Swedish Lapland - The Rough Guide to Sweden - page 322

ACCOMMODATION AND EATING

9

Ammarnäs Fjällhotell Tjulträskvägen 1 T 0952 600
03, W ammarnasjall.se. The only hotel in the village,
with rather simple en-suite rooms aimed at hikers walking
the Kungsleden; its decent sauna and pool complex in the
basement makes up for the lack of creature comforts in the
rooms. There are also basic youth hostel dorms in a separate
building. The hotel's bar and restaurant are your only
eating and drinking options in town. No fixed opening

times. Dorms 180kr , doubles 990kr
Ammarnäs youth hostel Nolsivägen 6 T 0952 602
00, E [e-mail]. Virtually
opposite the tourist office, the village youth hostel is open
all year round and has accommodation in cabins as well as
the main buildi ng. The re's a sauna and a guest kitchen on
site, too. Dorms 230kr

Arvidsjaur
An hour and a half by Inlandsbanan and 89km north of Sorsele, ARVIDSJAUR was for
centuries where the region's Sámi gathered to trade and debate. Their presence was of
interest to Protestant missionaries, who established the first church here in 1606. The
success of this Swedish settlement was secured when silver was discovered in the nearby
mountains, and the town flourished as a staging point and supply depot. While these
developments unfolded, the Sámi continued to assemble on market days and during
religious festivals. At the end of the eighteenth century, they built their own church
town of simple wooden huts. Today, out of a total population of five thousand, there
are still twenty Sámi families in Arvisdjaur who make their living from reindeer
husbandry, and the town is a good place to get a real hands-on experience of Sámi life.
Arvidsjaur is not one of Sweden's more attractive towns - its streets of drab houses
strung out either side of the main drag lined with a dozen or so shops make a pretty
depressing impression on any first-time visitor. However, although the modern town is
decidedly unappealing, it hides one of northern Sweden's top attractions in the
traditional Sámi village of Lappstaden .

Lappstaden
Reached by walking west along Storgatan and turning right into Lappstadsgatan • Always open • Free • Daily tours mid-June to mid-Aug
at 6pm, 50kr
A good way to find out more about the Sámi culture (which manifests itself more and
more as you travel north from here) is to visit Lappstaden . Although you probably
won't meet any Sámi here, you will at least be able to see how they used to live in
traditional huts, or kåtor. About eighty of these huts in the eighteenth-century Sámi
church town have survived, and are clumped unceremoniously next to a yellow,
modern apartment building. The design of these square wooden buildings supporting a
pyramid-shaped roof is typical of the Forest Sámi who lived in the surrounding forests,
constructing their homes of indigenous timber. Local Sámi schoolteacher, Karin
Stenberg, made it her life's work to preserve Lappstaden and, the huts are still used
today during the last weekend in August as a venue for a special festival ,
Storstämningshelgen.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE ARVIDSJAUR

By plane Flights from Stockholm's Arlanda airport land
at the modern airport terminal, 15km east of town,
which has been designed to resemble a Sámi wooden
kåta ; you can get from here to the centre by taxi ( T 0960
104 00; 100kr).
By train The train station is at the junction of
Järnvägsgatan and Stationsgatan.
Destinations Gällivare (summer 1 daily; 6hr); Jokkmokk

(summer 1 daily; 3hr 30min); Östersund (summer
1 daily; 8hr).
By bus The bus station is in the centre of town at
Västlundavägen, just behind the Konsum supermarket.
Destinations Arjeplog (3 daily; 1hr); Bodø, Norway
(1 daily; 7hr); Gällivare (1 daily; 4hr); Jokkmokk (1 daily;
2hr 15min); Luleå (2 daily; 2hr 40min); Östersund
(2 daily; 7hr).