Here you'll find general information on cycling and sleeping in Sweden.
Tip: have a look at the website of Visit Sweden.
Sweden is a paradise for who love to camp out in the wild and is as like else where in Scandinavia relative safe. As a woman travelling alone, I regularly pitched my tent somewhere in the middle of nowhere or slept in a vindskydd. A vindskydd or 'shelter' is a wooden cabin of sorts where you can sleep with your own sleeping bag. Some are even large enough to put up a tent in. A convenient way to keep out mosquitos, or to keep you warm and dry during bad weather.
Two useful sites
- All the rules around camping in the wild
- List with vindskydd in Sweden
- Vilnis, free wilderness campsites, shelters and huts in the Nordics
Maybe a bit redundant: Always respect nature and leave only your footsteps and take rubbish with you.
Mosquitos
In forests and near standing water, such as swamps and lakes, mosquitoes can certainly be a disturbance under certain weather conditions and when dusk falls
Ticks
In the south of Sweden there are ticks that cause the Lyme disease or Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE). Check yourself and your family members when travelling together for ticks daily and remove them immediately. Check the site of the disease control agency for more information on dealing with ticks and if you think it's useful, you could opt for a vaccination against TBE.
Underway in Sweden, I often hear that the water from lakes is potable. To be sure, personally I still use a water purifier. Just to be sure. If you would like to drink water from lakes or streams, there are two rules you need to take into account:
- only drink from water streams that run fast
- avoid places where cattle is grazing
There are bears in Sweden. Once, someone wrote on social media: 'I got the tip to get them on the photo if I get the chance!' I would seem that they are seldom seen and are very shy. In Sweden lives the European brown bear. A small bear, that mainly eats berries, mice, ants and plant roots. A human is not on their menu, but that doesn't mean they're harmless. They can attack when threatened. On the website Take me to Sweden is more info on bears in Sweden.
