I enjoy traveling during the uncrowded off-season, but that was not my intention in Sweden this summer. Turns out that the season with the longest days is a very short one in Sweden, where the Artic Circle slashes across the nation’s northern quarter.
By mid-August, when light still dominates the Swedish sky both early and late each day, employees have already returned to city jobs from their summer holidays, and staff and services are scaled back at Swedish vacation destinations. Students are back in session a week later.
Dinner reservations are no longer needed. Exorbitant Swedish prices for merchandise are discounted 40 to 70 percent in shops opposite the harbors of small villages, where few boats are on the move.
My first thought was, if this were Michigan in the USA, the tourism lobby would go nuts. But after a week of weather that felt more like November in Michigan, I could see why, by late August, most of Sweden’s resort towns are already sealed up and sleepy.
JER
ALL OVER THE MAP 