Nääs Fabriker Hotell och Restaurang

At a salutary remove from Gothenburg, on the shores of Lake Säve-lången in Tollered, lie Nääs Fabriker. And what a place! In 1833 one Peter Wilhelm Berg worked out that the rapids in these parts were an excellent natural resource to harness for industrial purposes. So he had a cotton mill built, which the family ran for nearly 130 years. In 2007 a hotel was inaugurated here, and it remains a rare, if not unique, place. The main redbrick building today houses 81 rooms. A well designed explosion of colour greets guests as they enter the hotel’s super-sized living room, containing the reception, the lobby, an open fireplace, a restaurant and a bar. Good food? You bet! Breakfast, lunch and dinner. The hotel rooms are something else again. A standard room has a ceiling height of four metres, and large, seating-friendly bay windows let you overlook (in most rooms) the lake. A muted colour scale, pleasant room temperatures and Egyptian cotton satin sheets create favourable conditions for sleep. The hotel premises also include several shops (fashion, design, interiors), a café and a delicatessen. And a bath house with a spa, right by the lake – where you obviously take a dip after the sauna.