Håkan Stenlund

Lenin was here. And then he went home and started a revolution. There is a blue plaque in the waiting room at Haparanda train station that tells us how Lenin, the old comrade, stopped here in Haparand...

In the old days, you could be arrested for loitering. Ambling along in the world without plans was seen as very suspicious behaviour. These days it’s different, and spending a day doing nothing is mor...

Bertil Harström, a fly fisherman and architect, has already turned 70. This afternoon he takes a stroll outside Arctic Bath, a new cold bath-house on the Lule River outside Harads. The concept was bor...

Kaffeost In Tornedalen, the coffee cheese is called kahvijuusto, and in Swedish we call it kaffeost. It could be a fresh cheese that in many ways resembles the Italian mozzarella. But in northern Swed...

A steady, refreshing breeze blows through the forest at Arctic Retreat. Sometimes the wind grabs hold of the trees around the log cabin, where I am staying. The trees sway gently in time with Nature. ...

Eric Gallardo drives fast. The chicane on what’s a perfect copy of the formula-1 track, Paul Ricard, on the metre-thick ice of Lake Uddjaur comes up very quickly. Unlike Eric Gallardo’s own knuckles o...

Red log cabins in a kind of organised chaos around one of northern Sweden’s most beautiful churches – this might not be a completely accurate picture of World Heritage Gammelstad, but that’s what it f...

Chad Blakley’s interest in photography began at an early age. As a teenager, he worked for a local newspaper in a small town outside New Orleans, Louisiana. During his college years, he started a smal...

Our home, Swedish Lapland, has been formed by the Ice Age, the seasons and the reindeer. And we, too, have lived our lives in the shadow of the forces of nature. At Nutti Sámi Siida in Jukkasjärvi, a ...

Experiencing the Northern Lights is on many people’s bucket list. Travellers from around the world head north to experience the celestial phenomenon, hoping to snap a picture of it. Been there, done t...

In Junosuando, a village located on the Arctic Circle in Swedish Lapland, there’s a statue of Leonhard Seppala. He’s one of the world’s most famous mushers. This is the story about Leonhard himself, h...

Out in the woods, beyond the end of the road in Särkimukka, lies a kennel and many magical miles of track. People from all over the world come here to experience winter and an Arctic adventure. Most o...

Mathias Dahlgren won the world chef championship, Bocuse d’Or, already back in 1997 and today he’s one of Sweden’s most famous chefs. His restaurant Matsalen at Grand Hôtel in Stockholm was named one ...

The habitat and existence of the reindeer are under constant threat. Global warming is now a reality, just as the Ice Age was a reality, about ten thousand years ago. The reindeer adapted to the expan...

In Sweden we love our coffee, and so-called boiled coffee (coarse ground and brought to the boil in a pan) is in many ways the national drink of Swedish Lapland. Preferably served with all the trimmin...

It’s all about turning. No jumps, no flips, no rails. Just the beautiful art of being able to turn on a snowboard. But apart from that Riks Banked Slalom is just a great happening in May. Riks Banked ...

You might think that in the Arctic, we have darkness or daylight. In the winter, the sun never rises above the horizon, and in the summer, the sun never sets. But in fact, we have light all year round...

Abisko National Park, in Swedish Lapland, offers some of the best conditions in the world for northern lights watching. The unique climate of the area keep the skies almost clear, and the light pollut...

What happens when you combine a delicious dining experience with the world’s best location for the northern lights? Well, perhaps you can call it a perfect night at the station. The place for northern...

We were kindly allowed to read the guestbook from Logger’s Lodge, filled with ecstatic reviews from world celebrities, ordinary people and people in love who have visited to forget about all the must-...

What started with a film featuring a small wooden hut in the forest has become a cool hotel. These days Treehotel in Harads is considered one of the world’s major travel destinations. ...

When extreme swimmer Christof Wandratsch became the first person to cross lake Boden and broke the world record across the English channel, he found himself looking for new challenges. He found winter...

Places still exist where there’s no point asking for the password for the wifi. Places where you leave your mobile behind to spend some quality time with others – or perhaps with yourself. The Sámi ec...

Treehotel in Harads is more than just a design favourite among the treetops. Returning after a day packed full of experiences there’s a treat in the form of locally produced food from Swedish Lapland ...

Kristoffer Turdell from Gällivare is the newly-crowned champion of Freeride World Tour, the World Championship of Extreme skiing. His scene might be all the mountains in the world, but it’s still a ru...

Niekhu means dream in Northern Sámi. In Riksgränsen two friends have just built a hotel called Niehku. Below we list four reasons why you should choose to live the dream for a while. The first impress...

The world’s most successful trail runner, Tina Emelie Forsberg, ran the entire King’s Trail in summer 2018. When others take three to four weeks to do a ‘through hike’, Emelie ran it in less than five...

The sauna Solar Egg was created by Riksbyggen together with artist duo Bigert & Bergström and installed in Kiruna. Since then the sauna has become a global success and taken on a tour around the world...

In the forests of Harads he has designed both the most natural kind of accommodation you’d expect to find: a bird’s nest, and the most unnatural: a UFO. Now he has designed a cold-water public bath as...

Perhaps summer and swimming aren’t what first springs to mind when you think of Swedish Lapland. But, in fact, there are plenty of cool beaches and places to go for a swim – thanks to the inland ice. ...

People who have visited Riksgränsen during these last 20 years or so are familiar with “Strumpan” and “Jossi”. One of them used to run the piste machine and is now a mountain guide. The other one used...

Good skiing usually depends on one thing and one thing only: good snow. But good snow has many enemies. Sunshine, temperature and wind can all mess with the fluffiness of snow. It’s best protected by ...

Sápmi Nature Camp is located just outside Gällivare. In many ways, it’s a completely different world, a place to go if you want to change a little. Sápmi Nature Camp in Gällivare, north of the Arctic ...

So you’ve gone to Swedish Lapland, Sweden’s Arctic destination, to experience the magical northern lights. Here are seven simple tips on how to get some good pictures of the beautiful light phenomenon...

Four kilometres beyond the end of the public road you’ll find the village Särkimukka in the Torne Valley. In the middle of the woods, on a frozen lake, this is home to some ten people and hundreds of ...

Many think autumn is the most beautiful time of year in Swedish Lapland. It’s as if Earth itself grants a generous firework display of colour before the winter sleep settles over the Arctic landscape....

Imagine a holiday without a single update in the feed. With Facebook quiet as a summer’s night and with birdsong dominating over the buzz of mobile phones. Tjuonajokk, on the Kaitum River, is a place ...

One brewer used to build cars for NASCAR, another is a trained social worker and a third is a business developer at the University of Luleå. Beer interest is growing and in Swedish Lapland, there are ...

Two villages with the same name on either side of the mighty Torne River. Kukkolaforsen is something very special and in many ways, it proves that the Torne Valley is a world of its own, filled with t...

Most things in life aren’t as obvious as they might seem. On one side of lake Torneträsk, we find Vádvečohkka (Vadvetjåkka) National Park, one of Sweden’s wettest areas. On the other side of the same ...

But that doesn’t happen very often. Most fish are ridiculously small, hardly worth mentioning. Honestly, who wants to hear the story about when you caught a couple of char that were big enough to fill...

Photographer Mattias Fredriksson started out as a cleaner at Hotel Riksgränsen. Then he picked up a camera. Today he’s the most published skiing photographer in the world, still with a soft spot for t...

The world’s longest cross-country ski race, 220 km, take place in Jokkmokk. How did it all begin? And why? It’s hard to know what goes through the head of someone who’s about to travel 200 km on skis....

Bob de Jong is an Olympic champion. He’s also the oldest skater in modern times to win an Olympic medal. Last winter he went for a couple of runs up in Swedish Lapland.Dutchman Bob Johannes Carolus ...

Last year, in February, three of the world’s greatest freeskiers, Reine Barkered, Aurelien Ducroz and Jackie Paaso, went to Björkliden to see the northern lights and do some skiing. I called Reine to ...

The Dutch filmmaker Marco Lubbers had a dream: To go speedskating under the northern lights. And he also wanted to make a film about it. For that, he travelled to Swedish Lapland. Marco Lubbers is a f...

As far away as you can get from industrial foods, you’ll find Sámi food traditions. Nothing goes to waste. Everything has its own unique flavour. Meet Ingrid Pilto, a Sámi food creator. At home in he...

Sámi design comes in many shapes. Some of Sweden’s coolest designers have taken the Sámi expression further – to put some excitement into everyday life. ...

One of nature’s most beautiful displays takes place during a couple of weeks every summer. A mayfly called Ephemera vulgata hatches and every single fish in the lake go crazy when presented with such ...

What happens when a father and son decide to spend a couple of days in the Gulf of Bothnia archipelago? Well, first you have to promise that there will be mobile phone coverage and then keep your fing...

The Sámi call it Badjelánnda – the Higher Land. It’s part of Laponia and a favourite location for those who want to be on their own for a bit. In the beginning of autumn, our co-worker Håkan Stenlund ...

In Sámi it’s called Geargevággi, which translates to Stone Valley in English. But in real life, it might as well be a fairytale. — What the —-, have you seen anything cooler than this, Zach? The Ameri...

Dog sledding through vast expanses of white is in many ways synonymous with a winter adventure in Swedish Lapland. Håkan Stenlund took a tour with the company Erlebnis Wildnis in the Vindelfjällen Nat...

Equipped with a reindeer skin and an ice drill, an ice fishing rod and maggots, our friend Håkan Stenlund welcome spring on the ice around Saltoluokta. Winter fishing has never been more enjoyable. On...

The Arctic climate calls for certain innovations to master the art of ice fishing. To close a door on the cold, be comfortable and catch a fish you sometimes need a whole house. But inside the house t...

Snow is something more than frozen water to the Sami people. It’s a way of expressing the foundation of their existence – the migration of the reindeer. To a skier, snow is also more than snow. It’s t...

When the rest of Sweden prepare for spring, Björkliden and Riksgränsen open for the winter season. Håkan Stenlund goes north, to the playground of the fanatics. “Thank you for this weekend”. “Thank yo...

On the first weekend in February, every year since 1605, the Jokkmokk market is held. Apart from world-class Sami art, culture and handicraft, visitors are normally greeted by proper, cold winter weat...

One thousand, two hundred and twenty-eight metres above sea level is where you find Sweden’s highest mountain station: Låktatjåkko. It takes you a couple of hours to walk there from Björkliden and hal...