Marholmen – complete relaxation surrounded by nature.

ARTICLE. North of Stockholm, right in the heart of Roslagen, you'll find the Marholmen hotel complex. It's its own island, a perfect destination for relaxation and rest, but also for amazing food and nature experiences.

The sun is streaming through the car window, tree buds are bursting outside, and the meadows along the road are coming back to life. It's early summer, hands down the best season! We have so much to look forward to: all the warm days, refreshing dips, summer evenings – everything! We also have a whole weekend at Marholmen ahead of us. The car zips over the bridge onto Marholmen. We've got a packed schedule to fit everything into this day we're spending here with some good friends.

First up on the schedule is a decathlon out in the forest. We'll hike over small bridges and boardwalks, eventually arriving at a small island where the decathlon will take place. We'll split into teams and compete against each other in well-designed and well-built events. This isn't your typical decathlon with dartboards and tennis balls thrown at cans. Here, we get to throw axes, shoot bows, saw down trees, and play ghost ball against each other. Super fun!

Right after the decathlon, we'll stop by the cold bath on our way back to the hotel. Here, with a view of the bay, we'll relax for a couple of hours with a cold bath, sauna, and hot tub. I immediately hear snapping sounds all around me. I quickly think, "something's breaking here." But then I turn around, and in unison, the whole group has popped open a beer each, and everyone is now heading into the spa bath.

After the cold bath, we head to our hotel rooms. We step into a hotel room with an amazing sea view. We change for dinner at the hotel, but before heading down, we sit on the balcony. We sit there in silence, watching the perfectly still water. We're interrupted by the phone ringing. We've completely lost track of time, and the others are now waiting for us in the restaurant.

We start dinner with an absolutely incredible cauliflower soup flavored with oysters, smoked cod, broad beans, and radish. We continue dinner with herb-roasted lamb sirloin with herb parmesan, wild garlic butter, haricots verts, red wine jus, and potato purée. Finally, we
enjoy a dessert consisting of puff pastry tarts with rhubarb, almond, pistachios, and vanilla cream. The evening concludes with conversations about life.

We wake up, pull back the curtains, and open the balcony door. Then we snuggle back into bed as the morning sun streams in, letting us gaze out over the water once more.

The breakfast buffet is really generous, with a huge selection of most things. I go "all in" on salmon, yogurt with berries and granola. We take our breakfast out into the morning sun.

Before we head home, we play a round on the adventure mini golf course. One person in our group is a real golfer, and even though it's just mini golf, he looks like he's on the PGA Tour! He has to inspect the course and take practice putts next to the ball. Okay, so maybe he'll win, but the difference between his score and ours isn't quite proportional to how seriously he takes the whole mini golf game. We pack up the car and leave Marholmen with some wonderful memories.

The article was written by Filip Jarl and published by Affärsresenären and Kickoff magazine in June 2023. https://issuu.com/tidningenkickoff/docs/ar2304