EFTA00593027.pdf

lye hours west of bustling Stockholm lies FiskebackskR, a UP NEXT F. small fishing village tucked away in the Skagerrak Sea on Skafto, one of the thousands of islands of Sweden's West Coast archipelago. It's a lush green landscape dotted with small wooden houses, where sun-kissed blond Swedish children run around wearing nothing but flea ties on their upper arms, and where my family has spent the summers since I was born. One of my earliest memories of Fiskebackskil is being six years old, spending days sitting on the side of the road mak- ing a little store, like a lemonade stand. We sold small match- Sweden's little-known West Coast boxes that we'd decorated with seashells, and also mussels that we'd collected and painted. What little money we made, we'd archipelago is Scandinavia's always spend on ice cream. answer to the luxe summer be To get there, one flies into Gothenburg and takes a two- hour bus ride on Vasurafik, the city's public-transportation sys- destination, just a remote one. , tem. On Skafto, everyone walks or bikes. People only use cars for coming or going, so they're rarely seen. Between June and Sep- tember, the weather is perfect—sunny skies, 70-degree tempera- tures, and the most crisp, clean air. Our family, which lives most of the year in Manhattan, has a quaint little house on the island, but whenever friends visit, we recommend Fiskebackskil's 81-room boutique hotel, Gullmarsstrand (roomsfrom $85: Stranderigra 2-14; 46-523/667- 788). The location doesn't get any better. We tell people to stay in the sea-view rooms, with floor-to.ceiling sliding glass doors that open.to private decks. I used the hotel's waterfront coal-burning sauna for the first time last summer, and it was awesome. It sits in a small room atop the water, and there's a door inside that opens to a platform you can jump offinto the sea to cool down. The vil- lage has two notable places to eat: Gullmarsstrand's 140-seat Restaurant G. and weekend-only Brygghuset (Fiskelarkskilsvagen 28:46-523/222-22), in the marina, which both serve fresh Scan- dinavian seafood dishes, such as pan-roasted or breaded cod. We always leave room for dessert because the island is speckled with small, unnamed ice cream stands dishing out fresh waffle cones and straightforward flavors: blueberry, strawberry, melon, and vanilla with chocolate chips. Sweden is the only place we go as a family where we all sleep in. We wake up to the sound of seagulls and the waves sweeping up against the docks. After al workout and a late lunch, we take our boat to one of the nearby villages—many of which, like Gullhol- men and Lysekil, are similar to Fiskebackskil, with shops, ice cream stands, and restaurants. On our way, we pass fishermen in small wooden boats catching mackerel, a fish traditional in Swedish cook- ing, and uninhabited islands that are home to dozens of lounging seals. Other days, we'll play on the three European-style red-clay tennis courts at Bokevik—Fiskebackskil's public beach, which is rarely crowded, always dean, and has no swell—or go on a bike ride on one of the island's four-to-five-mile wooded trails. But perhaps the most wonderful thing about Fiskebackskil is what Scandinavian summers are known for: midnight sun. The sky Gulligellitl rand llattil is never really dark. Every single night, around 10:45, we watch main building, which ad. an IM ghat/yak bus from the village windmill as the sunset paints the sky shades ofred, hoiatet rem/plain oms dodo? N.kablak,hlla orange, blue, and pink. It's a sight chat becomes more spectacular bo.baatttt nls, each time I witness it. • 11 EFTA00593027