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about efforts to preserve them. At night, you might even hear them howl from the confines of your camping tent. For a different experience, join the company Nordic Discovery on a nighttime canoeing expedition in wolf territory.

Nestled in a wooded village in the far northern stretch of Sweden is a hotel that changed history. Initially launched as an art exhibition in 1989, the now-famous Icehotel has been copied in at least four other countries -- and it may have inspired the desire to create other unusual lodging in Sweden.

Among our favorites are an airplane-turned-hotel inStockholm called the Jumbo Stay and the Treehotel, a collection of modernist treehouses near Harads. The 50-bed Salt & Sill, on the west coast of Sweden in Kladesholmen, is the country's first floating hotel; it sits atop pontoons. The af Chapman is a permanently docked ship in Stockholm that's been converted into a chic hostel.

The Sami people have occupied the far northern reaches of Sweden, Finland and Norway since prehistoric times. Today, the Sami are the only officially recognized indigenous people of Scandinavia, best known for a nomadic lifestyle centered on reindeer herding.

Interested in learning more about the culture? Sami traders have gathered annually in Jokkmokk during the first week of February since 1605; today, the gathering has become a large Lapland festival with reindeer races, folk music performances, food tastings, parades and other activities. Jokkmokk is also home to Ajtte, the Swedish Mountain and Sami Museum. Nearby is the Sami Siida reindeer park, where you can go on a reindeer-led sled tour and learn more about the region known as Sapmi.

There aren't many no louder or grander calls for the start of spring than the cacophony of thousands of eager-to-mate cranes filling a lake. That's what happens each year in Vastergotland, when cranes migrating north from traditional wintering grounds in Spain descend on Lake Hornborga from late March through mid-April.

Bird enthusiasts flock to the lake's nature center to watch the cranes' mating rituals, which include a goofy choreography of bowing, hopping and wing flapping. If you're lucky enough to be there at sunset, you might also get to witness the "big lift," when the cranes take off en masse. Other birds that populate the lake in the spring include ducks, grebes, geese and swans

Arctic nations that offer dog sledding experiences usually just take tourists for a ride with a dog team, or show you the ropes with a professional musher standing right behind you. But in Sweden, you can learn how to control your own team of Siberian huskies and then mush your way across snowy hills and through pine-scented forests.

The British-based company Nature Travels offers dog sledding experiences in Jamtland, Vindelfjallen and other spots in Lapland. You could go for just an afternoon or take a multi-day adventure that includes lodging in cabins or tent camping. Don't worry that you'll be left completely on your own -- you'll have a support team nearby and spend evenings assembled with other mushing travelers.

Technically Swedes don't use the term "Swedish massage" -- only English and Dutch speakers call it that -- but Sweden is home to some of Europe's best spas to get what's known here as a "classic" massage.

The 110-year-old Hotel Ystad Saltsjobad in Osterlen was named Sweden's Leading Spa Resort in 2013 by the World Travel Awards. The spa offers a number of 50-minute massages, from classic to deep tissue, as well as an array of other spa treatments. Or purchase a daylong guest pass for the elegant membership-based day spa Sturebadet in Stockholm. This spa dates back to 1885 and has a menu of more than 50 services, including massages and bath cures; plus, there's an aroma room, steam room, dry sauna and hot pools.

From mid-June through July, the sun stays visible above the Arctic Circle for 24 hours a day. It can be hard to sleep anyway, so you may as well stay up all night taking part in outdoor activities. Head to the northern region known as Lapland, which is 125 miles north of the Arctic Circle.

How about midnight kayaking in Holmsund (see Umekajak.se) or knocking out 18 holes of golf at the Bjorkliden Arctic Golf Course? You also can go skiing all night at Riksgransen, Sweden's northernmost ski resort.

10/10/2017

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