Spa Arctic Baths

Arctic Baths is a floating spa resort on the Lule river in Swedish Lapland — though its spirit and thermal philosophy is deeply rooted in the Norwegian-Swedish Sami cultural tradition of the far north — whose extraordinary ring-shaped wooden structure, designed to resemble an ice plug, floats year-round on the river amid a landscape of birch forest and Arctic sky. The thermal bathing philosophy here is Nordic at its core: a cycle of heat in the wood-fired sauna and cold immersion in the river or snow, repeated through the long twilight of the Lapland summer or under the Northern Lights of the Arctic winter. The surrounding wilderness of the Lule river valley, with its brown bears, lynx, reindeer herds and the phenomenon of midnight sun or polar night, makes Arctic Baths one of the most evocative and environmentally immersive spa experiences in Scandinavia.