut off outside of the growing season, and you’re not allowed to register them as your permanent address, for example.

Relaxing outside a summer house. Photo: Doris Beling/Imagebank Sweden

How much does a second home cost? 

The average price of a fritidshus fell by about 6 percent in 2023, following a 1 percent fall in 2022, and now lies at about 2.2 million kronor.

But a search on the Hemnet website for fritidshus under 1 million kronor shows that many sell for a lot less, particularly outside the most popular areas. 

As a rule of thumb, anything within an hour’s drive of Stockholm, Gothenburg or Malmö is likely to be more expensive, as is anywhere on the coast (particularly on Gotland), next to a lake, or near one of Sweden’s more popular skiing areas. 

A report from Länsförsäkringar Fastighetsförmedling, out in mid-2023, found that summer houses were cheapest in Kronoberg country (the southern bit of Småland), followed by Örebro, Värmland, Norrbotten and Västernorrland, and most expensive in Gotland, Stockholm County and Halland. 

What’s the point of having one? 

Despite its vast expanses of unspoiled nature, Sweden is very urbanised, with nearly 90 percent of people living in built-up areas and 63 percent in the biggest few cities. It’s much more common to live in an apartment in a city than in the sort of suburban sprawl of houses with their own gardens so common in countries like the UK and US.

This means that most urban Swedes leave any gardening to their summer houses or allotments.

Given the cold, dark winters, that probably makes sense. 

Fritidshus and other second homes are also at the centre of the long Swedish summer break, when people often take three, or even four, weeks off back-to-back. If you don’t have your own fritidshus, you can spend much of the summer visiting people who do. 

What’s the downside? 

Aside from the cost, it’s a lot of work. Owning a fritidshus means weekends spent at out-of-town building supply shops, and brings a whole new list of chores like cleaning the gutters, mowing, trimming hedges, raking leaves and chopping wood.

If you like foreign travel, and have a lot of other passions and hobbies, you may find owning a summer house squeezes them out. 

A summer house in the Stockholm archipelago. Photo: Sara de Basly/Imagebank Sweden

How common is it to have a fritidshus

There are about 607,000 fritidshus in Sweden, and according to Statistics Sweden, about one in three children (35 percent) have access to one.

It most common to have access to a fritidshus in the north of Sweden, with more than half of children having access to one in 51 municipalities north of Dalarna, and it is least common in Skåne, where in some municipalities only 10 percent of children have access to a fritidshus. 

Is it best to have a second home in a fritidsområde or on its own? 

Many municipalities in Sweden have set aside areas, often near a lake or by the sea, specifically for the building of fritidshus, selling off plots, or tomter, on which people can either build a holiday cottage themselves or get a builder to do it.

According to Statitsics Sweden, about a quarter of fritidshus are in such an area, with Stockholm County boasting the most fritidsområde, or holiday home areas, followed by Västra Götaland (near Gothenburg) and Skåne (near Malmö and Helsingborg). 

If you are building your own summer house, the advantage of doing so in a fritidsområde is that electricity, water and sewage has normally already been run along the edge of the plot, making these services cheap and easy to connect. 

If you want to get a summer house near the coast or a lake, it is also cheaper if you buy one in a fritidsområde. 

On the downside, they can feel a little like living in a housing estate, you have to be careful not to make too much noise, and can end up getting complaints from the local neighbourhood committee if you don’t maintain your property in the way they expect. 

As many fritidsområde were set up the 1960s and 1970s, with a lot of the houses then built by enthusiastic amateurs, they can also be in desrepair and have structural problems. 

The plots that have yet to be built on, meanwhile, are often the worst, for instance with ground that is damp or prone to flooding. 

Renting out your second home

One of the advantages of your second home being classed as a fritidshus is that – so long as you’re only renting it out short-term — you are not covered by Sweden’s strict rental law or hyreslagen.

This means whatever rent you agree with the tenant is valid, there is no requirement to ask for a “reasonable” rent, and tenants cannot contest the rent with the regional rent tribunal.  

Airbnb makes renting out your fritidshus extremely easy and on the other side makes it a lot cheaper and easier to rent a summer house for three weeks in the summer than to own one all year around.  

If you earn more than 40,000 kronor in a year from renting out your fritidshus, though, you are required to declare it to the Swedish Tax Agency. 

You can then subtract a 40,000 kronor ‘standard deduction’ from your rental revenue and a further 20 percent deduction for rental income, before it gets taxed. See the guide from the Swedish Tax Agency here

This means if you receive 60,000 kronor in rent, you subtract first 40,000 kronor, then 20 percent of the 60,000 kronor, which comes to 12,000 kronor.

This leaves you with 8,000 kronor to be taxed as capital income at 30 percent, leaving just 2,400 kronor in tax due. 

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