“Taking a trip” for Swedes means travelling on your crosscountry skis from point a to b – and much more.
 
A trip is a journey with a spiritual significance – a journey where you leave every-day reality behind you for a moment of peaceful meditation while your creaky skis carry you out over the vast, white mountain expanses.
When you “take a trip” it is the journey itself that is most important, not the destination.
Throughout the Swedish mountain regions from Lapland in the north to Dalarna in the south, there is an interconnected system of trails for hiking in the summer and cross-country skiing in the winter, with cabins for overnight accommodation located at convenient points for day-long stages.

Those looking for a longer skiing trip can choose from a wide variety of terrain with varying degrees of difficulty and character. Abisko mountain station in the far north is a central point from where you can journey out into the glorious Lapland mountain regions via an extensive system of marked winter trails. Further south you will find the classic Jämtland triangle that runs between Storulvån, Sylarna and Blåhammaren. The adjoining Härjedal mountain range offers the longest prepared system of tracks in the world of which over 300 kilometres are connected.

There are a host of Swedish winter resorts that are able to offer unique and internationally unequalled facilities if you are looking to combine alpine skiing with cross-country skiing.
 
Many cross-country skiers prefer to travel at the beginning of April, when the going can admittedly be heavier but the days are longer and warmer, and you can enjoy the simple life in perfect bliss eating the goodies in your rucksack in just your shirtsleeves, while you lean back basking in the sunshine in the comfiest of all sofas – a snow drift custom made by your own body...