This summer we were invited by Visit Skåne to come and visit their beautiful region. Skåne (you pronounce it like this) is the southernmost province of Sweden and borders with Denmark via the Øresund Bridge (a.k.a. “The Bridge”). We got there by flying from Amsterdam to Copenhagen, and from there it was only a short 20-minute train ride to get to Malmö (the largest city in Skåne). There we picked up our car and set off on our Skåne adventure!

Our home base in Skåne was Villa Sigrid; a cute Swedish cottage filled with products from local designers and a kitchen full of locally produced food and drinks. We immediately felt at home! Villa Sigrid is located in Vejbystrand in the North-West of Skåne. Before coming to Skåne we looked at places to go in the entire province, but we found out that there’s so much to do in the North-West part alone that we mainly stayed in that region. In this blog post, we will show you some of our favorite places we encountered during our time in Skåne!

Probably our favorite place in Skåne is the Kullaberg Nature Reserve. On our first day, we watched the sun go down near the lighthouse at the end of the peninsula. It was nothing short of spectacular! A couple of days later we went back during the day to do a hike. We took the bus from Mölle to the Kullen lighthouse, and from there we hiked back to Mölle. It was a great hike with lots of little side tours to caves and tops of cliffs.

Another great hiking destination is the Söderåsens National Park, which some people also call Skåne’s Grand Canyon. The park is located near Klippan (the town, not the Ikea couch) in the center of Skåne. We did a really nice hike here that started at the Naturum Visitors Center in Skäralid. From here we followed the path along the bottom of the canyon, which led us through beautiful lush forests. After a while, we started climbing and we ended up at the main ridge in the park. There are some lookout points here that offer amazing views over the valley!

Torekov is a small fishing town in the Båstad municipality, which is known for being a place where many rich Swedes (and Hugh Grant) have a holiday home. Luckily we found out that this is area is also really nice if you’re not a rich Swede. ? One morning we went to the harbor of Torekov and from there we set off on a seal safari with Spirit Event, sailing around the island Hallands Väderö. The island is home to one of the largest spotted seal colonies in Sweden and we got the chance to spot the spotted seals from up close!

Quite close to Torekov is Hovs Hallar. This nature reserve is home to some very impressive cliffs and freestanding rock formations. This is definitely one of the best places in Skåne to see the sunset! If you’re into classic films then you might know this place from the opening scene of the Ingmar Bergman film The Seventh Seal.

Malmö is with its population of over 300.000 people the largest city in Skåne and the third largest city in Sweden. As you can probably gather from our blog we mostly prefer nature over cities, but we still really liked Malmö. It’s a real city, but it has a very calm and relaxed atmosphere. One of our favorite places in Malmö was the Ribersborgs Kallbadhus, which is a historic bathhouse from 1898. The idea of these bathhouses is that you can go skinny dipping in the sea within a closed off area. We didn’t actually go skinny dipping, but we did enjoy a great lunch at the cafe. From the Kallbadhus you also have a great view on Malmö’s famous Turning Torso tower.

At the most southwestern tip of Sweden, you can find Skanör beach. On a hot summer day (which it was when we were there) this long white sand beach is crowded with Swedish sunbathers. We mainly went here because the dunes are filled with all these cute wooden beach huts in all colors of the rainbow. When we were walking through the dunes taking photos, a friendly owner of one of the huts asked us if we wanted to take a look inside. The hut was really tiny but super cozy inside! The owner also told us some more about the beach huts. Apparently, there are 300 of them in the dunes of Skanör and only people who live in the municipality are allowed to own them.

Our blog is mainly focused on travel and photography, but we are also suckers for great food and wine. We came across so many great places to eat and drink in Skåne that we feel like we have to share some of them with you! These are some of our favorite places to eat and drink in Skåne (in no particular order):

This restaurant is beautifully situated in the Pilldammspark in Malmö. The restaurant has no menu and what they cook is largely based on the availability of daily fresh products. Even though the menu can change every day they still managed to get a Michelin star. We started our evening at Bloom in the Park outside with a glass of champagne and some appetizers. After that, we enjoyed a wonderful 5-course dinner. The name of the restaurant really resembles in the food they serve, with a lot of floral and herbal flavors. Something we hadn’t experienced before is that they don’t tell you what you’re eating. They want you to experience it for yourself. Afterwards, you get a QR code that leads you to a website where you can see what you’ve eaten exactly.

Something great we noticed about Skåne is that you can find the coolest restaurants and cafe’s in unexpected places. One of them was Holy Smoke. This outdoor barbecue restaurant is located in the middle of nowhere on the Kullaberg peninsula. You park somewhere in a field near some farms and when you walk in you find loads of Sweden (we were probably the only foreigners) enjoying a great American style barbecue. Of course complete with big American trucks and barbecuing men with big beards and tattoos.

Also on the Kullaberg peninsula you can find the Mölle Krukmakeri & Cafe. This place is way to hip (in a good way) for a town as small as Mölle. During the day they serve a selection of delicious lunch dishes and in the evening they turn into a pizzeria. There’s also a pottery (krukmakeri = pottery) where they make some really cool ceramics.

Flickorna Lundgren is situated on the Kullaberg peninsula and has a large garden with sea views and also a nice greenhouse where you can sit for when the weather is not so great. This is where we were first introduced into the concept of “fika”. According to the Swedes fika is non-translatable, but it’s basically a coffee break with sweets. Sanne got carried away a bit when she saw all the sweets. Because of that we ended up eating more than we should have, but at least it was delicious. ?

Did you know that they make wine in Sweden? Well apparently they do and they do it very well!. We visited Vejby Vingård, which was close to our cottage in Vejbystrand. Winemaker Jeppe is one of the pioneers of producing red wine in Sweden. He shared his passion with us and learned us a lot about what it takes to make a good red wine in Sweden. We also got to taste some of his wines and they were fantastic! At the moment the only place in the world where you can drink Jeppe’s wines is at the Vejby Vingård. If you like wine and people who are passionate about what they do then this place is a must visit!