Sweden Winter Experience

The trip starts in the mid of februrary and the temeperature is about -13 °C/8,6 °F. This temperature might seem very low but due to the low humidity you actually don't really feel the cold as much as you would in more humid regions of the world. Thus a lot of people actually dry meat by hanging it in the backyard even though it is snowing. That being said you should drink a lot of water, especially if you are out and about walking around, because at the end of the day you are just another walking piece of meat :)

Airport Kiruna

Accomodation
Alright, so we stayed at Camp Ripan which is located in the north of the city centre. The city centre is a 10 min walk ayway from the camp and you need 15-20 min by bus back to the airport. The camp site is divided in housing cabins, spa & gym and reception & restaurant. We had a family cabin which comes with a small stove, fridge, table, chairs, extra beds, etc... basically anything a 4 people household could need. The cabins are not huge but sufficient. The hotel staff is very friendly and also refunded us because we found one of their advertised activities a bit cheaper at a local tour guide. Breakfast at Camp Ripan is top notch, the only thing that bothered me were the synthetic scrambled eggs and the costly but delicous cocktails (one costs around 16€).
A grocery store is located near by which comes in handy if you want prepare some lunches for throughout the day.

Camp Ripan

Cabin view

Activites
Put on your snowsuit and jump in the snow!
Beside this we went on a tour with a snowmobile costing around 900SEK which is around 90€ per person. This was probably the most fun and adventourus activity. The machines went up to 100km/h (62mph) and weighed around 300kg (661lbs). Needless to say you dont want lie beneath that thing. The tour went all the way through a forest and over a frozen lake. Three quarters in we stopped at a wooden cabin in the mid of a forest to have some hot juice with some selfcaught salmon soup. In the middle of the cabin was a fire place and while we were enjoying the heat of the fire and the flavour of the soup, the guide told stories about Kiruna.

The spa at camp site has 2 saunas, 1 steam bath, 1 indoor pool, 1 outside pool and several chairs to relax on while listening to nature sounds. You have to make a reservation for the spa and it costs around 25€ per person for 2 hours of relaxation. Something I really enjoyed was to jump in the snow when coming out of the sauna.

Seeing the aurora lights are a classic bucket list candidate and we had the luck of witnessing them emerge during a clear night and disappear in seconds. I have to say that I expected them to be a little more intense but I think we still got pretty lucky to see them during our 5 day stay. Also we didn't manage to get really far out in the nature while it was dark. I guess thats left for the next visit.

We kind of took the pictures when they were already disappearing...

Our experience wrapped up
Sweden is simply amazing, everybody is fluent in english, friendly and honest. Basically no fake smiles or "how are you's" like in the US. The nature is mostly untouched and overall beautiful. The houses are mostly made out of wood and you actually get the ikea vibe from the interior (if that is even a thing). We did notice that groceries are a bit more expensive, that may be due to the import costs from non seasonal goods like vegetables or fruits but also due to the general wealth of sweden. All in All its safe to say that Sweden is definitely worth a visit. If you want to see the aurora lights then go as far out as possible, that way the synthetic light doesn't interfere with this extraordinary experience!

Frozen Lake and surrounding forest

Kiruna Centre

Kiruna Centre

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