Sweden's reputation is clean design, sensible social democracy, and stunning fjords — all true. But Sweden also contains some of the most wonderfully strange places in all of Europe. Here are five that prove the country has a deeply weird side worth seeking out.
1. The ICEHOTEL, Jukkasjärvi
Every winter since 1989, artists from around the world arrive in the village of Jukkasjärvi, 200 km north of the Arctic Circle, to rebuild the world's first — and most famous — ice hotel. Every room is a unique art installation carved from ice and snow. The temperature inside stays at a constant -5°C. You sleep in a thermal sleeping bag on an ice bed covered in reindeer hides.
The hotel melts completely every spring and is rebuilt from scratch each November. Since 2016, there's also a permanent "warm" section, but the original ice suites remain the main event. Sleeping under the Northern Lights in a room sculpted from frozen river water is, objectively, one of the strangest and most beautiful things you can do on Earth.
2. Kiruna — The City That Had to Move
Kiruna, Sweden's northernmost city, sits above one of the world's largest underground iron ore mines. The mining has been so extensive that the entire city is literally sinking — the mine threatens to swallow it. So Sweden has been doing something extraordinary: physically relocating the entire city, building by building, about 3 km to the east.
The new Kiruna City Hall, designed around a stunning crystalline structure, opened in 2018. The old Town Hall was carefully demolished and had its clock tower incorporated into the new design. The move is expected to continue until the 2030s. You can visit both the old (slowly disappearing) and new Kiruna simultaneously.
3. Disgusting Food Museum, Malmö
Malmö's Disgusting Food Museum is exactly what it claims to be — a curated collection of the world's most challenging, revolting, and culturally baffling foods. You'll find Swedish surströmming (fermented herring so pungent it's banned in many apartment buildings), Icelandic hákarl (putrefied shark), Chinese stinky tofu, and American root beer (considered revolting by most Europeans).
The museum makes a serious point about the cultural relativity of disgust — what's a delicacy in one culture is literally inedible in another. It's wildly entertaining, occasionally nauseating, and unlike any museum you've ever visited.
4. Höga Kusten (High Coast) — The Landscape That Keeps Rising
Sweden's High Coast UNESCO World Heritage Site is extraordinary for a geological reason: after the last Ice Age ended and the glaciers retreated, the land — freed from under kilometers of ice — has been rising continuously, and still is, at roughly 8mm per year. It has risen 286 meters since the ice melted, the highest post-glacial rebound on Earth.
The result is a dramatic, rugged coastline of towering cliffs, deep fjord-like inlets, and islands that were once deep underwater. Dramatic hikes, ancient fishing villages, and the endless Baltic panorama make this one of Sweden's most beautiful and least-visited areas.
5. Globen (Avicii Arena) — The Sphere You Can Climb
Stockholm's Avicii Arena (still called Globen by locals) is the world's largest spherical building — a giant white ball 110 meters in diameter that dominates the city's southern skyline. Since 2010, you can ride the "SkyView" — two gondolas that travel up the exterior of the sphere on curved tracks to the very top, giving 360° views over Stockholm.
It's a bit absurd. A sphere-shaped arena topped by external gondola rides. It's also absolutely worth doing, especially at sunset when Stockholm becomes one of the most beautiful cities you'll ever see laid out below you.
Sweden's unusual side is hiding in plain sight. Go find it.