Southern Sweden
Manor houses, vineyards, the sea never far.
Southern Sweden is the Sweden the Swedes themselves think of as abroad: flat, Danish in character, with beech woods instead of pine and a coast that in summer is warmer than you'd credit a country on the Arctic Circle.
Skåne is farmland: rapeseed fields in May, manor estates with avenues, whitewashed churches, and a cuisine that comes from the soil — asparagus, potatoes, apples from Kivik. Malmö is a bridge away from Copenhagen. Halland further north is rougher: sand dunes, windsurfers, forests down to the sea.
And then wine. In Halland, near Tvååker, wine grows in a valley that is taken seriously — Solaris, Rondo, names to remember because they'll come back.
Southern Sweden is the summer you don't expect in Scandinavia.
We recommend southern Sweden to families who want summer without heat, and to couples looking for a manor estate that isn't in England. Maryhill Estate in Glumslöv, above the Öresund: a country estate with 163 rooms, park and pool, that is large and doesn't feel it. Ästad Vingård in Halland: a winery with restaurant, spa and rooms in the forest — you sleep where the wine grows. Come in June when the nights don't get dark, or at the end of August for the crayfish.
