Friluftsliv: embrace winter Norwegian-style

“Much as we Scandinavians are famous for our love of hygge – that cosy hunkering down in our woollen socks, with our candles lit, sheltered from the elements – we are just as passionate about going outdoors in rain, sleet or snow,” writes happiness researcher Meik Wiking in The Sunday Times. This love of outdoor living is known as friluftsliv (pronounced free-loofts-liew; literally “free-air life”).

Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen popularised the term in the 1850s, and Scandinavians today use it to refer to everything from a woodland run during their lunch break to joining friends for a lakeside sauna. And “as the nights draw in and coronavirus restrictions limit indoor socialising for so many people in Britain, it is not hygge but friluftsliv that will get you through the winter months”, says Wiking.

The secret to happiness

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

“Friluftsliv is more than just an activity, it’s a kind of lifestyle,” Lasse Heimdal, secretary general of Norsk Friluftsliv, an organisation representing 5,000 outdoors groups in Norway, tells Jen Rose Smith of National Geographic. “It’s very tied to our culture and what it means to be a Norwegian.” That might go some way towards explaining why Norwegians are such a happy bunch, says Smith – they ranked fifth in this year’s UN World Happiness Report. And it’s not as if they have it easy with the weather, either. Even in summer, days of rain can drench the Norwegian countryside, while “up north, winter hides the sun for a long, polar night”. But you’ll seldom hear a Norwegian complain: they enjoy their country’s great natural beauty whatever the weather.

Norwegians in the northern city of Tromsø, for example, “see the winter as a special time of year full of opportunities for enjoyment and fulfilment, rather than a limiting time of year to dread”, writes psychologist Kari Leibowitz in The New York Times. “Embracing winter is a hallmark of Scandinavian family life”, with members of all generations simply dressing for the weather and heading outdoors.

“You feel refreshed, you feel maybe a little bit robust and vital, and you feel the benefits of being in contact with the elements,” Ida Solhaug, a psychology researcher at the University of Tromsø, tells Leibowitz. Coming together to “celebrate the darkness” by sitting around a socially distanced bonfire is “not only a Covid-19 friendly way to gather, it can be deeply meaningful”, says Leibowitz. It is a “mindful moment, an opportunity to pause and enjoy”.

Wild about Britain

As beautiful as Norway is, for most of us visiting is currently off-limits owing to travel restrictions. The Nordic nation is currently on the UK government’s “safe list”, but visitors from Britain have to quarantine for ten days on arrival.

No matter – friluftsliv is an approach to life that can be just as easily practised at home. You might choose to “spend your days scrambling [along] coastal and woodland paths” in the Scottish Highlands, going “seal and squirrel spotting” and taking “bracing dips in the loch, with evenings relaxing by the fire pit”, says Hannah Summers in The Times.

Eilean Shona (pictured above) is a car-free private island with wild moors, open hills and secluded paths, right by Loch Moidart on the west coast. The Timber Cottage is a “stylish space for two”, with a Victorian roll-top bath, rugs from Marrakesh and Egyptian cotton bed linen (seven nights’ self-catering costs from £900).

Crofter’s Cabin, on a rural farm in Northumberland, is also “ideal for couples”, says Laura Hampson in the London Evening Standard. “The sunshine hits the veranda perfectly during the day” and there’s a wood-fired hot tub for relaxing in after a day out and about (from £160 a night).

“Gazing out at a wild wintery sea can be a more exhilarating return to nature,” says Gemma Bowes in The Guardian. In Devon, Carswell Farm Holiday Cottages’ new beach hut occupies an “incredible” spot, right by its own private cove – “perfect for some winter skinny-dipping, with a wood-fired hot tub on the deck to warm up in afterwards” (from £358 for a two-night weekend or four nights midweek).

Top image ©Thomas Rasmus Skaug/VisitNorway.com

This article was originally published in MoneyWeek