The very mention of a safari invariably conjures images of the African continent with its vast savannahs bristling with the entire cast of The Lion King. Savvy insiders, though, have long known that equally compelling vistas and fauna are to be found in Scandinavia, with the 925-hectare Eriksberg Hotel & Nature Reserve in south-east Sweden’s Blekinge seizing the high ground with the Nordic region’s largest safari park.
The Ark at Eriksberg Hotel & Nature Reserve, Trensum
The recent addition of a 23-room hotel, Arken – appropriately, the Ark, in English – just in time for the start of the summer season will be welcomed by safari enthusiasts wanting to stay on property after the day-trippers have left. Here, local architect Oskar Årevall has lifted over the land a cantilevered, three-storey building sheathed in low-maintenance timber and polished steel, and capped with a reed roof, a metaphor for a boat intentionally marooned on land. The reflective properties of the cladding also ‘create the illusion of a dissolving house which disappears in nature.’
Inside, interior designers Bernadotte & Kylberg have followed their brief – bringing guests as close to nature as possible, inside – with admirable fidelity. In particular, the three suites, located on different floors of Arken, are themed after a primeral mountain, forest and sky, with the interior design gently tweaked to match, whether a rough-hewn rock that doubles as a stool, rugs inspired by clouds and moss, or water-lily wallpaper designed by pattern designer Martin Bergström to reflect the flora on the property’s Lake Färsksjön.
One of the suites even features a ceiling light made of a massive, two-metre-wide tree root alongside a glass panel in the floor, the better to spot grazing wildlife below from the comfort of the sofa. Chances are, though, that most guests will drawn out onto their south-facing terraces, which open to a panoramic sweep of the savannah and oak woodlands – the better to catch passing wisents, or European bison, Père David’s deer, wild boar and sea eagles.
Eriksberg Hotel & Nature Reserve is located at Guöviksvägen 353, 374 96 Trensum, Sweden, eriksberg.se
