My partner found the Treehotel in Harads, Sweden, on Instagram three years ago. A mirror cube suspended in a pine forest. She saved the post. She brought it up roughly every two months. Last February, on a dark Tuesday, I booked two nights in the Mirrorcube for her birthday. The total came to €1,200 including breakfast and dinner. We went in March. We came back with very different opinions, and I think both of us are right.
The Drive In: Setting Expectations
We flew into Luleå and rented a car. The drive to Harads is 70 minutes through pine forest on empty roads, and by "empty" I mean we saw three other vehicles. The village of Harads has a population of about 500. There's a general store, a church, and the Treehotel reception, which is also the restaurant and the only place to eat within 20 minutes of the rooms.
Check-in was at the reception. A woman with excellent English handed us a map, explained that the rooms were a 10-minute walk through the forest, and asked if we wanted dinner at 7pm. We did. She pointed at the path and said "follow the lights." The lights were small solar lanterns stuck in the snow, and they worked, but the path was icy and I fell once in the first 200 meters. Pack actual boots, not the city shoes I brought.
The Mirrorcube: What €600/Night Buys You
The Mirrorcube is exactly what it appears to be: a 4x4x4 meter mirrored box suspended in a tree, accessible by a rope bridge. From outside it's stunning — the forest reflects off every surface and it nearly disappears. From inside, it's a small bedroom with a double bed, a tiny bathroom, and a desk. The walls are lined with plywood, not glass — the mirrors are on the outside. The windows are small and positioned for light, not views. This is the first thing I'd tell anyone: the famous photos are taken from outside. From inside, you're in a small wooden box.
The bed was comfortable. The bathroom had a toilet, a sink, and a shower with hot water — all functional, all compact. There was no heating issue; the room was warm. There was a small fridge with water and two beers (€8 each, added to the bill). There was no WiFi in the room, which my partner considered romantic and I considered a problem because I needed to send one email.
What We Disagreed About
Here's where my partner and I split. She loved it. She loved the silence, the walk through the snow, the fact that the room was small because the point was the forest, not the room. She loved the dinner — elk with root vegetables and a cloudberry dessert — and she loved breakfast, which was brought to the room in a basket hung on the rope bridge. She said it was the best birthday she'd had.
I had a list. Here it is:
The room is small for the price. €600/night for a 16-square-meter bedroom with no sitting area is hotel-suite money for a budget-hotel footprint. The architecture justifies some premium, but not three times a good Luleå hotel.
The Mirrorcube specifically has a view problem. The Cabin room, which we walked past, has a panoramic window over the river valley. The Mirrorcube has small windows facing the trees. If I went again, I'd book the Cabin. The Mirrorcube is for the photo, not the stay.
Dinner is fixed menu and not optional. There's nowhere else to eat. The food was good — genuinely good — but you're a captive audience at €75/person for three courses, and if you don't like elk, you're going to have a conversation about it.
The aurora didn't show. We went in March specifically for the northern lights. Two nights, both cloudy. The hotel offers an aurora wake-up call, which is a nice service, but it can't call you if there's nothing to see. This isn't the hotel's fault, but it's the reason most people go in winter, and a two-night stay is a real gamble on weather.
What We Agreed Was Good
Despite my list, three things were genuinely excellent and I won't argue with them:
The breakfast basket. At 8am, a basket appeared on the rope bridge containing fresh bread, cheese, ham, boiled eggs, yogurt, granola, coffee in a thermos, and juice. It was enough for two people to eat well and it was delivered silently. This was the best detail of the stay.
The forest itself. Walking from the reception to the room at night, in snow, in silence, with the lanterns and the pine trees — that was worth something. Not €600, but something. It's the part my partner remembers and the part I'll concede.
The bathroom worked. In a treehouse, in March, in northern Sweden, the shower had hot water and the toilet flushed. This is not a given in treehouse architecture, and it matters more than you think until you've stayed somewhere where it doesn't.
Booking in Harads: where to look
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Would I Go Back?
My partner would go back tomorrow, in the same room, for the same price. I would go back under three conditions: a different room (the Cabin, for the view), a longer stay (three nights minimum to give the aurora a real chance), and a clear understanding that I'm paying for architecture and setting, not for square footage or amenities.
If you're deciding whether to go: go once. Pick the room based on what you want from inside, not from outside — the Mirrorcube is the famous photo, but the Cabin and the Bird's Nest are the better rooms to actually sleep in. Go in winter if you want aurora and accept the weather risk, or go in June for midnight sun and 24-hour light, which is a different kind of strange and worth experiencing.
Don't go for two nights in March expecting northern lights. That's what I did, and the lights didn't come. The trip was still worth it — but for the forest and the breakfast basket, not for the reason I booked it.
