READY TO ROCK IN THE MALDIVES
THERE is no shortage of swanky places to stay in the Maldives, but now there’s another heavenly resort to tempt you to the Indian Ocean. Set to open in March, the Hard Rock Hotel, located in the stop-in-your-tracks Emboodhoo Lagoon, will offer 178 rooms and overwater villas, a Rock Spa and, of course, lots of nods to music with memorabilia on display throughout. See hardrockhotels. com for more information.
DESPITE being zipped into a giant thermal romper, a faint chill creeps across my flesh. Even an inch of padding can’t completely keep out the cold when you’re lying on metre-thick ice.
But a few shivers won’t dent my zen. Forget palm-lined yoga retreats and pricey spas, I’ve just discovered the ultimate holiday mindfulness belly-down on a frozen lake in the heart of northern Sweden’s Jamtland Harjedalen region, face planted in a freshly drilled hole, fishing rod in hand.
There’s a steaming cup of coffee at my side, brewed moments earlier above a teeny-tiny bonfire with wood collected en route, and but for the occasional crunch of snowflakes compressing when I fidget, it is soul-strokingly silent.
Relaxation isn’t the prime purpose of my trip; it’s the food I’ve really come to explore – an exciting blend of old and new that’s putting the region’s cuisine on the map.
I’d flown into Are Ostersund Airport the previous day, before driving a little over an hour to Buustamons Fjallgard, a cabin hotel and restaurant that’s home to one of Sweden’s smallest distilleries – and basically everything winter wonderland dreams are made of.
I’m embarrassed to admit, I’d always imagined Sweden as a land of pristine, pricey cities, full of Scandi-chic apartments and Ikea stores.
In fact, Sweden is 96% wilderness – and you’d be hard pushed to find a better introduction to this than Buustamons, which started life as a coffee and waffle house for hikers in need of a shielded pit-stop (‘buusta’ is old Swedish for windshield).
The business grew as, over recent decades, Are evolved into one of Scandinavia’s most popular ski resorts. Although there’s plenty to do when the snow melts too; opportunities for hiking, cycling, paddle boarding, even wild swimming, make the region an outdoorsy types’ Mecca.
Nestled halfway up Areskutan mountain, the final leg of our journey requires clambering into a snowcat (a truck on tank-style tracks). The snow’s so deep, it almost entirely obscures the timber-framed window in my room, but it’s business as usual, which for me and my companions, means a distillery tour.
Buustamons’ schnapps is created with their own vodka, made from well-collected mountain water.
Everything’s bottled by hand, and