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With these 5 days program we want to give you an introduction to Sweden by showing you our favourite places. Below is the program we aim for. We need to reserve ourselves for changes due to availability of local offers. The length, the type of activities and selection of the best possible quality of included services remains the same. Everything is included in the price except the trip to Sweden and back to your home country. This makes it easier for you to decide your own travel plan before and after the Tallevika 5-days. We target a price per person below 4000 CHF but the final price is set when the date and the program are published.
Our favorites in 5 days
Day 1: Tuesday
Arrival with lakeview dinner
If you take the 10.05 flight from Zürich, you arrive 12.30 to Stockholm Arlanda. If you already are in Stockholm, you can take the Arlanda express from Stockholm city, and we can all meet at the airport. We leave Arlanda with our comfortable bus in direction of Enköping and Västeràs. We take a quick leg stretch somewhere on our way to Kristinehamn. Except for Karlskoga where the dynamite was invented by Alfred Nobel, we mostly see forest. If you look carefully, you may see an elk. We enter the center of Kristinehamn and check in at one of the small hotels in the city. Nothing luxury because we can’t find it here, but it is cozy and personal. After check-in and a quick rest, we take the bus along the famous seaside walkaway to roads end. Here we get a small glimpse of the world known landmark Picasso sculpture that you will see more of tomorrow. We enter the new restaurant Rönnebergs Sjökrog to take the welcome drink at the bridge. We can see the nice big houses on the other side of the water and each of them has a special history. Most of them were built as summer resinets for the rich people during the industrialization. The welcome dinner is served, and we can enjoy the view of the open sea and the boat traffic outside the restaurant when we start to get to know each other.
Day 2: Wednesday
A Harbor day in the archipelago
After the breakfast we take the bus the same road again along Vàlösund, once selected the most beautiful seaside in Sweden. We stop at the Picasso parking where the road ends. From her we take a walk among the Swedish wooden houses and through some small forests. Earlier this was summerhouses for vacation but since some years people start to live here permanent and the community connected the area 2017 to the water infrastructure. We might even see the original Tallevika house from 1932. At Picassos Veranda we take a glass of champagne and visit the small Picasso shop direct by the statue. We also try the famous shrimp sandwich. If we are lucky Christine af Bro, a replica of a sailing ship used here during 1600-1800 to ship iron to Europe will pick us up and take us out on a small tour on open water and between the islands. We enjoy the fantastic view and watch all old manors by the sea during the boat trip all the way into Kristinehamn center. A short walk through the city park and the old town and we are back at the hotel. After a quick relax, we walk back to the old harbor and enter Mastmagasinet, the famous music restaurant with their own boat parking in front. Here we enjoy the dinner and some music with individual walk back to the hotel.
Day 3: Thursday
A history day in a small town
After taking our breakfast our host today Christina meets us in the lobby for a guided tour in the city. We get the history of the different houses from the time when this was the center of iron export to Europe. This history will follow us during the week. We visit the the historical museum in the old town before we take lunch at the famous restaurant Oliveriet at the pedestrian walk in the heart of the center. The owners: Jenny from Kristinehamn and Andreas from Sardinien, have built a reputation far outside the region of offering top Italian food. After lunch you get the chance to walk for yourself. You can visit the antique shops in the old town or do some own exploration in the city. Along the water there is a famous pottery and coffee shop where we meet again for some special deli tasting. It’s also worthwhile to take a bit longer walk to see how people live in the old houses build by the rich businessmen long time ago and see the enormous church, bigger than many cathedrals. A sign of the importance of the city when it was built. In the evening Christina brings us to their family brewery very close to the hotel. In Värmlands Brygghus we taste their different brews, and they explain the complicated Swedish alcohol law. The best food to combine with beer is a Swedish midsummer Smörgasbord and we will enjoy this in a suitable location fitting the theme of the day. It is a lot of fish but also cold meat in different ways and from different animals. To digest the typical sweet, pickled herring we need to help with some typical aquavit flavored with some healthy herbs. We enjoy the bright summer night when we walk back to the hotel.
Day 4: Friday
A nature day in the wild
Today we spend the whole day in the nature. After the breakfast we check-out from the hotel. The bus takes us into the forest north of Kristinehamn. We pass the famous boarding school Lundberg where most royals and noble people made their high school studies. We continue to the sea Lungen and arrive at Bjurbäckens slussar, the old locks build 1850 to allow boats to raise the 11 meters height difference and continue their beautiful journey in Värmland. From there we will follow the trail called iron trail along the sea, through deep forests, and over large moors. In the middle of the large moor, we look at Carl-Henrik’s favorite pines. Watch out so you don’t sink when you walk on the soft ground. Somewhere along the trail we get our picknick lunch. The bus picks us up and takes us to an old manor which was the home of the town priest until 2001. We enter the fantastic atmosphere that will be our home for the two last nights. This old house is not built as a hotel and therefore the rooms and the bathrooms all look different. A quick change and some refreshments and we leave again in a different direction. We will see a new nature, more open and with very old oak trees along the east side of lake Vänern. If we are lucky, we will be invited into the most famous Manor in Värmland, Värmlands Säby. This private estate is managed by the owners themselves and we hopefully meet both the father and son. They have invited us to have an exclusive dinner in their original 1700-century dining room. They will tell us the history of the manor which is connected to the history of Sweden. They have a large wild animal population on their property and in particular, elks so they will also tell us about the hunting in their forests. The dinner follows the theme of the day, and we taste the different wild meat from the local forest accompanied with selected red wines. Back at the preachers’ home we can reflect on the historical impressions from the week, and we hopefully sleep well without being disturbed by the ironworker’s souls from the 1700-century.
Day 5 Saturday
Karlstad, the capitol of Värmland
Our final day contain several surprises and experiences. We leave with the bus and stop at Välvsviken shopping center before Karlstad were we always go for shopping. This is the opposite to what we have seen the last days. As we are fans of sports, we can spend hours in the huge XXL All-sports-united-shop. You will also have a chance to a quick walk through. Quick is difficult because it is like Ikea for sports. There are also other shops like Jula, the popular Swedish workmate shop or El-Giganten, the Swedish version of MediaMarkt. We leave again and go to Karlstad, the biggest town in Värmland with 100’000 habitants. It is situated where the river of Klarälven enter Vänern and there, in the middle of Klarälven you find Sandgrund (shallow sand), an island which is our target destination. We take a lunch in the famous restaurant Matbruket inside the museum were two of the best chefs in Värmland make us a short lunch. We spend some time in the museum or in the island park along the sand beaches. For the art lovers we have time to visit Lars Lerin and his own art museum in the Sandgrund building. He is considered one of the most outstanding watercolor painters in the world. We meet up again and take a historical walk-through Karlstad via Frödingparken with the old fire station. Carl-Henrik’s grandfather and grand grandfather both worked here as fire chiefs the beginning of the 1900 century. We continue down to the new city harbor area. We enter one of the chartered old yachts for a boat tour through Karlstad. We enjoy an aperitif onboard as we pass the new buildings along the water with their yacht parking in front. Back in town the bus takes us back to Ölme Prästgàrd “the preacher’s where we spend the evening”. We get ready for the last dinner together by listening to the history of the house while enjoying the aperitifs. We enjoy the last dinner together and discuss our experiences and the plans some of you may have to explore the Värmland or other part of the country on your own. When we goes to the nice rooms it feels a bit sad that the Tallevika Tour has come to an end.
Day 6: Sunday
Departure
After the breakfast is is now time for us at Tallevika to say goodbye. A small lunch package for the road and off it goes. The bus will leave at 9 o’clock to arrive at Arlanda latest 13:00 and in due time for some last shopping at Sky City close to terminal 5 where the 15:55 flight to Zürich leaves. For those who stay longer and have individual arrangements, congratulation and have a great vacation. For the other, see you back in Switzerland or why not back in Sweden next year.