From approx. €630 a night · best value Sep, Oct
A spa hotel on the Lule River in Swedish Lapland, built around an open-air cold bath. The circular main building floats in summer and freezes into the ice in winter.
The house is best value in September and October, from approx. €630 a night. It is most expensive in December to February, up to approx. €1,070.
OctoberBest value
Typically €630 a night
Around 42% less than in January
Climate4 °C by day, 0 °C at night · about 7 rainy days
Check a date in October with the hotelOpens the hotel’s booking page with 2 nights in this month. You book there.
Google Flights shows connections and current prices. A planning aid for you; CINCIN earns nothing from it. Driving times without traffic.
Arctic Bath sits near Harads, a village of around 500 people in Swedish Lapland. The circular spa building floats on the Lule River, with saunas and hot baths around an open-air cold plunge. Its outer ring of stacked logs recalls the timber floating that once carried felled trunks downriver, and in winter the river freezes around it.
Besides the spa, the main building holds the restaurant, a lounge and a bar. The kitchen cooks with produce from Norrbotten, and the MICHELIN Guide has awarded Arctic Bath a MICHELIN Key, a distinction for the hotel as a whole. There are twelve places to stay, on the water and on the shore.
The heart of Arctic Bath
At the centre of the ring is the open cold bath. The routine is simple: warm up in a sauna or hot bath, plunge into the cold water, rest, and start again. For cold dips there is also the Lule River itself.
The whole hotel
Architecture on the Lule River
Swedish architects Bertil Harström and Johan Kauppi designed Arctic Bath. The circular main building takes its form from the history of log driving, when Norrbotten's timber was carried downriver to the coast.
The whole hotel
Six on the water, six on the shore
Six cabins float by the shore, reached by a walkway over the water, each with its own wooden deck and access to the river. On land there are three suites and three family cabins for up to five guests.
The whole hotelHarads lies on the Lule River in Norrbotten, Sweden's northernmost county, a little over an hour by car from Luleå Airport. Around it are pine forest and river, long winters with northern lights and light summer nights. The hotel suggests dog-sledding and trips to the Storforsen rapids and the Laponia World Heritage Site.
Arctic Bath is a spa first and a hotel second: the days revolve around heat, cold and rest, with meals in between. The season shapes the stay. In winter the building is held in the ice and the days are short; in summer it floats on open water and the nights stay light.
Guesthouse restaurant · Harads · approx. 5 min by car from Arctic Bath
Dinner is served on the ground floor of the 1930s guesthouse, whose dining rooms have barely changed. Head chef Linus Lejon cooks whatever the forests and rivers are offering: mushrooms, the last berries and game in autumn, cured, smoked and dried things in winter. The evening starts with snacks in the living room.
Restaurant with deli and bakery · Luleå · approx. 1 hr 15 min by car
A restaurant, deli and bakery under one roof on Luleå’s Norra hamn, built on Simon Laitis’s way of cooking. Dinner is shaped by what Norrbotten is producing at the moment; the deli stocks locally hung meat and cheeses, and there is afternoon tea with scones.
Chosen by CINCIN, not paid for. Travel times are approximate. Opening hours and menus change, so please check with the venue before you go.
Treehotel
Nine treerooms in the pine forest near Harads in Swedish Lapland, from a mirrored cube to a flying saucer, with check-in and dinner at the old Guesthouse.
Berber Lodge
Earth houses among old olive trees.
Maryhill Estate
A resort on a hill above the Öresund, in two parts: the Sugar Club with 147 rooms and the Pool Club, and Hill House, a former castle with 16 rooms. About an hour from Copenhagen.
Swedish Lapland in winter: Treehotel or Arctic Bath?
Treehotel or Arctic Bath in Harads? How the two hotels differ in winter, whether December or March suits you better, and when to look for the northern lights.
Harads: Two Hotels, One River
Two hotels in Harads take their shape from the landscape: Treehotel among the pines, Arctic Bath on the Lule River.
Arctic Bath: a cold plunge on the Lule River
Sauna, hot bath, cold river: how the floating spa near Harads works, and how winter and summer change it.
