Winter Travel Packing List: What to Pack for Outdoor Activities

The thing about travel is it’s constantly taking you out of your comfort zone.  Which is awesome.  But it also means that sometimes you have no idea how to best prepare for a situation.  For us, that moment came when we were preparing for our trip to Swedish Lapland.  We live in San Diego, home of some of the most beautiful and temperate weather in the United States. What did we know about winter travel to the Arctic Circle?  Not much.  We were not only planning travel to freezing temperatures, but we were also planning to spend much of our time outside enjoying winter outdoor activities.  What to wear?  It was important to get it right so we weren’t miserable.  We put together a winter travel packing list that served us well for enjoying our winter outdoor activities.

Kiruna: The Sinking Mine Town of Sweden's Lapland

Kiruna Church and bell tower.

Kiruna is sinking, literally.  Sweden’s northernmost town located in Swedish Lapland, a remote area with a harsh climate within the Arctic Circle, came to be because of the rich iron ore being mined nearby.  The same mine that brought the people and the town and the money is what is now causing the town to sink.  

Exciting Outdoor Winter Activities in Sweden’s Lapland

We traveled to Swedish Lapland in hopes of seeing and photographing the Northern Lights.  But, since there was no guarantee we would see the Northern Lights, we decided to also plan some exciting outdoor winter activities so if our search for the Northern Lights was unsuccessful, we’d still have a great adventure trying some other once-in-a-lifetime experiences during our visit to northern Sweden.  (Be sure to watch the video of all four of our winter outdoor activities at the end of this article.) 

Northern Lights: Where to See, How to Photograph

When we told people we were traveling to Sweden in March we were asked, “Isn’t it still cold there?”  The answer was yes, it was cold.  In fact, it was very cold where we were planning on going, because we were heading above the Arctic Circle to Swedish Lapland.  There was a reason we were going to spend four nights in below freezing temperatures—the Northern Lights.  Come hell or high-water, I was going to see and photograph the famous Northern Lights . . . if I was lucky.

5 Awesome Hotels in Sweden

View of the Northern Lights from Camp Ripan in Kiruna.

Part of having a perfect vacation in Sweden is staying at the perfect hotels in Sweden.  We spent two weeks traveling through Sweden, starting in Sweden’s capital city Stockholm for history, then spending time in Swedish Lapland hunting for the Northern Lights and enjoying outdoor winter activities, stopping in Gothenburg in West Sweden for seafood, and finishing for one last night in Stockholm before heading home.  During our travels through Sweden, we stayed at five beautiful, comfortable, and unique hotels in Stockholm, Jukkasjärvi, Kiruna, and Gothenburg. 

What It’s Like to Stay in Sweden’s ICEHOTEL

Welcome to Sweden's ICEHOTEL.

Almost everybody has heard of the famous ICEHOTEL.  For many, a night in Sweden’s ICEHOTEL is a once in a lifetime experience—though there are a few who don’t understand the appeal of sleeping on a bed of ice in below freezing temperatures.  However, if you’ve never stayed in an ice hotel, you might not know very much about the realities of sleeping in a hotel entirely made of ice.