Swedish Lapland

Harads

A few hundred people, a pine forest, and some of the most photographed rooms in Sweden.

Region

Swedish Lapland

Best season

Year round

Best for

Design-led couples

About Harads

A village of a few hundred people, best known for the Treehotel — a handful of architect-designed rooms suspended in the pine forest, each one a completely different piece of design. Quiet, strange, and photographed more than almost anywhere else in Swedish Lapland.

Getting there

Fly to Luleå and drive about an hour inland. It is the easiest genuinely remote-feeling place to reach in the whole of Swedish Lapland.

Harads on the map — the other 18 places we arrange are marked faintly.

What to see and do in Harads

Sleep in the canopy
Each room was designed by a different architect and none of them resemble each other. Choosing between them is genuinely the hardest part of planning a stay here.
A sauna above the ground
The Nordic ritual, several metres up, with the forest at eye level. It reframes something you thought you already understood.
Do very little
This is not a base for a packed itinerary. The village has a few hundred residents and a river. That is the offer, and it is the right one.
Arrange My Trip

When to go to Harads

Winter

December – March

Snow in the canopy, aurora overhead, and the design at its most photogenic.

Midnight sun

June – July

Light through the pines at midnight. Blackout blinds matter more than you expect.

Autumn

September – October

The forest turns, the crowds have gone, and the first aurora of the season arrives.

Journeys through Swedish Lapland

All journeys

SpringAhead of the SpringSpring crosses Sweden from February to May. Travel north fast enough in late April and you overtake it.8 nightslate Apr WinterOne Hundred WintersSix nights in the one valley where the northern winter has been written down, without a gap, since 1913.6 nightsDec – Mar WinterThe Road WestOne road, two hundred kilometres, and a sky that gets more likely every night — ending at an ocean that never freezes.7 nightsJan – Mar WinterThe Month With No SunriseFive nights in the weeks the sun does not come up at all. Not an aurora trip — a trip about the dark.5 nightsDec WinterThe Dogs' WeekFive nights, two of them at a shared wilderness camp with no electricity and no running water, where the animals' needs set the schedule instead of yours.5 nightsJan – Mar

Harads: common questions

Anything not answered here, ask us directly — we'd rather you did.

Is there anything to do besides the hotel?

Honestly, not a great deal, and that is the appeal. Harads is a village of a few hundred people on the Lule river. We arrange guided forest walks, river activities in summer, snowshoeing and aurora watching in winter — but people come here to stay somewhere remarkable and be quiet. If you want a dense itinerary, we would pair this with Luleå or Jokkmokk rather than sit here for a week.

How many nights should we stay?

Two, usually. Long enough to settle into a room that deserves attention, short enough that you leave still liking it. Three works if you are combining it with river or forest days rather than treating the room itself as the whole trip.

Can you see the northern lights from Harads?

Often, between late September and March. Harads sits just south of the Arctic Circle, which is still comfortably inside the aurora zone. The one thing to know is the forest: the pines that make the treerooms what they are also cut down your view of the sky, so a good display is usually watched from the river or an open clearing a short walk away rather than from the room itself.

Ready when you are