Review: Utö Värdshus Hotel, Utö, Stockholm Archipelago, Sweden

The beautiful island of Utö in the Stockholm Archipelago is much loved for its scenic landscape and peaceful way of life, as well as celebrated for its rich maritime history. It has a very short tourist season in the Summer but is a popular destination for nature lovers, enjoying a mix of rugged coastlines, sandy beaches and lush forests. And just a short walk from the northern shore of the island, at Gruvbyn, is Utö Värdshus Hotell & Konferens.

This part of the island is most easily accessed via a foot passenger ferry from Årsta brygga which lies to the south of Stockholm and can be reached by car or public transport. The service is run by Waxholmsbolaget and you can buy tickets via their app or once on board.

The welcome

Since we’d taken a morning ferry to Utö, we knew we’d probably arrived too early to be able to check in, but wandered up the hill to the hotel anyway, just in case, and were warmly welcomed and pleasantly surprised to learn that our accommodation was already ready for us.

Utö Värdshus Hotell consists of much more than just the hotel – they have places to stay all over Gruvbyn, including cabins, a hostel and various other properties. We were given the keys to Affärshuset and its smaller neighbour, Lilla Affärshuset, and provided with directions to the properties which are back towards the waterfront. As you will see shortly, these are two adjoining ground floor stand-alone apartments with a locked door between them that can be unlocked to create a larger, interconnected space.

The room

Access to Affärshuset is through a small white gate which takes you into a lawned garden that extends all the way to the water’s edge.

The apartment is housed in a traditional, two-storey Swedish house, and the entrance is via some steps that lead up to a quaint white porch.

On entering the property, a homely Nordic kitchen with white cabinetry lies immediately ahead. It’s a bright and airy space with a wooden dining table taking centre stage and pendant lighting above it. A wood-burning stove in the corner ensures this is a cosy haven in the winter months.

To the right is a living area – an elegant sanctuary in which to read a book or relax, tucked up on the corner sofa or armchair.

Plenty of natural light streams through the windows and a rocking chair tucked away in the corner invites you to sit back and let your mind wander and enjoy a sense of timeless charm.

Beyond this is the bedroom with a large double bed and a patterned quilt that a touch of colour to the room, and with Utö scatter cushions that remind us of our location in the Stockholm archipelago.

Also in one corner of the bedroom is a bunk bed with an angled design, making this also a perfect space for younger families.

The bathroom, which is situated at the far end of the kitchen, is spotless, practical and has everything we need.

Ordinarily, the neighbouring apartment of Lilla Affärshuset would be accessed from a front door on the roadside. However, we were instead able to access it from the interconnecting door located in the kitchen which takes you to a charming country bedroom for that property.

This too has a bunk bed tucked in the corner so can accommodate a family in its own right.

Beyond the bedroom is an intimate lounge, and beyond that a small kitchen and dining area, and a bathroom, so everything that Affärshuset has but in a slightly more compact form.

Supplied toiletries are from Dutch brand, Rituals Cosmetics, who specialise in high quality products that create a sense of relaxation, mindfulness and well-being.

Both Affärshuset and Lilla Affärshuset offer very comfortable accommodation, close to the water’s edge. Each apartment provides ample room for a single family, but by having the interconnecting door open, we had the added luxury of both, giving us plenty of additional space to enjoy.

The facilities

An excellent buffet breakfast is served each morning in one of the hotel’s dining rooms, with everything from freshly squeezed orange juice to various hams, cheeses, smoked salmon and an array of cooked options.

In the evenings, the Utö Inn offers an a la carte menu with dishes that are as locally produced as possible, using seasonal and organic ingredients where available.  There are several different rooms from which to dine – if you can, sit close to a window with a view of the archipelago.

The ambience is very relaxed, the service friendly and the food beautifully presented and tasty. Pictured below are a couple of the starters on offer: Oysters ‘Rockefeller’ (three oysters baked in spinach, cream and hollandaise) and Bleak Roe (roe on fried Hasselback potatoes with sour cream and chives).

The mains include traditional Swedish dishes such as the entrecôte with potato croquettes, pickled red onion and green pepper sauce.

Butter-fried sole served with Summer vegetables, blue mussel sauce, hazelnuts and rainbow trout roe, and the lightly-cured and baked Arctic char served with lobster sauce, butter-fried black cabbage and Summer chanterelles both proved to be excellent pescatarian options.

Vegetarians are also catered for with the cauliflower steak served with a chickpea purée, fried chickpeas and chimichurri.

The pick of the desserts was the fried bao bun with a caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream, and a deconstructed lemon and lime cheesecake.

In addition to the restaurant and bar, the hotel is also home to conference and wedding facilities, and has its own guest harbour in Gruvbyn.

The location

Fun fact – Sweden has over 267,000 islands, more than any other country in the world. Utö is one of the one thousand of these that is inhabited, and one of thirty thousand that can be found in the Stockholm Archipelago.

And here’s a really fun story, and the background to our own visit to Utö… back in 2002, four friends – Anders Malm, Janne Lindberg, Pär Svensson and Mats Andersson – were enjoying drinks at a bar on the island, when they come up with the wild challenge of racing across the islands from Utö to Sandhamn.

They were to race in pairs, could choose their own route but had to check-in at certain restaurants along the way, with the second team having to pay for whatever food and drink was consumed. This would essentially involve around 65kms on foot, and 10kms of swimming. Little did they know at the time, but this late night conversation planted the seeds for swimrun – one of the fastest-growing sports in the world today, and in 2006 a race from Sandhamn to Utö was made official by ÖTILLÖ (Swedish for ‘island to island’) and is now widely regarded as the world championship for the sport of swimrun.

And we were there because our eldest son was a solo competitor in the ÖTILLÖ 15K Final sprint, a precursor to the main event that consisted of 7 runs and 6 swims on the last 15 kilometres of the full distance event.

In an even more bizarre twist, we happened to be chatting to a lovely gentleman who was attending to his boat at the end of the garden to Affärshuset where there are several jetties. He was checking everything over as it turned out he was going to be helping with the safety for the event, and he very kindly invited us to join him so we could watch our son compete. Not only that, but it turns out he was none other than Janne Lindberg, one of the original ‘famous four’ as they are sometimes referred to, as well as one of the owners of Utö Värdshus Hotell.

We really enjoyed his company, being able to see the islands and watch the event. His enthusiasm for the sport was clearly infectious and it was fun to hear his account of that night in the bar some 20 years ago.

As for this year’s solo sprint event? We’re delighted to be able to announce that are son, James, actually won, setting a course record of 1 hour 19 minutes and 14 seconds.

Even if you are not visiting for swimrun, there is so much more that the island has to offer visitors. There are many well-marked trails and the landscape is stunning. It’s perfect for outdoor enthusiasts, with opportunities for hiking, cycling, kayaking and fishing, as well as swimming and running. There are also many interesting locations of both historical and geological significance to explore. The mineral holmquistite was first discovered on Utö and there are disused iron mines that date as far back as the 12th century, offering a glimpse into the island’s industrial past.

Other nice touches

Included in our stay were some vouchers for hiring bikes on the island. Given that we’d had to leave our car at Årsta brygga, this was really useful for getting about and exploring parts of Utö that we would have otherwise been unable to easily reach.

The bikes are available for hire from Gruvbyn and you see lots of them about. Their unique braking system takes a little bit of getting used to – instead of handle grips, you simply pedal backwards to slow down or stop. But with that mastered, they are very versatile and capable of traversing both roads and rough tracks.

The cost

The price for accommodation and breakfast is between SEK 1,350 and SEK 2,350 (approximately 130 to 230 USD) / person per night depending on the season.

The best bit

We loved every aspect of our stay on Utö – our accommodation, the facilities at the hotel, the swimrun event, the friendliness of the people and more. But if we were to pick just one thing, it would be the island itself. It is so tranquil, so beautiful and inviting, and just so magical.

The final verdict

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Disclosure: Our stay was sponsored by Utö Värdshus Hotell & Konferens and our trip was kindly supported by Visit Stockholm..