HOW I SPENT 3 DAYS IN SWEDEN | STOCKHOLM & LULEA

Tuesday 22 March 2016

Hey guys! I've just got back from an exciting few days in Sweden - land of IKEA, Swedish meatballs and Abba & I can't wait to tell you all about it. I was invited along as part of a familiarisation trip for work, which involves some site visits and seeing the best of what the cities have to offer for us to pitch to our clients for incentive & business trips, to hold events or simply to visit as a tourist! I was very lucky to take part in a lot of exciting experiences as well as seeing the Northern Lights which was very unexpected!



Where To Stay 


The Sheraton Hotel




On the day of arrival in Sweden we stayed at The Sheraton hotel in Stockholm. Located in the city centre and just a 25 minute ride on the Arlanda Express from the airport! The rooms and staff were lovely, we were given a bottle of red wine in our room as well as some yummy sweets and biscuit/cracker type things (I'll need to find out what they're actually called. The beds were so comfortable (the Sheraton Sweet Sleeper bed!) it pained me to get out of bed at 7:30am as our stay there was short and sweet, but I'd gladly stay there again for a longer visit. We also had some lovely drinks and canapes in the lobby, and there was also a live DJ, creating the perfect evening atmosphere. For all of you in the events industry, it's also a great place to hold your meetings or have your clients stay for an incentive trip as they welcome up to 600 guests for a standing reception and have 10 meeting rooms with natural daylight.

Elite Hotel Stadshotellet



The other two nights in Sweden were spent in the 4* Elite Hotel in Lulea. For those of you who aren't aware where Lulea is, it's in the North of Sweden and is known as their "Swedish Lapland" which of course means you can also leave the city centre and stay in one of their many lodges such as
Brändön Lodge which is where we took part in most of our winter activities! (more on that later). The hotel itself was lovely, located just off the main "high street" of shops. The rooms were a decent size but most importantly, there full length mirror was rather slimming and made me look a lot better than I actually do. Only problems I found with the hotel were that the rooms were either too hot or too cold and there wasn't a way to adjust the temperature, but I also slept like a baby despite that.

The Savoy Hotel 



This was probably one of my favourite 4* hotels I'd seen in a while! Their hotel was very jazz/art deco themed with a large piano in the lounge. The rooms were very modernly decorated with bright colours and the junior suites even included their own personal saunas. The hotel boasts live music on the weekends with a live DJ then coming in at 11pm - 3pm which anyone can take advantage of for  £10.

Where To Eat

Bjork Bar & Grill



Located in the Marriott Hotel, this restaurant boasts the best of Swedish cuisine. We were given a lovely two course meal of White Char and then some creme Brûlée for dessert. This is also the first time I tried their local crispbread "knäckebröd" which I was soon having everywhere! 


Pop House Hotel




This little gem located adjacent to the Abba Museum features 40 musically themed hotel rooms and a restaurant. Here we were served some delicious beef bourguignon with mash potatoes and a very gourmet chocolate truffle for dessert. Sadly I can't remember what my started was because I forgot to take a photo....oops.

Dinner On Ice




This was a truly unique (cold) and memorable experience! We headed over to Brändön Lodge in our winter layers and overalls for a 3 course meal in a tentipi on the baltic sea. The cold wasn't too bad as we also had a fire in the middle of the room. That being said I have no circulation in my hands so half the time I had kept my gloves on cause the cutlery was too cold to pick up! We had some lovely mushroom & smoked salmon soup to start, reindeer fillet for main and some berry pie for dessert. We were also lucky enough to see the northern lights whilst we were out here! beautiful.  

Dinner at CG



This was our last supper and was just a few minutes walk from our hotel. The service was great and the food was very well presented, although it took a while between courses and along with all the wine we were being served, you can guess how that went. We had some white char on a crispbread for starter, deer for our main course and an assortment of desserts. 


What To Do 

Abba Museum - Stockholm






If you're an Abba fan or only know Dancing Queen because of your nights spent in the disco room in the club, this is such a fun thing to experience. It's very interactive so it has you recording in the booth, dancing on stage and virtually trying on some of their costumes. There's also a souvenir shop for you die hard fans! Even better...if you're a fan of the movie you can pay £100 for a ticket to the Abba Party where you'll feel like you've been transported to Greece as you enjoy a meal with abba music and performances. 


Vasa Museum - Stockholm 



This is a very small but popular museum in Sweden, in fact it's the most visited in Scandinavia. It features the Vasa warship which sailed and sank in 1628 after only sailing 1300 metres. It's a great sight to see and is also the perfect backdrop to hold a seated dinner or reception! 


Snowmobiling - Swedish Lapland


    

This was a lot of fun and very adrenaline filled way to spend a Sunday afternoon! We drove around for an hour and a half on ice taking in the breathtaking views and even stopped for some "Fika" and some lingonberry juice. 


Snowkart - Swedish Lapland 



To my surprise, I was actually pretty good at this after a failed test run where being a speed junkie got me stuck in the snow with my kart and then proceeded to spin round every few 100ms - but that didn't stop me from winning the team race on my second try!

Gammelstad Church Town - Lulea 



UNESCO added Gammelstad church town to their world heritage list in 1996 - motivated by its outstanding universal value and its relevance to all mankind.The Gammelstad site is the world's most extensive and best preserved example of a church town, with more than 400 church cottages gathered around a medieval stone church. We learnt all about the history of the town and even got an insight to some of the cottages!

Husky Safari




This had to be my favourite activity of the weekend. We were grouped in 5s with someone standing behind the sledge to gear the doggies. Before setting off, they were loud - just picture a group of 30 huskies who just wanted to run but were impatiently waiting/barking/pooping whilst we all got adjusted. The ride was incredible, having had a front row seat I managed to get some great photos and videos and luckily avoided any dog poop flying in my direction. 


Thank you to all the hosts and partners that made this trip possible and so amazing! 

♡ G ♡

♡ @TEAWITHGI 



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