Sweden and Finland with Heath Ceramics May 2027

Välkommen till Stockhom! Our adventure begins, after transfers from the airport, at our hotel. We’ll take a moment to get settled before meeting for a picturesque canal cruise (weather permitting). On board the cruise, we’ll do some sightseeing of historic buildings such as the Royal Swedish Opera and Stockholm Palace, as we pass under a dozen bridges and indulge in an afternoon aperitif. Our boat ride will culminate in an exclusive after-hours visit to the Carl Eldh Sculpture Museum, where we’ll be immersed in 20th-century Swedish architecture, reflecting a blend of functionality and artistry.

Afterwards, we’ll sit down for dinner to kick off our journey together. Over a delicious meal, we’ll get acquainted with one another and our hosts from Heath Ceramics, toasting to unforgettable days ahead.

Today we head out in the city on a guided walk, from the cobbled lanes and ochre-hued facades of Gamla Stan to the waterfront silhouette of City Hall. Afterward, the afternoon is yours, with time for lunch among the cafés and restaurants tucked into the Old Town’s medieval streets.

For those who want to keep exploring, you can choose to join a local guide on Skeppsholmen, an island with centuries of maritime history at the heart of Stockholm. Along the way, you’ll dip beneath the city streets to see Stockholm’s celebrated underground art, where metro stations have become an ever-changing gallery of murals, mosaics, and sculptural works.

Later, we’ll regroup at the hotel for cocktails and canapés, and then the rest of the evening is of your own making. Perhaps buttery toast skagen for dinner and a glass of crisp white wine, followed by a walk along Stockholm’s waterfront is on the agenda.

After breakfast at the hotel, we head to Artipelag, beautifully located in the Stockholm archipelago. This international meeting place for art, good food, events, and activities will be our home base for the first part of the day.

First, we pause for a hands-on ice sculpting experience and learn how artists work with this distinctly Nordic material, then try our own hand at carving and shaping it ourselves. From there, we’ll enjoy a guided look at the contemporary exhibitions of Artiepelag. You’ll have a bit of time to wander at your own pace before we come back together over a generous family-style lunch, sharing plates and impressions from the morning.

After lunch, we’ll enjoy a boat ride through the many canals of Stockholm that connect its 14 different islands. Once back on land, we make our way to Svenskt Tenn. What started as a small pewter business by Estrid Ericson in 1924, later transformed into one of Stockholm’s most elegant interior design stores and has been a huge inspiration for the work at Heath. While there, we’ll belly up to their famous bar for uniquely Scandinavian small plates—think black cod with whipped gouda—and a beverage.

The rest of the afternoon is yours to explore, though we’ll have a few options for places to visit during your free time. But don’t wander too far. Dinner tonight is in the heart of the city at Ett Hem, a hotel designed by the famed Ilse Crawford. In a private lounge, we’ll dine on a delicious Swedish meal made of seasonal produce and see creations by Birgitta Watz, a well-known Swedish ceramicist.

After breakfast and checking out of our hotel, we’ll head over to a local gallery for a morning fika—a moment of pause and connection over freshly brewed coffee and pastries—and conversations with an artist. 

Later in the day, after lunch independently, we’ll embark on a guided tour of the Fotografiska Museum. Within one of the world’s leading museums for contemporary photography, we’ll get a peek at their featured exhibition while indulging in a sparkling aperitif.

Once we’ve finished our last sips and completed the tour, we’ll have an early dinner at the museum before making our way to the ferry terminal. From there we will take an overnight journey to our next stop on this adventure: Turku, Finland.

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to wake up at sea, today is your chance to find out. You’ll awake to the view of the Baltic Sea below a wash of pink sky as the sun begins to rise and enjoy breakfast aboard the ferry before arriving at the rocky shores of our destination, Turku.

Once we’ve disembarked, we’ll begin an walking tour of downtown Turku focusing on the work of world-­renowned architect and designer Alvar Aalto and three buildings in the city center designed by him: the Southwestern Finland Agricultural Cooperative Building, the Standard Apartment House and the Turun Sanomat Newspaper Building. Along the way, we’ll learn how he heralded midcentury modernism in design and his time in the city. We’ll also stop to visit the Paimio Sanatorium, an architectural masterpiece by Alvar and Aino Aalto and a key site of furniture design and innovation in Finland.

We’ll enjoy a light lunch and marvel at a few other sites before bidding farewell to our first stop in Finland and drive to Helsinki. 

Once we’ve arrived in Helsinki, we’ll reconvene for a group dinner and check into our hotel for the evening.

Today we’ll dive into Helsinki’s rich history of design. Our schedule begins at Artek’s new workspace, learning all about how the business, brand, and emissary of modern design philosophy was born all those years ago. With the help of our expert guides, we get an inside look into Artek, the iconic Finnish design house founded in 1935 by Alvar and Aino Aalto. We’ll learn about the Aalto’s nearly 100-year ode to a modern culture of living and even get a chance to do some shopping at the brand’s flagship store.

Lunch will be on your own today, but we’ll reconvene this evening for a multi-course meal and wine pairing at the iconic Savoy. The interior of the restaurant was designed by architects Aino and Alvar Aalto who brought their human-centered and functional touch to every detail. While gazing over the expanse of the city, you’ll savor dishes with ingredients like cured whitefish, Icelandic wasabi, and fresh crepes with local wild berries.

This morning, Helsinki slips behind us as we cross the harbor by boat to Suomenlinna, the sea fortress scattered across a cluster of islands just off the coast. With a private guide, we’ll walk through centuries of Finnish history, tracing old fortifications, tunnels, and waterfront paths before settling in for lunch on the island. After lunch, we’ll return to Helsinki, where another Finnish tradition awaits: time in a private sauna beside the Baltic. Move between the enveloping heat and cool sea air, with the option to follow local custom all the way into the water with a bracing cold plunge or swim. 

As evening settles over the city, we’ll gather again for dinner, this time with contemporary Finnish cooking where the country’s seasons, ingredients, and culinary traditions lead the menu. Perhaps Baltic herring shares the table with asparagus, tender new potatoes, and foraged nettles or herbs, followed by berries preserved from the previous summer. It’s a modern expression of a cuisine still closely attuned to what the land and water provide.

Our immersion into Helsinki’s design and textiles continues with a morning visit to Marimekko Printing Factory. Since opening in 1951, they’ve led the way in featuring bold and bright designs, utilizing the talents of local artists. Today, almost a million meters of fabric a year are printed on-site. We’ll go behind the curtain with a factory specialist and then enjoy lunch at the cafe onsite. After, we revisit the Aaltos, with a walk through their house and studio, which was once a working architectural office and the birthplace of their iconic midcentury modern style. 

The rest of the afternoon and evening are yours to embellish.

As we near the end of our time together, we make our way to Porvoo, where red-painted warehouses line the river and cobbled streets climb through one of Finland’s oldest towns. A private guide leads us through Old Porvoo, past its timber houses and centuries of history, before there’s time to wander independently among small galleries, artisan workshops and cafés. We might recommend a pause for coffee and a Runeberg torte, the almond-and-rum pastry named for Finland’s national poet, Johan Ludvig Runeberg, who made his home here.

In the afternoon, the landscape opens as we continue into the surrounding countryside for a farm-to-table lunch. Later, we’ll spend time with a Finnish artisan for an intimate look at the craftsmanship and considered simplicity that have long shaped the country’s creative identity.

Later, after arriving back in Helsinki, there’s time to rest, pack, or do a bit more exploring before one final gathering. Our farewell dinner at a leading restaurant brings the journey to a close around the table as we feel the warmth of stories shared over our last meal together.

All good things must come to an end. It’s time to say farewell to Finland and Hei Hei to all of our new friends. We’ll fill up on a hearty porridge breakfast and reminisce on all of the new memories we made, before transferring to the airport. Näkemiin hyvää matkaa!