In short… A working farm on the southern tip of Gotland and a true utopia for nature lovers. Here, two families of first-time hoteliers have built a small utopia of sheep, dahlias, wood-fired saunas and some of the best farm-to-table cooking in Scandinavia. Opened less than a year ago, Sibbjäns already feels like an institution, the kind you’ll want to put on repeat.
The surroundings… Gotland is 35 minutes by prop plane from Stockholm, the sunny outpost Swedes escape to for better weather and a slower pulse. The island is made of contradictions that somehow agree with each other: limestone cliffs and wild meadows, medieval stone churches, and sea stacks called raukar rising out of the Baltic like something a sculptor abandoned mid-thought. The light and geology have drawn artists here for decades, and after a few days you understand why. Sibbjäns sits in Burgsvik, about 1.5 hours’ drive south of Visby airport, on 180 acres of farmland folded into ancient forest. A nature lover’s dream.
The backstory… Two families of friends bought an old horse farm and asked whether there was another way to live: slower, closer to the land, built around what a season gives rather than what a guest demands. From the start, they had two goals. They wanted to preserve the authentic feel of the place, and they wanted to protect the land. A local craftsman kept the construction properly Gotlandic, and garden designer Peter Korn created a landscape built around water conservation, a priority on an island with a real water shortage.
Neither couple had worked in hospitality before. Pontus and Sanna Rönn, one of the founding couples, come from careers in film and fashion. Sanna is the face you see each day, and she makes the whole place feel like home. Pontus runs the farm, no small feat, and leads the daily farm tours.
The vibe… It feels like staying with your coolest friends, the ones who are obsessed with what they do. Everyone here, from the kitchen to the fields, loves their craft, and it’s contagious. It’s the kind of secret spot you’ll want to keep to yourself.
The main house kitchen is an open invitation, with tea, homemade cakes, and a full spread of drinks, boozy and not, set out for you to help yourself. The same open-door policy extends to the farm, from the overflowing greenhouse to the pigs out back.
The garden is one of the best I’ve ever seen, wild and layered and humming with butterflies, but clearly made by an expert. There’s a little sitting area tucked into the middle of a garden bed where dreams are made.
Inside, it’s cozy. Vintage Nordic furniture is piled with jewel-toned textiles and sheepskins, and fresh garden flowers sit in every corner. Everywhere you look, there’s a spot that makes you want to grab a book and stay a little longer.
The rooms… Nine en-suite rooms in a renovated 19th-century farmhouse, each uniquely designed with vintage furnishings and cloud-soft beds, and each named for a woman from the founders’ circle. A separate bunkhouse offers a more modest option, with private patios and shared, gender-separated bathrooms. The barn doubles as a dining room and check-in desk, so guests can easily flow across the property.
The food & drink… A true work of art. Nearly 90% of the produce comes from the property, and the kitchen and fields work like a philharmonic, alternating between a multi-course farmstead tasting built on the week’s harvest and a relaxed three-course family-style dinner. Tomatoes in every color, edible flowers on every plate, ingredients so alive the meal becomes an argument for what food could be if more places bothered. Victor, the GM and wine director, pairs each course to pull the ingredients further into focus. We’d planned to eat around the island and barely made it past the dining room. Breakfast gets the same reverence: warm bread, house-made charcuterie, jam that tastes like it remembers being fruit twenty minutes ago. Don’t skip the carrot cake set out in the main house, best served with a glass of champagne.
The wellness… It’s all about the landscape, and there’s no schedule to keep. There’s a sleek wood-fired sauna with nature framed through the glass (I went multiple times a day, like a proper Scandi), yoga for anyone who wants to stretch it out, and a freshwater pool made for reading. The electric bikes take you on a 15-minute ride to moody, empty beaches with dunes and oddly shaped rock formations.
Is it kid-friendly? For now, yes. Between the animals, the e-bikes, and all the room to roam, it’s a paradise for curious kids. The owners are thinking about making it more adult-focused down the line, so if you want to bring the little ones, go soon.
Extra tip goes to… It’s a tie, because I couldn’t choose. Nora from the guest experience team became a real friend. We’re still texting weeks later, and she made sure I got the same warm welcome when I moved on to Ett Hem. Then there’s Sanna, one of the owners, who is as cool as they come and made the start of my 40th birthday truly exceptional.
Be sure to… Eat every meal on property. Take the bikes out and explore. Join Pontus on the daily farm tour. Unplug and spend some time in the flowers. Hit the sauna at least once a day. Always check what’s been set out in the main house kitchen. Most importantly, get to know the team, because they’re as interesting as they come.
Parting words… I’ve inspected enough hotels to know how rare it is for a place with this much attention to detail to still feel like a community rather than a corporation. Sibbjäns pulls it off. Along with Ett Hem in Stockholm, owned by close friends of the founders, it’s where I’d point to show where hospitality should head: intimate over institutional, considered over curated, and generous enough to let you live in the space rather than just photograph it. I left wanting to grow more of my own food, and with serious garden envy.
Date of stay… August 9–12, 2026
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