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PRESENTED BY WEST SWEDEN

Discover some of West Sweden’s best-kept secrets by meeting ‘The Locals’

For visitors, the west of Sweden holds many treasures. You’ll encounter magnificent landscapes, from rocky mountain tops and lush forests to windswept coastline. The region is known for wholesome organic produce, and boasts some of the best seafood you’ll find anywhere.

Discover some of West Sweden's best-kept secrets by meeting 'The Locals'
The wonders of West Sweden. Photo: West Sweden Tourism Board

Perhaps, however, its greatest treasure is its people – the locals. It’s the locals who understand the hidden beauty of the place, and who wish to share it with the wider world. 

Coming into its sixth year, an initiative called ‘Meet the Locals’ has been connecting visitors with those who live and work in the region, opening them up to new experiences and a glimpse of different lifestyles. Visitors – or anyone curious about the region, or simply interested in having a unique cultural experience – get to come for the day and Meet a Local. Activities range from baking delicious Swedish cinnamon buns to going biking or hiking, going crab fishing, picking apples and making apple juice, or taking a ride in an Oldsmobile.

Together with the West Sweden Tourism Board, we meet two locals, Elizabeth and Sarah, and discover how this program is changing travel – and sometimes the lives of both visitor and local. 

Photos: West Sweden Tourism Board

Spend a sunny summer day on the farm with Elizabeth

Everybody who meets Elizabeth Svensson describes her as a fantastic storyteller.

From spooky events at a local pond to personal tales of her family’s long history on the land, Elizabeth loves sharing what makes her region so special, often while knitting or cooking. 

“We’re so blind to what we have at home, but you really notice how interesting people think it is. It’s fun to be able to show people that.”

Melissa Callahan, an American living in Sweden who visited with Elizabeth agrees: “She’s amazing. She is a great storyteller. Her family has been in the area so long and she has such a fantastic family history.”

It’s not just stories that Elizabeth has become known for. The retired healthcare specialist, who lives on the same farm that her grandfather built near Floby village, has drawn visitors back a number of times with her delicious creations, including the regional ‘hålkaka’.

What’s ‘hålkaka’? Elizabeth is only too happy to explain: “It’s a savoury bread. It’s round with a hole in the middle, thick and soft. It’s very normal here, and I make it from my grandmother’s recipe which I’ve inherited. I bake it at a high temperature with a stone hearth, like a pizza oven.

“I bake everything myself, it’s all homemade. I don’t buy anything ready-made from the shops. They also often have a story as well, my cakes – they can be my grandmother’s recipes from long ago, for example.”

Learn how you can spend an unforgettable day with Elizabeth – and many more passionate locals from the west of Sweden

Elizabeth, and her husband, Leif. Photo: West Sweden Tourism Board

For Elizabeth, the making and sharing of food with her visitors have led to deep connections and friendships within the ‘Meet the Locals’ program. 

Speaking of a group of Japanese visitors she has hosted, she tells us: “I think we’ve definitely become friends for life. They’ve been here twice, and the third visit is planned shortly, before their student exchange is over.

“We’re very happy that these young girls from Japan came to visit us. It makes us proud that people want to come back and visit us. We’re really proud and think it’s so fun – we made sushi!”

Summer is the ideal time to come and visit the countryside – a colourful and serene place, far away from the crowds by the sea.

A day of stories, food, and a wander through the countryside with Elizabeth and her husband Leif is an opportunity to unwind, take time to enjoy the simple things, and learn more about Swedish rural life. It’s also easily accessible by public transport. 

“If they don’t have a car then I’ll pick them up from the square in Floby, it’s only 10km to us, it’s no problem – there’s a train station there.”

Reflecting on her experience of her time with Elizabeth, Melissa reinforces the deep connection she felt meeting Elizabeth as a local: “The thing that I appreciated the most was that it was so welcoming. The whole experience was very comforting. I would totally do it again. Actually, I was just thinking about calling her up!”

Elizabeth’s tips for family-friendly activities in the area:

  • Explore the ancient Nordic past at Ekehagens Forntidsby
  • Enjoy a cosy night at the Nästegården Bed & Breakfast
  • Stay in bucolic comfort at the Wrågården and Moose Hotel.

Explore the autumnal beauty of Hönö with Sarah

Sarah Lycksten, a photographer based in the Gothenburg archipelago, is very proud of her island home of Hönö.

“It has everything you need, like shops and cafes, but it’s also full of nature – we have two nature reserves on the island. I live five minutes away from the beach, and in many ways, it’s just like the old days.

“You also get different kinds of nature. One side of the island is very rugged, great for mountain climbing and bouldering, and the other side of the island is flatter, with forests, great for hiking.

“Even when the weather is bad, people love it.”

Consequently, Sarah cares deeply about preserving the beautiful state of the island and its ecosystems – sustainability is an issue close to her heart. This is, in part, why she decided to become involved in the program as one of the very first ‘locals’. 

“When I first heard about ‘Meet the Locals’, I was studying ecotourism – that is, how to have people come to visit the island, in a sustainable way.”

“The best part is that now I get to show the beautiful natural space in which I live, but I also get to have conversations and learn about other cultures. Sometimes we really click. Everyone I’ve met has offered to show me around their own region!”

Sarah now shows visitors around the island in the form of hikes that can be catered to any ability and level of fitness. Sometimes, she even invites her visitors for a bracing swim. 

“If you come, bring your swimming gear, I swim all year round. However, not everybody joins me!”

Find out how you can explore one of Sweden’s most beautiful islands with Sarah, someone who knows it by heart

Sarah Lycksten and one of her visitors.

Even though she didn’t join Sarah in the water, Tripti Lalvani, originally from India now living in Gothenburg, had high praise for her time on Hönö.

“I spent almost a day with her. We walked around all of Hönö and I got to see the community and the beautiful nature. I also saw Sarah’s workshop, where she works with photographs. Yes, it was wonderful – an outstanding experience!

“I must have travelled to fifteen or twenty countries, and I haven’t encountered anything like this. These are people who want to show the very best of their country, and it gives people access to places many never think of visiting.

“Hönö is such a beautiful island, it’s a place I’ve returned to two or three times since meeting Sarah. 

“The landscape of the islands is utterly unique – and even better: Hönö is very easily accessible. It’s easy to get to by bus and ferry.”

Sarah’s island hikes have made her one of the most popular ‘locals’ taking part in the program, with many visitors. What she wants to stress however is that Hönö and her hikes are something that can be done at any time of the year. 

“I’d like to invite people to the island all year round – not just summer, but autumn and winter too, the island is especially beautiful all the time!”

Visiting the islands and the coast in September means less crowds, less traffic, but no less beautiful an environment – you can enjoy some of Sweden’s best scenery all to yourselves!

Sarah’s local tips on and around Hönö

  • Experience beautiful landscapes along the Kustigen Coastal Path 
  • Go island-hopping by bike around the Gothenburg archipelago
  • Learn about Hönö’s past at the Fishing Museum 

Curious to explore? 

Whether you’re living in Sweden or just visiting, Meet the Locals has something for everyone. 

You might end up cruising around Låstad in a classic car or learning about the history of Gothenburg from a true local. You could be mountain biking through green forests, or baking iconic Swedish cinnamon buns – the possibilities grow each year. 

‘Meet the Local’ offerings are free or low cost, are readily accessible by public transport and many are available no matter what the season. This is a program that everyone can take part in. 

Join people from around the world in discovering western Sweden’s greatest treasures, its locals

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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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