The Luleå archipelago is only 100 kilometres below the Arctic Circle, and here Brändön Lodge’s 15 cabins sit quite undisturbed at the edge of the mainland. The sea freezes up to a metre deep for the first few months of the year, when the moon is visible all day; in the summer months, the forest flourishes and midnight sun shines over 1,300 tiny islands, largely uninhabited – the archipelago’s entire population is about 100.
Each cabin has two comfortable bedrooms, living room and terrace, although the lure of Swedish Lapland means guests are likely to spend just as much time outdoors. It might be tracking down reindeer, eagles and foxes, or luxuriating over a three-course dinner in a huge tipi on the ice – an utterly unusual fine dining experience, seated on reindeer pelts beside flames flickering from a fire and the sea acting as a natural ice bucket. The intoxicating Arctic.
