Hi all,
I’m going to write in English since my Swedish is not ‘mycket bra’ yet! (I’m from Belgium)
So, we’ve been learning swedish with DuoLingo (150 day streak already!) since we want to have our first holiday in Sweden. We are campers and nature lovers, but would also like to see some nice villages or towns, otherwise we wouldn’t learn a lot from Sweden if we stay in a national park for 2 weeks.
We would like to go to the region of Småland and have been looking for campsites there. Our favorite so far is [camping Mjolknabben](https://mjolknabben.se/?lang=en), but we wonder if it is not too remote. Is there enough to do for first time visitors to Sweden? We are avid hikers and would love to canoe too, but are there any nice cultural, touristy things nearby? Or do you recommend another campsite in Småland?
tack så mycket!
12 comments
Not too much to do or see there except the beautiful scenery. Spend one or two nights and drive to Öland.
Its not to remove, the city Växjö nearby is a big student city and is guaranteed to have alot of stuff to do. Most small villages might have a few museums and stuff but not really anything to do. As for cultural things im not that well versed in. But if you have questions about it you should call the camp site and ask them about activitys and nearby hiking routes, most speak english so that wont be your biggest problem.
I’ve never been to southern Småland, but if you go farther north there are a lot of trails you can follow to look and historic and old Norse sites of different kinds. You could also make sure to be closer to Vättern and go cross-county there, as there are a bunch of more touristy spots on the eastern side, like Gränna or Hästholmen. You don’t spend more than a day in any of those towns really, they’re pretty small. Especially Hästholmen mostly has an ice cream cafe and rock carvings.
I don’t do any camping so I can’t help you there though.
I grow up on the border of Småland and Östergötland and summertime there are tons of campers from Germany and the Netherlands.
There are plenty of campsites with different standards from around Linköping and Norrköping and south down to Hultsfred and Västervik. If you come by car you can pick and choose depending what you prefer, like forest areas or archipelago in the Baltic Sea.
Would like to suggest that you go to Blekinge and find a nice campsite near Karlskrona. Then you have access to both the nice city of Karlskrona, the archipelago around it with very nice nature and you can easily make day trips to Kalmar and Öland which are nice and tourist-friendly places in the summer.
Välkomna!
You can look here: https://www.swedishtouristassociation.com for trails and other experiences!
go to Ystad in the summer.
I’m born in Sweden but I couldn’t believe how cozy it was there.
there may be a gazillion tourists there during summer.
https://www.sverigesnationalparker.se/storemosse <— thats a really nice place to visit if you like nature!
Mjölknabben by Åsnen is absolutely a great choice for camping, the lake and the national park are very pretty! Other large forest lakes nearby also worth visiting are Möckeln by Älmhult and Helgasjön up by Växjö. For canoeing it’s also not far to the lakes Immeln, Halen, Raslången and Flikesjön, which are all connected as a long canoeing trail on the border between Skåne and Blekinge. Canoes for these lakes can be rented in the village of Immeln or in Olofström.
A very nice cultural historical sight nearby is Råshult just north of Älmhult, which is the childhood home of the famous biologist Carl Linnaeus (Carl von Linné). Besides seing his old homestead, there are also walking trails with very beautiful old flowery meadows and forest, and it is just an amazing feeling to walk in Linnaeus’s footsteps in the very nature that inspired him.
Outside of Emmaboda not that far away towards the northeast you will also find Duvemåla, which is the setting of the classic Swedish novels The Emmigrants and The Settlers by Vilhelm Moberg, about poor Swedish farmers who emigrated to America in the 19th century. Like Råshult, Duvemåla features old preserved buildings and a preserved landscape of old fields and meadows still managed in a traditional manner.
And another famous sight in the immediate area is the glassworks factory at Kosta near Lessebo. Here you can see the fascinating glassworking process for yourselves inside of the factory with its skilled workers, and have a look at the amazing glassware in the art gallery and buy some glassware for yourselves in the shop. This part of Småland is called ”Glasriket” – ”The Glass Country”.
First off, wait until at least june until you come here, it’s not fun until summer….
I’m just gonna add a tip that might not be particularily relevant, since It sounds like you’re looking for a slightly more touristy location, but:
Allemansrätten (freedom to roam) means you can legally set up camp essentially anywhere you want, on anyone’s land, as long as you vow not to disrupt nature, or camp on someone’s literal lawn.
If you’d rather explore nature freely without the hassle of booking a camp, or if you want a few nights out in the woods, I just though you should know!
Lycka till, hope you’ll enjoy it here! 🙂
Like others have said there are a ton of campsites and hotels around Älmhult, Växjö and Tingsryd. Of course a car makes everything easier but we even have a lot of foreign bike turist in the area during the summer.