It's 1:17 in the morning. I'm sitting outside our rented cabin on the shores of a lake somewhere north of Kiruna. The sun is not setting. In fact, it's been like this for three weeks. I haven't needed a curtain since we arrived in July. And right now, looking at the golden light dancing on the water at 1am, I genuinely don't know whether to laugh or cry.
This is midnight sun. And nobody actually warned us what it would do to our minds.
Getting There
We flew into Kiruna Airport – a small, charming airport that feels more like a mountain lodge than an international hub. Kiruna is the northernmost city in Sweden, sitting above the Arctic Circle, and it's the gateway to Swedish Lapland's summer season.
From Kiruna, we rented a car (essential in Lapland – distances are vast and public transport sparse) and drove northwest into the mountains. The landscape was immediate and overwhelming: birch forests turning golden at the edges, reindeer wandering across the road without any particular urgency, and mountains rising in the distance that seemed to have been painted by someone who'd never been told what "too dramatic" meant.
The First Night Without Night
You know intellectually that the sun won't set during midnight sun season. You've read the articles. You've seen the photographs. You think you're prepared. You are not prepared.
The first night, I woke at 3am convinced it was morning and we'd overslept. The light coming through the thin curtains was warm and golden – the exact quality of light that, at home, means "you're late." I grabbed my phone, saw the time, lay back down and spent the next two hours staring at the ceiling, deeply confused.
🛏 Pro Tip: Bring a Sleep Mask
Most accommodation in Lapland has blackout curtains, but bring a sleep mask anyway. Your circadian rhythm will need all the help it can get in the first few days. After about four days, most people adapt surprisingly well.
By day three, something interesting happened. My relationship with time simply dissolved. I stopped checking the clock. I ate when I was hungry, slept when I was tired. There's a freedom to it that I hadn't expected – a kind of detachment from schedules that felt, genuinely, like a different state of consciousness.
What You Can Do at Midnight
Here's what nobody tells you about midnight sun: the activities don't stop. At 11pm, we went hiking. The light was soft, warm, and completely shadowless in that eerie northern way. We saw no one for three hours on the trail. The reindeer didn't seem to care about the time either.
We also went kayaking at midnight on the lake near our cabin. The water was glass-smooth. The sky was a continuous gradient from gold near the horizon to a deep blue-violet overhead. It was, without qualification, one of the most beautiful experiences of my life.
The Emotional Side
I didn't expect midnight sun to be emotional. But something about living without darkness for weeks changes your relationship with rest, with transition, with the rhythm of a day. We evolved to need the pause that night provides. When that pause is removed, you feel it – not badly, but differently.
By the end of our two weeks, I found myself genuinely mourning the end of it. Not the sun itself, but the particular kind of freedom it created. The way it quietly erased the structure of a day and replaced it with just... time. Continuous, generous, unhurried time.
When to Go
Midnight sun season in Swedish Lapland runs roughly from late May to late July, with the peak – when the sun truly doesn't set at all – from June 15 to July 15. Kiruna is well above the Arctic Circle, so it gets a longer season than destinations further south.
Late June is our recommendation: the weather is warmest, the midnight sun is at its full glory, and the wildflowers are in peak bloom across the mountains. Book accommodation early – it fills up fast, especially the more unique places.
📅 Best Time for Midnight Sun in Lapland
June 15 – July 15 for continuous sun. Late May and late July for partial midnight sun with more dramatic "white night" colors. Kiruna and Abisko are the most accessible locations above the Arctic Circle.
What It Costs
Swedish Lapland isn't cheap, but it's more affordable than you might expect if you plan ahead. We rented a small cabin for €90/night, cooked most of our own meals from local supermarkets, and spent maybe €40/day total on food. The reindeer walks past for free. The midnight light costs nothing.
The biggest expense is getting there. Flights into Kiruna from Stockholm or Helsinki are the most common routes. We booked six weeks ahead and paid around €180 return from Stockholm – perfectly reasonable for one of the most extraordinary experiences of our lives.
Our Verdict
Go. If you're reading a site called Coldcation, you already know that Sweden offers something that southern Europe simply can't: a sense of scale, silence, and natural drama that resets something in you. Midnight sun takes that reset and cranks it up to something profound.
We went for two weeks and came home rested – genuinely rested, in a way that a week in a sun-scorched Mediterranean resort has never achieved. Something about the air, the light, the vast emptiness of Lapland, recalibrates you.
Book the cabin. Bring the sleep mask. Go to bed late. Wake up confused. Don't fight it. Let midnight sun do its thing.