Visiting a Stretch of the 'Swedish Riviera'

Along the “Swedish Riviera” in Åhus, a quiet beach and a mellow vibe await visitors to the country’s vodka-distilling heart.

May 27, 2015

Ahus, Sweden
The village of Åhus in Sweden’s southernmost county, Skåne, is best known as the birthplace of Absolut vodka, in 1879; it's still distilled from the “one source” winter wheat grown around Åhus. The old vodka distillery is pictured, far right.
The village, population 10,000, has a beautiful medieval town center and is lined with stately homes fronting the waterfront promenade (Gamla Skeppsbron); across the way, wooden boats bob in the marina. Åhus has become something of a getaway for Danes and Swedes alike—it's closer to Copenhagen (about 90 miles west) than it is to Stockholm (some 350 miles north).

Renting a bike is an ideal way to get around—you’ll also feel like a local on two wheels. It’s a pleasant mile-and-a-half ride from Åhus Gästgivaregård—a quaint guest house in the heart of town, along quiet residential streets lined with pines—to Åhus’s sandy beach along a stretch of coastline dubbed the "Swedish Riviera."
The Swedish Riviera stretches from Åhus in the northeast to Ängelholm in the northwest, switching from long, soft-sand beaches to coarser, pebble-lined coasts. Here, little wooden houses painted yellow, red, green, white, and blue dot the shoreline.

There are a handful of hotels between the town and the beach, but sleeping in an oceanfront cottage is even cozier. Browse vacation rental sites like Airbnb and Swedish holiday rental website Stugknuten to scope oceanfront wooden cottages, similar to the one pictured here, to rent during your stay.
Fishing nets dry in the sun in Åhus. Many Danes have holiday homes or family here, so you’ll see a mix of Scandinavians at the area’s campsites, restaurants, and hotels.

The dunes in Åhus are lined with colorful wooden sheds called badhytt—bath houses used for changing that are owned by individual families and difficult for newcomers to acquire; the shacks are passed down from one generation to the next.
Forest meets beach around Åhus. Colorful wooden homes appear between the trees, and the scent of pines by the coast is invigorating. But even this solitude can be broken: Åhus’s population doubles during the summer months and the beach is particularly busy during Europe’s largest beach handball tournament, the Åhus Beachhandboll Festival, every July. If you'd like to escape the crowds, head south...

Photo by Anders Tukler
Drive about 30 minutes south of Åhus to the seaside outpost of Haväng, a remote sandy beach accessed by a narrow dirt road that cuts through forest and pasture land. Like Åhus, the beach here is part of a stretch of Swedish Riviera called the Ålakusten (Eel Coast), a reference to the centuries-old tradition of eel fishing that continues today. The atmospheric huts (pictured) used for eel fishing in the fall have made the area as famous as its beaches.
Photo by Carolina Romare
Just south of Haväng (about four miles) is another great stop off on the Eel Coast, the [Vitemölla Recreation Area]((http://en.skanskalandskap.se/recreation-areas/vitemolla/), with its crescent of white-sand beach. Nearby, an open-air museum features a renovated eel shed and traditional equipment vital to the area’s eel- and salmon-fishing past. These days, fishing for sea trout is a popular pastime, particularly from late winter to early spring—a Swedish beach vacation is possible year-round.

Ahus, Sweden