The Vibe: Forest Magic.

The Area: Relatively remote, in the little town of Harads, about 70 minutes from the airport of Luleå, in Swedish Lapland. Reindeers with their Sámi herders and the Arctic Circle are easy day trips away and the hotel is well placed for fishing in summer or ice fishing in winter with the wide Lule River a few minutes away. There is a small clearing above the tree houses from which the Northern lights can be seen well on a clear night.

Have you ever considered sleeping in a bird’s nest, a UFO or in a mirror cube? Probably not, but when it comes to design and architecture in Sweden, everything is possible it seems.

The DNA: The Treehotel all started in 2010 with Britta and Kent Lindvall’s dream to turn a 1930s retirement home into a guesthouse in their home village Harads, in the North of Sweden. The end result was not an ordinary B&B – it turned into a tree hotel complete with seven huts inspired by the film The Tree Lover. 

Suite-Me-Up: The rooms are suspended 4-6 metres above ground with views of Lule river valley, the tall pine trees and if you’re lucky – the northern lights. In order to make each hut unique, various Scandinavian architects, including Norwegian architects Snøhetta, Swedish Tham & Videgård Arkitekter, and Finnish-Icelandic-Norwegian studio Rintala Eggertsson Architects have put their mark on the design. 

✅ free Wi-Fi • size matters: 7 cabins (16-72m2) (172-775 sq ft) • hotel opened: 2010 • architecture & design: Bolle Tham and Martin Videgård (Mirrorcube), Bertil Harström (Bird’s Nest/UFO/sauna), Mårten and Gustav Cyrén (The Cabin), Rintala Eggertsson (The Dragonfly), Thomas Sandell (The Blue Cone), Snøhetta (7th Room) ✅ free parking nearby • no pets allowed