‘You know, the Swedish royal family come here to do exactly the same thing,” bellowed my guide, Anders Bjernulf, over the petrol caterwaul of the snowmobile.
The “thing” that we were doing was careering up the mountainside to snatch a glimpse of a fat tangerine sun as it slowly rose into sight at daybreak.
Its glow lit up the hills and charming lodges that make up Salen, a Swedish resort about 30 miles from the border with Norway and one in which King Carl XVI Gustaf and his family are known to ski.
It was easy to see the appeal for royalty, who spend their lives in the public eye. Here pine trees buried halfway to their tips were the only spectators for our dawn adventure (guided snowmobile tours from £70; skotersafari.nu).
On descending for a breakfast of reindeer charcuterie and smoked salmon in the restaurant of the Gammelgarden hotel opposite the snowmobile rental, I learnt that Salen is actually made up of six different ski villages: Klappen, Stoten, Lindvallen, Hogfjallet, Hundfjallet and Tandadalen. Some are connected by lifts, others by a drive of up to 45 minutes.
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Each resort has its own distinct personality and tribe of skiers. For those wanting a relaxed family holiday with authentic Swedish charm, privately owned Klappen is the one (but at 660m above sea level its slopes are low). More serious skiers head to Stoten, with the best and most challenging range of pistes, including five black runs. Buying a six-day ski pass at either gives you one day’s access to the other (from £165; klappen.se). The four remaining villages are more international and are run by SkiStar, which operates six ski destinations across Scandinavia. They have a slick selection of hotels, bars and restaurants. One ski pass gives access to the four Salen resorts, as well as connecting buses that also run at night (from £185; skistar.com). With nearly 200 slopes and a maximum elevation of 830m, everywhere in Salen has downhill and cross-country skiing.
I began my stay in Klappen, a family-run affair with oodles of charm. Since the 1980s the Erikssons have built up a scattering of rustic buildings carved with Scandinavian folk patterns, including a bakery selling fresh kanelbullar (cinnamon buns), around their 38 slopes.
“Prince Carl Philip’s wife, Princess Sofia, is from a village 40 minutes from Klappen. She’s been coming here since she was young to ski with family and now she often comes with her own children,” said Gustav Eriksson, one of the second generation of owners.
While the royals are visiting, they’ll do all the activities any normal family would, and eat in the same restaurants. The only difference is they get a designated time to go with bodyguards to collect their ski passes when no one else is around. “Once they’re in their ski gear, no one bothers them,” said Eriksson — a different story to Klosters, Switzerland, where the British royal family have often been photographed.
This peaceful, calm feeling permeates not just Klappen but all of Salen’s resorts. Even during my visit in early February — a peak period — queues at lifts were almost non-existent and cafés rarely heaving.
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Salen’s snow-sure status is a key draw. This is especially important for busy royals for whom time on the slopes is precious (King Carl Gustaf and Crown Princess Victoria have been known to pop out for a quick ski while in Salen attending an annual defence conference).
“We are at a much higher latitude than the Alps so the season is longer and more reliable,” said Bjernulf, who heads Destination Salenfjallen, which represents the ski area. “We’re often still skiing in late May in T-shirts and with a picnic. While everyone was complaining about no snow in the Alps last year, we had piles of it.”
Salen’s resorts are so confident in their snow, they offer a guarantee. If there aren’t a minimum number of slopes open, you get your money back. Two decades since launching the guarantee, the Erikssons haven’t yet had to pay out a single krona, although they do use snow cannons.
It’s no upstart among royal-approved ski resorts, and Salen’s pedigree stretches all the way back to the 1520s. It was then that Gustav Vasa (future King Gustav I) supposedly fled on skis from the King of Denmark while rallying troops, before he went on to found the first independent Swedish state. The 56-mile journey he took — from Salen to Mora — is now the route for the world’s oldest and biggest cross-country ski race, Vasaloppet, which attracts around 15,000 participants each year. I asked how many days it takes. Bjernulf laughed: he’s done it in six hours.
The race still draws sporty royals and their relations. Pippa Middleton did it in seven hours. The same year her brother, James, was pipped by Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark, who clocked in at 6:36:32.
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But unlike most other resorts that enjoy a royal seal of approval, such as glitzy Courchevel or Lech, Salen is surprisingly affordable. For a family of four booking in January, a week of accommodation, ski passes and hire in Klappen can cost less than £1,500, including discounts for early bookings and for booking online. According to the tour operator Skiworld, a similar deal in France would typically cost £4,000 or more.
“In Salen most people get a self-catered lodge and cook for themselves. That means it’s much cheaper than Swedish resorts such as Are, where there are lots of pricey hotels,” Bjernulf explained. As we whizzed down the slopes at Hundfjallet, I spied public huts with fire pits where families sat barbecuing hot dogs, bottles of mustard at the ready, rather than splurging to eat out.
But if you do want to eat and drink royally, you certainly can. Hogfjallshotell, a cosily luxurious bolt hole where the monarch and his family usually stay, is said to sell more champagne than any other Swedish hotel outside Stockholm and has 13 eateries ranging from a pizzeria to a fine dining fish bar (B&B doubles from £115; en.hogis.se). For those with more contemporary tastes, there’s Fro — a restaurant in Hundfjallet that wouldn’t seem out of place in Shoreditch. Dinner there was a four-hour, six-course set menu affair, brimming with homegrown, pickled and foraged ingredients (£80; frorestaurang.se). I went to bed dreaming of the melting pork belly, peppered with crunchy spruce shoots.
Given our affinity with all things royal, it’s not surprising the Swedes see the UK as a target market for Salen. For now Brits make up only about 1 per cent of its (predominantly Scandinavian) skier base. However, that may be about to change thanks to improved connectivity.
In 2019 the Scandinavian Mountains Airport opened a ten-minute drive from the closest slopes at Tandadalen. Direct flights from Gatwick take just two hours and negate the need to fly to Oslo, a three-hour drive away. However, the disruption of Covid, plus the fact that direct flights only run for a couple of months a year (usually February to April), means mass UK tourism hasn’t kicked off quite yet.
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Those who do venture here will have to adjust to the Swedish ski culture. Swedes, I learnt, ski by the law of fika (the art of making time for coffee and cake). “We have breakfast at 8am, fika at 11, lunch at 12, fika again at 3pm. Then you need to find time to ski,” Eriksson said, laughing.
As for the après-ski, there are some good bars but the music is more Iron Maiden than Abba. I was lucky enough to be in Salen for the annual concert by the popular Swedish rock band Rydell & Quick that, I’m told, many plan their holidays around.
It takes place each year at Hogfjallshotell and apparently the princes can sometimes be found in the crowd. Watching as the female vocalist pulled out a metre-long gun and shot streamers into the audience, I tried to imagine bumping into Prince William or Kate there and laughed. No, I thought, they can keep Courchevel. I’ll take Salen.
Marianna Hunt was a guest of Visit Sweden (visitsweden.com). Seven nights’ B&B in Klappen from £1,371 based on a family of four, including flights and transfers (ski-scandinavia.co.uk)
Three other Scandinavian ski trips
1. A midsummer night’s dream in Riksgransen, Sweden
At Riksgransen, Sweden’s most northerly resort, you can ski down the slopes bathed in the light of the midnight sun on the longest day of the year before dancing around the maypole in your ski boots. Given its latitude, the resort only opens in late February, closing at the end of May before welcoming skiers once again in June for its annual midsummer ski celebration. It’s best known for its nail-biting off-piste terrain, but there are also 15 slopes ranging from green to black. The Meteorologen Ski Lodge is Riksgransen’s oldest building; first a customs house from 1903, then a base for meteorologists studying the local climate, it is now a boutique four-star hotel. Its 14 rooms have uber-comfy beds from Swedish high-end brand Hastens, and there’s a generous buffet breakfast.
Details B&B doubles from £177 (riksgransen.se). Fly to Kiruna via Stockholm, or take the sleeper train from Stockholm to Riksgransen
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2. Combine ski and fjord in Myrkdalen, Norway
One of Norway’s lesser-known ski resorts, Myrkdalen is crowd-free with a season that stretches from mid-November to the start of May. It’s also just 35 minutes by car from Naeroyfjord, a Unesco-listed fjord considered to be one of the most dramatic in Scandinavia. The four-star Myrkdalen Hotel is ski-in, ski-out, leaving you time around runs to take a cruise along the waterway or hop on the spectacular Flam Railway that chugs alongside.
Details Seven nights’ half-board from £1,625pp, including flights, transfers, return tickets for the Flam Railway and a cruise on the Naeroyfjord, departing on January 21 (skisolutions.com)
3. Norefjell, Norway’s former Olympic star
When Oslo hosted the 1952 Winter Olympics, it was Norefjell (70 miles away, less than two hours by car) that held most of the Alpine events. Among its 30 slopes you find the highest vertical drop of all the ski resorts in northern Europe (1,010m). The four-star Norefjell Ski & Spa has slick, modern decor, hot and cold plunge pools, multiple types of sauna, and both indoor and outdoor pools. For the children, there’s an indoor climbing wall and air hockey.
Details Seven nights’ B&B from £965pp, including flights and transfers (skisafari.com)
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