This Swedish Hotel Has an Underwater Sauna—and a Vineyard

Sweden practically slows to a halt in Halland County, an agricultural region between Gothenburg and Malmö. Narrow roads weave through low hills, the beech forest on either side alternating with meadows presided over by red farmhouses. Every so often, the glint of sunlight off water reveals a lake through the trees. It’s a perfectly bucolic introduction to a stay at Ästad Vingård. The former farm has been owned by the Carlsson family since the 1940s and each generation has added their own stamp. The first produced organic milk; the second opened a small cafe and guest rooms; and the third planted vines of solaris grapes in the surrounding fields and turned it into the unique spa hotel you see today.

The Hotel

From the vine-stippled hillside at the entrance, Ästad Vingård unfolds like a small village. Pathways lined with wildflowers lead between wooden cottages and around its focal point, Sjöparken: seven oak-clad villas that seem to float on a natural pool, each containing guest rooms with their own private saunas. The interiors are studies in muted elegance: all oatmeal textiles, stone accents and pale wood furnishings, with glass doors opening onto the water. Guests can wake in the morning and jump straight in, as dragonflies settle on the lily pads and skylarks swoop overhead. Beyond these are Logen restaurant, serving hearty, traditional food with a modern spin, and Michelin-starred Äng, which delivers a Scandinavian tasting menu in a modern glasshouse overlooking meadows and lakes. Both draw heavily on seasonal produce from the region.

The Experience

You might think a hotel with its own vineyard is remarkable enough in a country as far north as Sweden, but it’s water not wine that’ll linger in the memory. Ästad Vingård’s Sinnenas Spa is a veritable adventure playground of watery experiences. Visitors hop from one to the other, beginning in the indoor spa. Various steam rooms, saunas and pools recall the surrounding beech forest or the nearby coast, each with its own scent and sounds. Guests are pummelled, sprayed and submerged before following woodland trails to other spa environments: perhaps a cold plunge pool hidden in the trees or an underwater sauna where you gently broil as fish drift past the windows. At the end, guests loll on day beds overlooking the fields and order glasses of the hotel’s wine, a sparkling white made from those solaris grapes planted on the hillsides.