Sweden Ecovillage Tour
6 DAYS | Adventure in Sweden after the Ecovillage Gathering
Extend your time in Sweden after the Gathering to visit thriving ecovillages
We're thrilled to partner with the European Ecovillage Network for an exclusive tour of ecovillages across Sweden, immediately following the Gathering at Ängsbacka. This is an exceptional opportunity to deepen your understanding of sustainable community living by visiting various established ecovillages. We've taken care of all the logistics, allowing you to fully immerse and enjoy the journey in a guided small group setting. Don't hurry back home after the Gathering—decompress and enrich your experience with us.
Tickets purchased separately for the August 20-25 Gathering at Ängsbacka.
Sweden Ecovillage Tour
6 DAYS | Place a refundable deposit to reserve your spot
All meals, lodging, and tour transport included.
August 26-31, 2024
€1,500 EUR / $1,600 USD
Tour Highlights
What you can expect to experience during your time in Sweden
Decompress and Deepen Post-Gathering: After the transformational experiences at the European Ecovillage Gathering, take this chance to reflect and delve deeper within a close-knit group, before starting your journey back home.
Explore Working Models for Transformation: Having celebrated eco-living in theory during the Gathering, now witness how a variety of communities have successfully practiced the ecovillage lifestyle for decades.
Revel in Sweden’s Natural Beauty: Summer in Sweden is a spectacle of never-ending sunny days, lush rolling hills, and timeless villages—a perfect backdrop for adventure and relaxation.
Enjoy Community Within Our Traveling Group: Experience the formation of our intentional community on wheels! Often, the connection among participants is highlighted as the most cherished aspect of our ecovillage tours.
Featured Communities
Experience the below communities during the ecovillage tour. Subject to change.
Hågaby Ecovillage
Location: Uppsala, Sweden
Website: ecovillage.org/project/hagaby-2/
Hågaby is an ecovillage near Uppsala, Sweden, with approximately 250 residents. The community features a Steiner school, three preschools, and a holistic medicine center. There is a mix of owned and rented apartments and houses. While not all residents are actively engaged in the village, its structures reflect shared values, allowing for both living and working within the community and fostering social interactions.
The village offers amenities such as an ecological food and clothing store, an ecological hairdresser, a vintage shop, and a cultural center with a café and live music on Sundays. The area provides opportunities for farming and recreational activities in the forest, with several local farmers, including one producing local sheep meat.
Ridgedale Farm
Location: Åsen, Sweden
Website: ridgedalepermaculture.com/
Ridgedale Farm, located at 59°N in Sweden, is a pioneering Regenerative Agriculture food producer and educational site founded by Richard Perkins. Richard is passionate about empowering the next generation of entrepreneurial farmers to establish profitable operations through focused learning experiences.
At Ridgedale Farm, Richard teaches Whole Farm Design and Planning, Regenerative Agriculture, Keyline Design, Agroforestry, Pasture-based livestock enterprises, Managing Holistically, and No-Dig Market Gardening. The farm's primary goal is to regenerate the landscape and ecosystem processes through replicable, scalable, and profitable farm enterprises. Secondly, it aims to educate, facilitate, inform, and empower individuals to take action through regenerative design, enterprise, and holistic decision-making, while fostering local community, economy, and resilience.
Humble Habitat
Location: Stjärnsund, Sweden
Website: cosystemrestorationcommunities.org
Humble Habitat is an off-grid homestead situated in rural southern Dalarna, central Sweden. The area has a history of exploitation by mining companies and extensive deforestation over the centuries. The team at Humble Habitat is working to restore the area through practices such as grafting, conscious forestry, gardening, natural building, biochar production, and soil building. These holistic approaches aim to regenerate the land.
The homestead serves as a hub for biodiversity, foodscaping, and experiential learning. Throughout the year, there are numerous workshops, educational events, and celebrations that are open to both neighbors and travelers, offering hands-on experience in sustainable living practices.
Karlstad Tuggelite Ecovillage
Location: Karlstad, Sweden
Website: ekoby.org/cs1.html
Tuggelite, Sweden's inaugural ecovillage, serves as a model for ecovillage communities across the country. Its origins trace back to 1974, when a group of academics in Gothenburg began planning the Välsviken ecological housing project. Despite the project's dissolution in 1979, a dedicated core of members persevered, with three families from the original Välsviken group still residing in Tuggelite today. Tuggelite fosters a strong sense of community, with many residents considering their closest friends to be fellow ecovillage residents.
Charlottendal
Location: Järna
Charlottendal, located below a pre-Viking hillfort ruin and above an open meadow, is a small ecological community comprising six households utilizing alternative energy and sewage technology, alongside yurts, buses, and a Waldorf kindergarten. The farm, home to around twenty people including four families, individuals of various ages, a women's collective, and international volunteers, aims to develop activities with a permaculture perspective, integrating animals, gardens, and nature with social and educational aspects.
Charlottendal features various housing types, including wooden houses with straw and clay walls heated with wood stoves. Some residents live in yurts and buses. Education is central, focusing on the Lilla Bullerbyn kindergarten and adult education courses such as the One Year in Transition program in partnership with Eskilstuna Folkhögskola. The farm's goal is to offer local education, yoga, and courses on group processes and personal development to enhance environmental and social resilience. They emphasize a "glocal" perspective, integrating local solutions with a global understanding of the future.
Skattungbyn
Location: Orsa, Sweden
Website: skattungbyn.se/om-skattungbyn
Nestled on the northern slope of Siljansringen, surrounded by breathtaking nature, lies a truly exceptional village that defies the typical image of quiet countryside settlements—it's alive and thriving! As you enter this well-preserved village, you're greeted by picturesque farms and unpainted log cabins, all set against a backdrop of majestic blue mountains. Despite its modest population of around 320 residents, Skattungbyn boasts a vibrant community with a range of amenities. These include a free school, a cooperative grocery store, Sweden's largest free flea market, an artisanal sausage factory, and even an adult education school with courses in organic farming and sustainable living.
This vibrant community is a testament to the village's strong commitment to communal living. In Skattungbyn, there's never a dull moment, no matter the season. You can partake in traditional Midsummer celebrations, attend innovative festivals, explore exotic orangeries and Stone Age discoveries, learn about self-sufficiency, and enjoy a refreshing dip in the river.
Sunnemo
Location: Sunmeno, Sweden
Sunnemo Farm spans 67 hectares in Sunnemo, Värmland, with 33 hectares of open sandy soil, once used for free-range cattle, and 34 hectares of forest. The farm's goal is to establish an ecovillage where people settle and cultivate vegetables such as potatoes, carrots, pumpkins, tomatoes, and more. Some areas are used to experiment with different crops, including grains for homemade flour used in the farm's café for baking bread and cakes.
The Stajärnsund Foundation
Location: Stjärnsund, Sweden
The Stjärnsund Foundation was founded in 1984, drawing inspiration from the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland. Their facilities include a vegetarian kitchen, organic shop, and treatment room, extensively used by both Fridhem residents and nearby locals. They have farm-to-table meals and they also host lectures, cultural cafés, and art exhibitions. Fridhem offers a variety of activities, with a focus on courses that emphasize personal development.
Åsa folkhögskola
Location: Sköldinge, Sweden
Folkhögskolan is a unique form of adult education designed for people aged 18 and above. It is characterized by its free and voluntary nature, allowing participants to choose their courses independently of central curricula and municipal adult education programs.
There are 156 folk high schools in Sweden, with many having special profiles based on their connections to ideological organizations. One of the key features of folk schools is its emphasis on group learning through conversation. Courses often involve both practical and theoretical work in projects. The education is tailored to each participant's prior knowledge and experience, with a focus on active participation and influence over their learning.
Participants in folk schools are encouraged to actively engage in their study groups, leading to a collaborative and inclusive learning environment. The diversity of backgrounds among participants allows for mutual learning and enrichment.
Itinerary
Get a taste for what awaits you on the tour. Itinerary subject to updates.
Overview
When the Gathering at Ängsbacka concludes and farewells are exchanged, your next adventure awaits! Take the evening after the festivities to rejuvenate, and then join your fellow explorers the following morning. Together, we'll embark on a journey through Sweden’s vibrant tapestry of ecovillages and communities, each showcasing innovative models of sustainable living. Our tour concludes in the city of Stockholm, providing you a convenient gateway to either return home or continue your travels.
Day 1: Setting Off
Our tour will begin in Ängsbacka on Aug 26, where we will meet for a short orientation, and then drive to Ridgedale Farm, a pioneering Regenerative Agriculture food producer and educational site. Learn about their innovative practices empowering the next generation of entrepreneurial farmers to establish profitable operations through focused learning experiences. From here we’ll stop somewhere for lunch and then head to Karlstad Tuggelite Ecovillage, the first ecovillage founded in Sweden in the 1970’s, and is a source of inspiration for many ecovillage associations in Sweden. After this visit we will head back to Angbacka for dinner and time to rest before heading back on the road tomorrow.
Day 2: Visit the quaint village of Skattungbyn
The second day of our tour visiting Skattungbyn, a village located in the municipality of Leksand in Dalarna County, Sweden. It is situated near Lake Siljan, a picturesque area known for its natural beauty and traditional Swedish culture. Skattungbyn is characterized by its rural setting, with forests and farmland surrounding the village. Here we will visit folkhögskolan, or folk school, is a unique form of adult education that originated in Denmark and has spread to other Scandinavian countries, including Sweden. These schools are non-formal, meaning they do not follow the traditional educational system's formal curriculum or grading system. This evening we will stay at a quaint spot to enjoy the countryside and natural beauty.
Day 3: Permaculture living
Today we will drive to Stjärnsund and visit the forest garden, a unique and innovative project that combines permaculture principles with traditional gardening techniques. The forest garden in Stjärnsund is a shining example of how permaculture principles can be applied to create a productive and sustainable food system. We will stop at The Stjärnsund Foundation for lunch and visit Humble Habitat, an off-grid homestead located in a rural area of southern Dalarna, central Sweden. In the evening we will stay at Kloster Herrgård, an 18th-century farm in a picturesque setting.
Day 4: Discover the university city of Uppsala
Uppsala, Sweden, is known as a university city due to the presence of Uppsala University, one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in Scandinavia founded in 1477. In Uppsala we will visit Hågaby Ecovillage, a family-friendly community with proximity to nature. In the afternoon we will drive to Järna, known for its focus on organic and biodynamic agriculture, holistic health practices, and sustainable living. Järna is home to several initiatives and organizations dedicated to these principles, making it a hub for alternative living and wellness.
Day 5: Culture, nature and Charlottendal
Today we will have some free time in the morning for shopping, hiking on local trails, and possibly visiting Kulturhuset, “The House of Culture.” In the afternoon we will visit the home of your tour guide Peter, Charlottendal. Charlottendal is a sustainable ecovillage, where residents live and work together with a permaculture perspective, integrating animals, gardens, and nature with social and educational aspects. The ecovillage incorporates Steiner-inspired practices in its approach to farming, education, and community living.
Day 6: Farewell
As our Swedish adventure draws to a close, we'll soak up the last of the sustainable living experiences before heading back home, carrying the inspiration of Charlottendal and other eco-communities with us. Our time together will conclude in Stockholm so you can easily catch your flight or other transportation home.
Trip Details
Explore detailed trip information to prepare for your adventure.
Included
All ground transportation from tour start and end point
All lodging in shared rooms
All meals, except when you choose to eat separately or purchase extra drinks
All entrance and tour fees
Not Included
Transportation to/from country
Insurance of any kind
Alcoholic beverages (outside of wine cellar visits)
Optional gratuities to guides
Laundry fees and items of a personal nature
Pick Up & Drop Off
Pick Up
Our tour will begin at 8am Ängsbacka in Molkom, Sweden on August 26th, the day after the end of the Gathering. We will have breakfast at Ängsbacka before meeting for orientation and departing for the tour.
Drop Off
Our formal programming will end in Järna around 10am after breakfast on August 31st. We will provide transport to Stockholm for those who need to be brought to the airport or train station in the city.
Please be in touch with any questions regarding your travel planning. We’re happy to help!
Flights
You are responsible for booking your own flight, which we recommend you book as far in advance as possible to get the best price.
We recommend flying and out of the Stockholm Arlanda Airport, which is approximately 3 and a half hours from Molkom. Ängsbacka is located in Molkom, 30 km north of Karlstad and is easily reached by bus or car. To Karlstad you can also travel by plane or train. It is about 3-4 hours from Oslo, Stockholm and Göteborg.
Scroll down on the Angsbacka website to see detailed instructions on how to arrive.
We will provide transportation back to the Stockholm Arlanda Airport after the tour concludes on the morning of August 31st for those who need to catch their flight.
Lodging
Lodging will be rustic and often in a beautiful rural setting. We ask you to be respectful and open to new experiences, such as using a composting toilet and sharing bathroom facilities. Some accommodations may have limited to no wifi, or wifi in only common areas. There will be no air conditioning.
Rooms will be shared with fellow travelers. If possible, couples can have their private double room. We will separate male and female rooms, unless your preferences are to stay together.
Meals
As much as possible our meals will be fresh, local and organic, with produce grown on-site. Most meals will be vegetarian. When eating out at restaurants, we will have a fixed menu with a few options of local specialties. One beverage is usually included with lunch and dinner. Extra dishes and drinks are on you. We can accommodate a range of dietary requirements, to a point, so please contact us to inform us about any food allergies and come prepared with your own specialty food or supplement needs. We will stop at grocery stores where you can purchase your own snacks.
Weather
In Sweden, late August features mild and enjoyable weather, with daytime temperatures typically ranging from 55°F to 70°F. On sunnier days, these can rise a bit, particularly in more urban settings. While clear, sunny skies dominate, intermittent rain showers can still occur, especially in less urbanized areas. Evenings see temperatures dipping to around 45°F, bringing cooler and crisp night air. Notably, late August also offers extended daylight hours with the sun setting late, meaning the dark hours are minimal—perfect for enjoying long evenings outdoors. Given the varied weather, visitors should prepare with light rain gear, sun protection, and some warmer layers for cooler evenings and early mornings.
Packing
A full packing list will be provided after booking the tour. Laundry service will be available at some of our locations. We ask that you only bring a day pack and one carry-on sized luggage due to limited space in our vehicle.
Physical Requirements
This trip will include several day hikes and walks up hills and on uneven terrain. We will visit a few waterfalls and rivers with slippery footing. Some of our accommodations have narrow stairs and no elevators. You will be responsible to carry your luggage to and from your rooms, which will not always be paved surfaces.
Please consider your physical fitness before registering for the tour. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out.
Unfortunately, due the nature of the tour we cannot accommodate anyone with mobility requirements.
Traveling with Children
It is possible to bring children on this tour, however not all children and families may be suited to this adventure. Kindly contact us if you are thinking of bringing any children under the age of 12 years old.
This tour includes long periods of sitting for presentations, strenuous walking, uneven terrain, some long car rides, and moving among multiple locations for sleeping. Laundry services are limited. We want to encourage families to join, so long as they are prepared for these challenges. We look forward to speaking with you about if your family is a good fit for the opportunity.
If we decide that this tour is a fit for your family, please know that we have limited reduced rate tickets for children under 12 years of age. Parents or guardians assume full responsibility for the safety and wellbeing of their children throughout the tour.
Children 4-6 years old need a booster seat if they are under 1.5 meters tall. Please be sure to bring a car seat if your child needs one, or you may rent one at cost.
Payment & Cancellation Policy
A refundable deposit of $500 is required at the time of booking to secure your space. Full payment is required 60 days before the departure date.
At the time of booking you can choose to make your payment in full, just pay the deposit, or pay the deposit and make your remaining payments in three auto-payment installments.
Cancellation and Refunds
Your tour deposit is 100% refundable for 30 days from the date it is received unless noted otherwise. Deposits made 60–90 days before a tour departs become non-refundable on the final payment due date. If you book a tour less than 60 days before its departure date, the entire tour cost becomes non-refundable after 7 days but may be creditable in the event of a medical or family emergency. Once your deposit refund date has passed, your deposit will not be refunded under any circumstance. Please read our Tour Conditions for more information.
Meet Your Guide
Embark on your journey with confidence – get to know your experienced guide.
Peter Hagerrot
Peter Hagerrot is a licensed Psychotherapist and
Transition Network teacher, as well as initiator of Charlottendal Eco Village project. The project is member of GEN-Europe, Permaculture and Transition Sweden and ECOLISE, European local led initiatives.
He has a long background in environmental journalism and
filmmaking and has worked for the Right Livelihood Award
as well as producing films for TV and cinemas on topics related to “development”. He also teaches on Inner Transition at Lund University.
Reviews
Read authentic reviews to make informed decisions about your journey.
One of the greatest experiences I have ever had. A completely unique journey to some wondrous ecovillage projects, full of inspirational humans. To share the tours with others with similar visions was enriching and a real privilige. I left feeling fulfilled and educated.
— Adam Bates
Best summer camp ever! A must see!! People, food and lodging were more than I could have hoped for in a travel experience like this!! Definitely will be back.
—Megan Zimmerman
It is an experience worth paying for. You get to know places and people who are on the real hands on effort for bringing change and make local ecosystems more resilient.
— Edward Bryce
Ecovillage Tours has put something really special together. The amount of research and care they have put into this trip is impressive in and of itself and have helped facilitate meaningful connections both within the tour group and with the communities hosting us. This eye opening experience has the potential to change your life by exploring more unique paradigms.
— Nathan Oxenfeld
Is this tour right for me?
On the fence? Discover if this tour is meant for you.
Choosing to embark on an ecovillage tour is an investment in your journey into intentional community living. Thanks to years of relationship building with community founders, we’re able to give you an experience that’s simply not available to the regular traveler.
Still unsure?
Explore if this tour is right for you…
This tour ideal for those who want to:
Join intentional communities: Engage directly in projects that focus on environmental and social regeneration, creating vibrant, sustainable spaces for communal living.
Explore sustainable living: Dive into the world of ecovillages as a lifestyle choice, integrating principles of ecological balance and community harmony into your daily life.
Network with regeneration leaders: Forge deep connections with key figures in the regenerative movement, gaining inspiration and momentum to advance your life's purpose.
Get a true eco-vacation: Embark on adventure travels that support ecovillages, choosing experiences that contribute positively to the planet and align with your values.
Learn from successful projects: Observe and study the approaches of others, applying their strategies and innovations to develop your own land or community initiative effectively.
Why choose this tour?
Knowledgeable guides: Led by experts in ecovillages and intentional communities.
Authentic experience: We partner with local communities for a genuine and unfiltered experience.
All-inclusive: From eco-friendly lodging to local cuisine, we've got you covered.
Small group size: We limit the number of participants to ensure a personalized and intimate experience.
Hassle free travel: We cover all the logistics, so you can get the most out of the experience.
What’s the alternative?
You could try visiting intentional communities on your own, except that…
Many communities are not open to the public and, if they are, the founders will not give you their undivided attention as a just normal passer-through.
Figuring out the logistics of getting yourself around the country is a headache and you’ll have no immediate support if something goes awry.
Traveling alone isn’t as nourishing or nearly as fun journeying with a small group in an intentionally held container for connection.
It’ll take years of relationship building and financial investment to even come close to the experience that Ecovillage Tours is able to offer… because we’ve done all that work for you already!
Still have questions?
We are happy to help! Sign up below to book a discovery call with one of our team members.
Ready to go?
The communities are excited to welcome you.
Let your adventure begin.