A Weekend Stay In The Camper At Örnviken

Last year was full of buying a house in Sweden, renovating parts of said house and then building an attefallshus. This left little time for camper van travels, but that will change this year!

Our camper van is a converted VW T5.1 and whilst we have a solar panel and so do not need electric, we have been having some issues with it and so we looked for a site where we could stay in the van and have electric. I found Örnviken and it ticked another box as it was on the eastern Swedish archipelago.

Örnviken – Söderköping

Örnviken is just outside of Söderköping and has something for everyone wanting to camp. There are:

• pitches for motor homes and camper vans, either on the seaside, premium area where the boats dock or the field
• pitches for tents
• cabins to rent
• glamping tents with decks
• aurora huts, which are like floating rooms complete with beds, kitchenette, toilet and deck
• tree tents (I had not seen these before and they look bonkers)

We booked the Vanlife seaside so we were right next to the water, plus it has fewer pitches so would be less busy. Every pitch in this area had electric, there was a fire pit to grill and sit around, a toilet, sink outside for washing up and a decked stairway to sit on the lake. It was about a 5 minute walk to the main facilities for showers.

The Amenities

We have pretty much everything we would need but on site there was:

• many toilets dotted around so regardless of where you were staying it would not have been far to get to a toilet and washing up facilities
• many fire pits with grills for anyone staying to use
• many decked areas for anyone staying to use
• a small cabin/kiosk with essentials you can purchase, based on honesty so you take what you want and swish your money for it (you scan a QR for the code to enter)
• service centre where there are four toilets and two showers (this would be my only comment that two showers is not that many for the site although many people staying would have their own facilities in motor homes), and washing up facilities
• there is a floating sauna you can rent either in full or for half
• you can hire paddle boards (including paddle and life jacket), which are SEK 150 for 2 hours
• there are several places with access to swimming in the lake
• from 1 June you can also hire boats (we were a day too early for this)
• you can also book a breakfast basket to be delivered (we didn’t do this)
• there is a food truck in the harbour (Smygöppen) run by a couple from New Zealand and I can say hands down probably the best fish and chips I have eaten – delicious!
• there were also several people fishing on the site too

Did We Like It?

We will absolutely be returning to this site! Everyone we met was super friendly. The camp site was immaculate and really well kept. It was a little chilly to get in the water and we went just before boat hire was available (which if anyone knowing me reads this knows I am terrified of open water so I was not overly disappointed but I would give it a go when we go back).

Check in and check out is midday, which works well as some sites you cannot check in until late afternoon and need to be out early so this was perfect. It cost SEK 510 for our weekend here, which is roughly £40, and I think that is really reasonable.

My husband loves a sauna so I booked that for the Saturday. It can hold ten people (although I would say I think that would be quite cosy!) and you can either book the whole thing of half. I booked half, which cost SEK 395, which is roughly £30, and you get that for 3 hours. The people who were in a motorhome next to us had booked the other half so we ended up chatting with them. Close by is a well stocked open cabin with wood for the sauna already chopped to help yourself to. There is a deck area on both sides with chairs and a small table. There is also access to get into the water and a shower to use on the deck. I did try the sauna a few times but they are not my thing – although whilst reading my book I got sunburned and ended up more red than if I was in the sauna! Being on the water means you don’t always feel how hot it is!

The only down side I would say is that you are there to stay in the archipelago and enjoy that and there are no trails for hiking around, which was a shame. We headed out on a main road (which is super quiet) thinking we could follow a track but it turned out to be private. Personal preference but we always enjoy going for a wander and it was beautiful there so a shame not to be able to explore a bit more.