Jaunted

Sweden Travel / Social Media / Couchsurfing / → All Tags

Sweden Makes It Possible for Tourists to Order Up an Instant Best Friend

If you’re heading to Sweden anytime soon you’ve probably already perused the tourism books over at the local Barnes & Noble, and it’s likely that you’ve also started hitting up your favorite travel blogs for tips. The country’s tourism board wants you to take an additional step when it comes to visiting their native land, as they’re eager to hook you up—not in that way—with your very own Swede.

The new site "Visit a Swede" works exactly how it sounds, as they’ve kind of created their very own social network based solely on hanging out with your very own Swedish best friend. So far there are at least 10,000 residents signed up through the site to host visitors, so you’re free to check out what they have to offer. Want a tour of the sights? They’ve got you covered. They’ll also meet you for some coffee, cook you a meal, head out for a run, or many even offer you up a free place to stay.

more ›

Copenhagen Travel / A Week in Copenhagen / Denmark Travel / Travel Tips / Europe Travel / Scandinavia Travel / Jewish Travel / Museum Travel / → All Tags

A Week in Copenhagen: Making the Most of One Day in Malmö

Welcome to København! Often recognized as being one of the most environmentally-friendly cities in Europe with the best quality of life, Copenhagen is no-brainer. Sure it may be a tad expensive, but there's reason after reason for that. This week, Lilit Marcus will be sharing the must-hit spots, whether you have three days or over a week.

Read the whole series here

It's thanks to high speed trains and the joy of Scandinavian efficiency that you can get from Copenhagen to Malmö, Sweden, in as much time as it takes to get from the east side of Manhattan to the west side. Trains depart roughly every 15-20 minutes from both city train stations, so go ahead and purchase a round-trip ticket before you leave, for 168 DKK ($28.50).

Feel free to bring a passport if you want, but no one will care or ask to see it; the border here is quite lax and many people commute between the two cities daily. Your train trip will take you over the gorgeous Oresund Bridge, so try to snap a photo from inside if you can.

more ›

Social Media / Sweden Travel / Travel Advertising / Tourism / Twitter / Tourism Boards / Bad Ideas / → All Tags

Whoopsies. Sweden's Twitter Campaign Gets Predictably Trolled

And now boys and girls, another object lesson on why skepticism is the proper response to advertising strategists and reporters who tell you that social media is magic and that engagement means letting everyone be heard. We have to do these posts every few years because our rants never seem to take hold, least of all with travel journalists and tourism boards.

Let's go back all the way back to four days ago Sunday. The New York Times publishes a puff piece about Sweden's Twitter initiative, done of course at the behest of an advertising agency, to "entrust the country's Twitter account [@Sweden] to a new citizen every seven days." Look how social! Look how effing authentic! To be clear, there was a point during which we actively adored the account, but that was when the guest curator was posting lamb photos every few hours.

more ›

Food Travel / Foreign Grocery Friday / Holiday Travel / Sweden Travel / Christmas Travel / Drinking Travel / Booze Travel / → All Tags

Foreign Grocery Friday: The Glögg Mulled Wine of Scandinavia

When we travel, one of our favorite things to do is to pop into a local grocery store and check out the food products and candies we'd never find anywhere else. So we're trying out this new feature, Foreign Grocery Friday, where each week we'll feature some of our (and your) favorite overseas treats. Got a recommendation? Let us know!

With only so much time left before the holidays, it's now that we get serious about winter treats. Gingerbread houses and candy canes are all well and good, but going farther afield to foreign Christmas traditions yields such yummy drinks as Glögg. This mulled wine is a decidedly Scandinavian tradition, but Iceland and Estonia like to get in on it as well.

Since Glögg is essentially just one version of mulled wine, other country's attempts at the beverage are also totally fine if Glögg isn't available. Germany/Austria/Switzerland's Glühwein is, for instance, an excellent substitute, as is the vin brulé of Northern Italy (especially the ski resort towns). Just be sure to serve it with a bit of gingerbread or a few ginger snap cookies on the side.

more ›

Travel Contests / Gay Travel / SAS Airlines / Airline News / Events / Romance Travel / Wedding Travel / → All Tags

SAS Airlines to Hold a Contest for the World's First In-Flight Gay Marriage

It's a world's first! Just wait to hear what exactly "it" is...

(Same-sex) Love is in the air this winter aboard SAS. The Scandinavian airline is hoping to host the world’s first same-sex wedding in the air aboard one of their A340s between Stockholm and New York on December 6. To find the lucky couple for the mid-air nuptials, the longtime gay-friendly airline is launching a major social media contest campaign titled “Love is in the air.” Cute. Not fierce. But cute.

The airline has partnered with VisitSweden and Stockholm Gay & Lesbian Network to offer one European couple and one American couple the chance to get married aboard SAS flights and honeymoon packages—the European couple be married aboard the outbound flight to the U.S. and will get to vacation there, and the American couple will be feted on the way back to Sweden.

more ›

Literary Travel / Movie Travel / Sweden Travel / → All Tags

Sweden to Become Hotspot Thanks to 'Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'

Chances are, you've either read the Stieg Larsson book Girl with the Dragon Tattoo or know at least two people who have, because that book is everywhere. In fact, it's the first book to sell over 1 million copies on the Amazon Kindle and now Hollywood wants a piece of the action.

It's been announced that Daniel Craig has signed on to star in the English-language movie version, and David Fincher will direct. And MTV has some exclusive and exciting news straight from Fincher that's sure to make the Sweden Tourist Board very happy: the movie will be filmed in "Stockholm. Uppsala. In the north." This means the movie will stay true to the novel's Scandinavian imagery instead of trying to Americanize it by shooting it in the States.

more ›

Food Travel / Sweden Travel / Foreign Grocery Friday / → All Tags

Foreign Grocery Friday: Nordic Muesli is Far Sweder

When we travel, one of our favorite things to do is to pop into a local grocery store and check out the food products and candies we'd never find anywhere else. So we're trying out this new feature, Foreign Grocery Friday, where each week we'll feature some of our (and your) favorite overseas treats. Got a recommendation? Let us know!

Forget cornflakes or cocoa puffs; Sweden knows that breakfast is better with a bowl of muesli. And although we wish it had a funkier, Sweder name, one of our favorite bags of the good stuff goes by the simple name of "Nordic Muesli."

Grabbed by the handful, served in a bowl with milk or mixed with cut fruit, muesli is an essential snack in Sweden, so much so that the Swedish almost match the Swiss in their love for it. Grocery shelves offer a staggering variety, but we'd stick with this stuff.

The taste: Muesli is dry oats mixed with a some goodies, like dried banana chips, orange bits, raisins and slivered almonds in the case of this variety, and thus it can be quite dry. You'll need to either warm up your salivary glands or douse it in milk. We recommend almond or coconut milk (the latter used in the picture below) to enhance the flavors, and you'll end up having both a healthy meal and one that tastes of a nice fruitiness.

more ›

Travel Contests / Road Trips / Sweden / Cars / Sweden Travel / → All Tags

How to Win a Free Road Trip through Sweden in a Volvo

If you want to plan your own road trip across West Sweden, there's someone willing to foot the bill. Volvo and West Sweden's tourism bureau are offering a contest that will pay for your trek across the Scandinavian country, and anyone is free to enter.

The thing is, you can't choose whatever pops into your head for the design-it-yourself trip's itinerary. Instead, you're provided with a list of activities from which to choose. For example, you could take in the art at the Nordic Watercolour Museum on the island of Tjörn, go on a lobster safari to catch the creatures and help cook them for your dinner at a hotel on Flaton island, dine on elk or beaver at Falktholts Gestgiveri in Dalsland, or go golfing at a number of courses.

more ›

Starbucks Alternatives / Coffee Travel / Stockholm / Stockholm Travel / Stockholm Restaurants / Retro Travel / Design Travel / → All Tags

Stockholm Kicks Starbucks To The Curb With The Retro 'Konditori Valand'

Starbucks might be attempting to create more of a cafe with their concept "15th Street Coffee & Tea" restaurant, but it will simply never equal the awesomeness of truly great, very authentic cafes that still exist and serve up homemade goods around the world. One such spot, which might not last too much longer as the owners grow old, is Stockholm's Konditori Valand.

The cafe, in the Surbrunnsgatan section of town, is run by Magdalena Åström, who has maintained the original interior of the cafe since it was begun and designed by her husband in 1954. The result is a mid-century modern stunner, with well-worn teak furniture and an imported black stone floor from Italy. The cafe is a fixture in German guidebooks and on the lists of retro furniture enthusiasts, but that doesn't mean that a regular old, design-appreciating tourist can't enjoy a coffee and slice of cake here.

more ›

Film Travel / Mondo Films / Sex Travel / Cinema / Stereotypes / → All Tags

The Movie that Created the Sexy Stereotype of Sweden

Much has been made of the idea that Sweden is filled with hot, sex-starved women, but where did that tantalizing myth originate? A video making the rounds right now might offer a clue. The 1968 mondo film Sweden: Heaven and Hell presents itself as a straightforward documentary about the sex lives of Swedes, but its staged footage of gorgeous Scandinavians finding any excuse to get naked and randy places it squarely in the realm of reality-based fantasy fiction.

more ›

Literary Travel / Award Show Travel / Nobel Prize / Romania Travel / → All Tags

Nobel Prize Winner In Literature Afraid To Go Home To Romania

This must be the best day ever for all you Herta Müller fans! In case you're not caught up on modern literature, Müller is the 2009 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, announced this morning in Stockholm.

Müller lives and works in Germany now, but grew up in Communist Romania under dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, and many of her books describe the plight of young people in a controlling regime. She revealed in an essay penned earlier this summer for the online magazine Sign and Sight that she is afraid to travel in Romania even now because she believes members of the government are still following her.

more ›

Prime-Plane-Spotting-Map / Plane Spotting / Stockholm / Stockholm Travel / Airplane News / Hostels / Airplanes / → All Tags

Nothing's Sweder Than Plane Spotting Straight From A Cockpit

We love airplanes, you love airplanes, so let's go look at airplanes! In our Prime Plane Spotting series, we'll let you in on all the best spots to whip out your cameras and binoculars for a piece of the aviation action.

Where is better for plane spotting than actually being on the airport's tarmac...or better yet, in a honeymoon suite on the tarmac? This actually became possible less than a year ago, when the Jumbo Hostel opened at Stockholm's Arlanda Airport.

This decommissioned 747 has had its seats ripped out in favor of installing 25 bedroom suites, complete with free wireless internet access and flatscreen TVs, and, for most rooms, full en-suite bathrooms. Even Singapore Airlines' A380 first class suites can't compare with these, but then the Jumbo Hostel no longer flies, so there's that.

more ›