Sweden ranked fifth in the 2026 World Happiness Report, and part of the secret seems to be that it never takes itself too seriously. That playful streak shows up most clearly in its small towns, where locals celebrate their quirk. In Jukkasjärvi, a Lapland village of a few hundred people, guests sleep in a hotel built from Torne River ice that melts away every spring. Haparanda shares a border square with Tornio, Finland, so you can ring in the New Year twice in one night. Sveg greets drivers with a 13-meter wooden bear billed as the world’s largest. Ullared, a pine-forest village of around 1,200 people, is home to Scandinavia‘s largest superstore, complete with its own reality-TV series. Pack your sense of humor and read on for 11 offbeat Swedish towns to visit in 2026.
Jukkasjärvi
Icehotel in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden. Image credit: Nowaczyk / Shutterstock.com.
Where the Torne River widens enough that it looks like a lake, over 100 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle, the small town of Jukkasjärvi holds one of the world’s most famous ephemeral works of architecture: the Icehotel. Originally founded in 1989 by Yngve Bergqvist, a new hotel is built each winter from Torne River ice and melts away each spring. In 2016, they opened Icehotel 365, offering ice suites and an ice bar year-round via solar cooling. The temperature inside the ice rooms stays between -5°C and -8°C (23°F to 18°F), and guests sleep on reindeer hides inside heavy-duty, expedition-grade thermal sleeping bags.
While the Icehotel is the most popular draw for Jukkasjärvi, the small village of a few hundred people has a few other attractions. The Jukkasjärvi Church, originally built in 1608, is among Sweden’s oldest wooden churches still in use. Its timber-framed facade is painted red, and the church has a free-standing belfry with the gated entry. Next door is Márkanbáiki, an open-air museum ran by Nutti Sámi Siida (Sámi ecotourism company). Here are reconstructed Sámi camps, exhibitions on nomadic history, and reindeer grazing areas. Reindeers usually do not appear from late April to early June.
Boden
Beautiful architecture in Boden, Sweden. Image credit: Tommy Alven / Shutterstock.com.
The town of Boden is a goldmine of military history. Starting in 1901, a girdle fortress of five artillery forts was built into the hills around town. These were set up to defend the local iron-ore fields, spanning a 25-kilometer perimeter with around 1,200 structures, ready to house 15,000 soldiers in World War II. The last fort in service was Rödbergsfortet, decommissioned in January 1998 and opened to the public in the year 2000. Guided tours bring visitors deep inside the mountain, explaining the history and the stories of the fortress.
To continue the historical tour, visitors can head to Försvarsmuseum Boden, where Sweden’s military history and Boden’s role as a defensive city are explained through exhibitions and stories. Located in the same building is the Boden Art Hall, with exhibits of contemporary art. In central Boden, there are four cannons at Kvarnängen that still fire the national salute on holidays. This fortress has been a salute battery since 1931.
Haparanda
Haparanda archipelago National Park in Haparanda, Sweden. Image credit: Sebw / Shutterstock.com.
Haparanda, Sweden, and Tornio, Finland, have practically merged into a 32,000-person city sitting on top of a national border. Two languages, two currencies, and even two timezones (Finland is one hour ahead), all within two cities hugging each other. The cross-border cooperation leads to some interesting traditions. Victoria Square sits on the border, and locals use this space to celebrate New Year’s Eve twice: midnight in Tornio, then walk across the square and repeat the celebration an hour later in Haparanda. The Green Zone Golf Course also straddles the border, so players can tee off in Sweden then putt in Finland.
About 15 kilometers north of Haparanda is the Kukkolankoski Rapids, famous for its sauna culture and fishing techniques. In this area, the sauna is considered an essential, almost sacred daily ritual. At the Kukkolaforsen Turist & Konferens resort, visitors can visit the Sauna Village and its open-air Sauna Museum, which consists of around 18 historic saunas showcasing the evolution of the practice. As for the local fishing technique, fishers in the area traditionally practiced whitefish netting with hand-built wooden racks. According to the local tourism board, this technique is documented only here and in parts of the Amazon.
Sveg
The railway station at Sveg, Sweden. Image credit: Arild Vågen via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).
The town of Sveg is guarded by a Träbjörnen, a 13-meter wooden bear built in the early 2000s. Billed as the world’s largest wooden bear, it reportedly weighs 80 tonnes and used 570,000 nails in its construction. An odd roadside attraction for Sweden’s most sparsely populated region, but if a visitor would like to see real bears, they can do what the locals do: utilize the network of unpaved logging and forest roads branching out of Sveg into the forests of Härjedalen, one of the most bear-dense regions in all of Europe. Taking a slow drive at twilight or dawn during the summer months gives visitors a high chance of spotting a wild bear crossing the road.
Back in town, the surprising cultural hub of Sveg is Café Cineast, a movie-themed cafe that feels very misplaced in a remote logging town of 2,500 people. Covered from floor to ceiling in 1950s cinematic memorabilia, horror props, classic Hollywood posters, and vintage Americana, the cafe acts as a time capsule for a place very far from Sveg. Locals and visitors can grab a traditional Swedish fika (coffee and cinnamon buns) while sitting beneath replicas of classic monsters and silver-screen icons.
Rättvik
Large water fountain in the central town square in Rättvik, Sweden. Image credit: Woodan / Shutterstock.com.
Located on the eastern shore of Lake Siljan, the town of Rättvik is the birthplace of Swedish lake tourism and home to what is widely considered the longest lake pier in the world, the Långbryggan. The wooden pier is 628 meters (2,060 feet) long, from the shoreline to the steamboat dock. The shores of the lake are incredibly shallow, with water being only knee-deep for hundreds of meters, so the long pier is necessary for boats to dock. During summer months, the pier is the center point for swimming along the sandy beaches and lunch and evening cruises around the lake. During the winter, the lake freezes over completely, and the pier becomes a starting checkpoint for long-distance Nordic ice skaters exploring Lake Siljan.
Just seven kilometers north of Rättvik, in the pine forests of Dalarna, is one of the most visually impressive open-air music arenas in the world. Named Dalhalla, the area was originally a limestone quarry that closed down in 1990. The abandoned pit was found to be an acoustically perfect location for summer concerts and opened as a performance stage in 1995. Initially popular for opera, today the venue hosts international acts across all genres. With no roof and concerts happening rain or shine, visitors must have a rain poncho, warm layers, and sturdy walking shoes for the rocky canyon floor.
Nusnäs
A vintage car and a traditional Dala horse in front of a local store in Nusnäs, Sweden. Image credit: Alexanderstock23 / Shutterstock.com.
Around 30 kilometers west of Rättvik, also on the shore of Lake Siljan, is the town of Nusnäs. Sweden’s most famous handicraft, the red Dala horse (Dalahäst), is still mostly made in this village. The two rival workshops are just a few meters from each other: Grannas A. Olssons Hemslöjd and Nils Olsson Dalahästar. Visitors can go to either, or both, shops to watch carvers and painters at work and buy horses from palm-sized all the way to several meters tall. Both shops also offer guided tours and even painting workshops, but spots are limited and weather-dependent, so always double-check their websites.
These two shops were born out of a teenage-brother rivalry. In the 1920s, the Olsson brothers started carving horses to make extra money. But for unknown reasons, they began competing, with Grannas Anders Olsson starting in 1922 and the younger brothers, Nils and Jannes, opening Nils Olsson Dalahästar in 1928. For a century, these two rival workshops have faced off on the same road, each claiming the best craftsmanship. For those not interested in the finest craftsmanship, both shops sell QA-rejected imperfect horses, often sold at a massive discount, or kept around the shops as a strange graveyard of rejected horses.
Sala
City center in Sala, Sweden. Image credit: art of line / Shutterstock.com.
If someone ever wanted to sleep in a mine, the town of Sala is where to visit. Sala’s wealth came from silver: the Sala Silver Mine was worked from the 15th century until 1908. Today, the mine is a museum complex with above-ground exhibitions and guided trips underground. Up until 2024, visitors could stay at the Mine Suite, a hotel room 155 meters deep that is now permanently closed. Billed as the world’s deepest hotel suite, the Mine Suite was just one room. Above ground is the Bed & Breakfast Marketenteriet, still available for those interested in staying on the historic ground of the mine.
While in town, visitors should stop at the Aguéli Museum to see how a quiet silver-mining town produced one of the most eccentric counter-culture figures of the 19th century. Born in the town in 1869, Ivan Aguéli was a pioneering post-impressionist painter and a radical animal-rights anarchist who was arrested in Paris for shooting a matador at a bullfight. As one of the first Europeans to move to Egypt, he converted to Islam and became an official Sufi scholar. The size of a town can never define the size of an individual’s personality.
Gränna
The small-town harbor of Gränna, Sweden. Image credit: FotoHelin / Shutterstock.com.
The Christmas candy cane was inspired by the “polkagris,” the iconic Swedish peppermint candy stick that was born in the town of Gränna. Tourists keep coming back to Gränna because it is an aromatic, open-air factory. Walking down the main street of Brahegatan, visitors will pass about a dozen polkagriskokorier (candy bakeries), where massive storefront windows allow visitors to watch candy makers knead, stretch, twist, and cut the dough by hand. These windows also give the air an intense smell of boiling sugar and peppermint oil. This multi-million-dollar industry of peppermint began with a 35-year-old widow named Amalia Eriksson in 1859 and continues to today.
Of course, the shops’ main seller is the standard red-and-white peppermint stick. But many modern shops have introduced a bizarre array of flavor variations, ranging from salty licorice and violet to gin & tonic or mojito. Speaking of cocktails, a popular tradition for visitors is to be an empty souvenir bottle filled only with broken shards of polkagris. The visitors then return to their hotels, add Swedish vodka to the bottle, and wait for the sugar to dissolve. What’s left is a fiery, neon-pink, highly alcoholic peppermint infusion that locals drink as a celebratory winter shot.
Eksjö
Colorful timber houses alongside a channel in the Swedish town Eksjö. Image credit: trabantos / Shutterstock.com.
The Gamla stan (Old Town) of Eksjö is one of Europe’s best-preserved wooden towns. There are over 50 listed timber buildings from the 1600s to the 1800s in the area, though many have been burned and rebuilt (either in 1568 during the Northern Seven Years’ War, or in 1856). For fans of mystery fiction, Eksjö was a common filming location for all three of the Wallander television franchises. The shows are mainly set in Ystad, but when the story requires an inland wooden village aesthetic, production is shot in Eksjö’s pristine timber streets.
Amongst the wooden town center is the Aschanska Gården (The Aschan House), a time-capsule of a traditional home at the end of the 20th century. The home belonged to the wealthy Aschan family, who ran a tannery business starting in the 1830s. The last resident, Hedda Aschan, died in 1984 and left the house to the municipality under one condition: absolutely nothing inside could be moved, modernized, updated, or even touched. The residence-museum is open for guided visits during the summer (June to August). The rest of the year, only those booking group visits through the Eksjö Museum and Tourist Center are allowed inside.
Älmhult
Ikea Museum in Älmhult, Sweden. Image credit: Jeppe Gustafsson / Shutterstock.com.
Ingvar Kamprad founded IKEA as a mail-order firm in 1943 and then opened the first IKEA store in Älmhult in 1958. That original store is now the IKEA Museum, opened in 2016, and remains the world’s only IKEA museum. Around the corner from the museum is the IKEA Hotel, opened in 1964, and their education center across the street. Their heavily secured testing laboratory, where giant robotic arms simulate furniture usage, is not open for tours. For those wanting to do some actual shopping, Älmhult’s IKEA store is just on the edge of town, with full warehouse and offerings and the requisite Swedish meatballs. With an opening planned for 2027, an old abandoned IKEA warehouse in town will be converted to the Museum of Furniture Studies.
For an experience completely separate from IKEA, head to Vakö Myr just outside town. This is a massive, ancient peat bog that was destroyed in a wildfire in 1992. It is a flat, barren, and treeless landscape that is an impressive contrast to simplistic, ready-made furniture. Visitors can walk across its wooden footbridges for an otherworldly feeling, experiencing a silent, moss-covered, and desolate wasteland.
Ullared
Shoppers head toward the entrance of the famous Swedish department store, Gekås Ullared. Image credit: Natalia Bohren / Shutterstock.com.
To continue the shopping tourism, Ullared is a pine-forest village of around 1,200 people that is also Sweden’s most-visited shopping destination. In 2025, four million customers visited the giant discount superstore named Gekås Ullared. Founded in 1963 by Göran Karlsson on the ground floor of a house, the store has its own reality-TV franchise called “Ullared”, a live queue webcam, an on-site hotel village named Gekåsbyn (one of Sweden’s most-booked tourist accommodation), and Musasjön, a lakeside beach right next to the parking lots.
In the late 19th century, Ullared was a major train junction where two different private railway lines converged: the Varberg-Ätran line and the Falkenberg line (nicknamed Pyttebanan or “The Teeny-Tiny Train Track”). The trains stopped running in the 1960s, right around the time Gekås opened, but the old railway embankments were never torn down. Today, visitors and locals can hike or bike right out of the village along the Pyttebaneleden. The trail is dotted with historical trail markers, old iron crossings, and abandoned station signs like the one at Fridhemsberg, sitting isolated in the middle of dense pine forests.
A Playful Side Of Sweden
If you’re looking for proof that Sweden’s happiness comes with a healthy sense of humor, start with its small towns. In Haparanda, golfers tee off in Sweden and putt in Finland, rival Dala horse workshops in Nusnäs have faced off on the same road for a century, and Gränna’s candy makers twist peppermint sticks in flavors like gin and tonic. For anyone ready to trade a checklist of big-city sights for a few good laughs, these offbeat towns show why Sweden ranks among the happiest countries on Earth.