As the summer winds down, I’m regretting we never got around to taking our two little guys camping. Actually, what I’m really lamenting is that there aren’t more pseudo-camping options nearby, because even though I romanticize the camping of my youth, I’m kind of a wimp about sleeping on the ground as an adult (and the only thing my husband likes about camping is starting fires).

The Swedes seem to have it all figured out. They love setting up shop in the forest–huts, log cabins, mirrored tree houses, you name it. Not exactly camping (and definitely not glamping–i hate even using the word), but sleeping amongst the birch trees in fairly primitive, aesthetically pleasing lodgings. Here are three places in Sweden I wish I was spending my Labor Day weekend.

Kolarbyn
These traditional grass-covered forest huts are located by the shore of lake Skärsjön. No electricty, only candles–and there’s a floating sauna on the lake.

Urnatur
From creative husband-and-wife team behind the furniture design company and sprawling nature lodge, these primitive buildings are completely handmade. When there, you live like the name–which means “ancient nature”–suggests: building fires, picking mushrooms in the forest, chopping firewood. Even the fences are made from spruce and juniper.

TreeHotel
This growing collection of seven treehouses has been frenetically circling the internet since it opened earlier this year. Designed by Swedish architects and designers, they’re all uniquely innovative: the bird’s nest is almost entirely covered with branches, and the mirrorcube reflects the trees from the forest in its mirrored surface.

[Photos from top: courtesy of Welcome Beyond; Anthology via The Anthropologist; Treehotel]

I never get tired of hearing about the Creators Inn—hotel rooms by Elvine (a Swedish clothing brand “inspired by the city of Gothenburg’s unrefined subcultures and the legacy of traditional craftsmanship”) that are free to fellow creative types. Yes, free. Zero cost to whoever can score one of the rooms.

So if you’re an llustrator, graphic artist, fine artist, artisan, writer, journalist, composer, filmmaker, musician, storyteller, doll maker, book binder, then you probably qualify. “We have a very wide definition of creators. The reason for coming to town is more important than the title on your business card.” That means, they’re looking for people doing creative work that relates to the city in some way.

There are three locations, but the latest one seems the most aesthetically pleasing (ahem, the most creatively inspiring). A hotel-within-a-hotel tucked inside the Scandic Malmen Hotel in Stockholm, it’s a little bit vintage Scandanavian and a little bit IKEA with just enough quirky trinkets and ferns to make it feel homey.