Swedes take the misery out of camping

We sat on the deck of our wooden cottage watching the sky turn from salmon pink to Nordic blue, listening to the river splashing in the distance. And I thought: I wonder if Sven knows about this?

Of course he does: the England coach grew up only a few miles away. In fact all Swedes know about it. But outside the country, this seems to be Scandinavia's best-kept holiday secret.

Sure, everyone knows that Sweden's unique selling point is the outdoors: the endless forest, mirror-like lakes and unpolluted countryside. They could probably guess, too, that Sweden has set up campsites in many of the most beautiful spots. But the secret is this: you don't actually have to camp.

For most of the campsites also have holiday cottages that are astonishingly good value. Ours, that night in the Klarälven valley in August, cost only £24 - for a Hansel-and-Gretel wooden cabin with balcony, fully fitted kitchen, shower, two bedrooms, sleeping up to five, and living/dining room with TV.

It's a stroke of genius - taking the misery out of camping. Only the design-for-all nation that gave the world Ikea could have thought of it. Except that here there isn't a flat-pack in sight, everything's all ready for you to move in. The only suckers doing the selfassembly thing are the assorted Germans and Dutch outside struggling with telescopic poles and acres of fly sheet. I watched them, remembering school trips and dank tents stinking of ripe socks and mouldy canvas, and thought: why bother? Staying in the cottage you still have all the benefits of the camp site. Ten-year-old Marco tried his first-ever sauna - sprinting, fresh and glowing, under a night sky exploding with stars, back to our cosy cottage. There was the young elk to feed as well - little Fabian, apparently washed up by the river one day as a skinny calf, who stayed. Then there was the playground, minigolf, bikes and canoes for hire.

The site was a stop-off on a tour taking in guest houses and hotels as well. This camp - Björkebo near Stöllet - was one of 60 in Sven's province of Värmland, a wooded region in central southern Sweden proud of its 10,513 lakes.

Throughout the country, around 630 official campsites offer about 11,500 cottages; armed with a copy of the 2002 brochure you can phone ahead and book by the night. (You do, however, need to bring your own linen and duvets.)

However, it's not worth embarking on a massive tour. With 95,000 lakes in the country each looking equally idyllic, and an awful lot of trees, children can get restless on long journeys. Games of I-spy tend to be very short, especially if you ban the letters T, L and V (for Volvo). Once we bought an ABBA CD to sing along to in the car, but we got so carried away that I drove the wrong way up a one-way street. Luckily locals are so careful (headlights on all day, 19mph speed limit in residential areas) that they easily take reckless foreign drivers in their stride.

Rather more fun were outdoor activities we did along the way. Trolling, for example, which meant fishing from a boat for a local subspecies of salmon, but we didn't catch any. We were equally unsuccessful on something called a "beaver safari", which turned out to be a canoe trip on a river. Although we didn't spot any of the furry creatures, paddling about in the canoe turned out to be wonderfully relaxing. This certainly isn't a secret to Sven, who has said he enjoys a spot of canoeing with his family when he visits his home town of Torsby.

If his work or private life gets a bit stressful over the next few weeks, a little more nature therapy could do the England coach a world of good.

Way to go

James Bedding flew to Gothenburg with SAS Scandinavian Airlines (0845 60 727 72, www.scandinavian.net) which offers family fares: first adult pays the regular fare, second adult pays 75 per cent, under-17s 50 per cent, taxes extra. For example Heathrow-Gothenburg return costs from £135/£108/£81. DFDS Seaways (08705 333 000, www.dfdsseaways.co.uk) operates ferries between Newcastle and Gothenburg (three hours drive to campsite), and between Harwich and Esbjerg in Denmark (eight hours' drive to campsite). Returns from £374/£274 for a car and up to four people. James stayed at the Björkebo campsite, from £13.40 per cottage per night.

For the free Sweden Camping brochure call the Swedish Travel and Tourism Council (00800 3080 3080, www.visit-sweden.com) or visit www.camping.se

Camps with more than just canvas