Sweden - Becky Ohlsen [133]
Hotell Horizont (71 32 39; info@horizont.nu; Hamngatan 9; s/d Skr950/1150, discounted to Skr890/1050; ) Crash here for clean, modern rooms, some with harbour views. Featuring a top-floor restaurant, bar and cafe, it’s in the same building as the tourist office.
Dannegården (481 80; office@dannegarden.se; Strandgatan 32; s/d Skr985/1148, discounted to Skr700/952; ) Trelleborg’s most beautiful slumber spot is this old sea captain’s villa. Rooms are discreetly luxurious, although those in the newer wing lack the same baronial charm. Extras include a reputable restaurant and gorgeous gardens.
Café Vattentornet (73 30 70; Stortorget; sandwiches from Skr25; Mon-Sat) On the ground floor of the splendid 58m-high water tower (1912), Café Vattentornet sells sandwiches, cakes and other yummy snacks, with fabulous outdoor tables in the summer.
Restaurang & Pizzeria Istanbul (44 44 44; Algatan 30; mains Skr60-220) This bustling place has a huge menu of pasta, pizza, salad and kebabs, plus pricier local fish and meat dishes.
Getting There & Away
Bus 146 runs roughly every half-hour between Malmö (Skr51, 45 minutes) and Trelleborg’s bus station, some 500m inland from the ferry terminals. Bus 165 runs frequently Monday to Friday (five services Saturday and four services Sunday) from Lund (Skr63, one hour and five minutes). Click here for bus travel from Ystad.
For details of international trains from Malmö to Berlin via Trelleborg, Click here.
Scandlines (650 00; www.scandlines.se) ferries connect Trelleborg to Sassnitz (five daily) and Rostock (two or three daily). TT-Line (562 00; www.ttline.com) ferries shuttle between Trelleborg and Travemünde three to five times daily, and between Trelleborg and Rostock up to three times daily. Buy tickets inside the building housing the tourist office (Hamngatan 9). Click here for details.
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SMYGEHUK
0410
Thanks to the power of geography – it’s Sweden’s most southerly point (latitude 55°20’3”) – diminutive Smygehuk has become something of a tourist magnet, despite its modest attractions.
To the east of the harbour, a summer tourist office (240 53; 10am-7pm Jul, 10am-6pm Jun & Aug) and cafe sit inside Köpmansmagasinet, a renovated 19th-century warehouse with local exhibitions of fantastic handicrafts and art (for sale). Nearby, a huge 19th-century lime kiln recalls the bygone lime industry; it smoked its last in 1954.
West of the harbour, scramble to the top of the now-defunct lighthouse (17m), dating from 1883, and visit the tiny maritime museum inside Captain Brinck’s Cabin (donation appreciated; summer). Opening hours are erratic; the lighthouse is managed by the hostel warden, and she opens it if/when she feels like it. A soothing coastal path features prolific bird life.
STF Vandrarhem Smygehuk (245 83; info@smygehukhostel.com; dm from Skr150; Feb-Nov; ) is a comfortable, well-equipped hostel in the old lighthouse-keeper’s residence, next to the lighthouse. Book ahead outside the high season.
Harbour eating options include a fast-food kiosk and a fish smokehouse.
The Trelleborg to Ystad bus service (Click here) stops in Smygehuk.
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YSTAD
0411 / pop 27,700
Half-timbered houses, rambling cobbled streets and the haunting sound of a nightwatchman’s horn give this medieval market town an intoxicating lure. Fans of writer Henning Mankell know it as the setting for his best-selling Inspector Wallander crime thrillers, while fans of drums and uniforms head in for the spectacular three-day Military Tattoo in August.
Ystad was Sweden’s window to Europe from the 17th to the mid-19th century, with new ideas and inventions – including cars, banks and hotels – arriving here first. Now a terminal for ferries to Bornholm and Poland, the port’s transitory