Other budget accommodation

Some budget accommodation categories in Sweden are hard to identify by name. A mixture of borrowed English names and traditional Swedish names are in use, making a difficult landscape to navigate. Online booking websites lump many properties together. Some accommodation tips for travellers are below.

Guesthouses & private rooms

A gästgivaregård or gästgiveri, best translated as inn, recalls historical concepts of accommodation and is likely to be housed in preserved and graceful traditional buildings in rural settings. These might or might not be inexpensive, much depending on their market positioning – some of these are luxury properties. Breakfast could be considered usual, but potential guests should inquire if the offer is not explicit.

The term B&B is now common in Sweden and could be in a city or a rural setting. The website bedandbreakfast.eu lists more than 500 Swedish properties, some using the name hotel.

Apartments & self-catering

The Wimdu.com site is one of the larger booking websites, offering a range of property types, covering tens of thousands of Swedish properties. Airbnb.com and Vrbo.com are other sites listing Swedish properties on a large scale.

Camping & caravan parks

The peak summer season for camping is in June and July. Spring and autumn are also popular with many campers but the climatic differences between the north and south of the country need to be taken into account when choosing locations. Motorhomes (RVs) are now popular as a way to enjoy Sweden’s pristine landscapes. See the Landscapes & outdoors section below for notes on the allemansrätten common access right.

The Camping.se website is a convenient portal for booking campsites that are members of the national body SCR Svensk Camping. Swedentips.se is another useful site, and more than 300 Swedish locations are on the Eurocampings site. To survey camper vans and motorhomes, visit Swedentips, Skanditrip.com or Campervansweden.com.

Holiday cottages

Summer cottages (sommarstugor) have been a traditional rural possession of Swedish families since the 19th century. Most often these are simple, red-painted (using Falu rödfärg) timber buildings intended for enjoying the outdoor life in the sparkling and forested Swedish landscape and are especially popular in lakeside, coastal and archipelago regions.

Today these are usually offered at weekly or monthly rental rates to visitors, but sometimes day rates can be given. Many are quite simple, others fully equipped. Travellers should expect to supply towels and bed linen, but be clear in communication with hosts. These items might be available for rental too. The Stugnet.com rental website lists private owners and holiday services offering almost 1500 properties by province in English. The TripTo.se site collects several hundred properties. Stugknuten.com site is similar, offering a mixture of traditional cabins and holiday houses. See also the Wimdu.com site.

The Casamundo aggregator website, operates under the umbrella of Home to Go, searchable by availability period, in the cabin, lodge and house categories, and by price (which is listed in euro or the user currency). The properties listed at the Stay Nordic site are searchable by region and many are on a larger scale, offering saunas and spas.

Farm accommodation

Many booking websites include farm holiday options, but it's worth consulting the offers at the specialist site Farmstaysweden.com, which has both self-catering and bed-and-breakfast offers with ample detail.

Mountain accommodation

Apart from the STF mountain cabins and stations (see STF hostels above), there are many winter resorts. The Visit Sweden website counts more than 100. Costs at many of these are much higher.

The winter sports resorts of Åre, Duved and Storlien in Jämtland are on the railway line between Östersund and Trondheim and Östersund has its own winter sports district. Hemavan and Gällivare (near the slopes of Dundret) are the in the far north in Lapland.

Idre and Sälen in Dalarna have to be reached by road.

Easier on the budget could be the village of Abisko on the line to Narvik at Sweden's northern tip is a haven for Nordic skiers but also popular in summer, being at the northern end of the Kungsleden hiking trail and Abisko nationalpark and on the shore of the sub-Arctic lake Torneträsk. The nearby Abisko Turiststation (with its own rail station) is run by STF and the slopes of Björkliden and a handful of mountain hotels and huts are in the area, as well as a chairlift. Single rooms outside peak season cost about 1,000kr and dorm beds less than 500kr.