Came here on a cool September day. Took the 401 bus from Slussen and it arrives right outside of…read morethe garden. Aside from beautiful grounds, fun amenities like grills and mini golf, the real attraction for me was the sauna. You can sauna and then walk to the lake and swim in the frigid water. In the winter this is all also available with the caveat that the lake is partially or fully frozen, but I've heard they enable swimming after saunaing even in the summer. You should expect to be nude while saunaing and it's perfectly fine to be nude while swimming. There may be a small amount of culture shock for some Americans but if you just try to enjoy the hot-cold cycles you'll be totally fine. The feeling of swimming in the cold lake is refreshing beyond what you can really imagine elsewhere. The price to sauna is ~60 SEK per person, renting a towel was an additional 30 SEK (non-refundable rental) and they will rent a lock for the locker. It comes out to about $10 to go to the sauna. They have crocs or sandals for you to use in the locker room and even offer water bottles for free (I would highly recommend one). The saunas are gender separated. There's a changing room, shower room and sauna. If you've never sauna'd in Europe before here are tips: shower first before getting in. Sit on your towel in the sauna, stay lower down on the seats if you want to be cooler. Afterwards cool yourself off in the lake, and remember the code to the door so you can get back in! Repeat the sauna / swim as much as you like (and as long as you feel good). I'd definitely recommend this experience as part of a short trip to Stockholm. The experience is really refreshing.

This place is AWESOME. My friend was visiting from Madrid and we wanted to have a very Swedish…read moreadventure so we went polar bear swimming in the lake in Feb! It was definitely an ADVENTURE, and very exhilarating! The place itself is cool, they have lots of little huts in the complex, a restaurant, a place to rent ice skates, and then a locker room with separate showers and saunas for men and women (nothing fancy, but clean enough!). Basically, you arrive, change into your swimsuit (or nothing at all, as many people did!) hustle down to the water, hop in for a few seconds, and hustle back to the sauna and spend half an hour getting your body temp back up to normal :) And repeat. My biggest piece of advice is BRING SANDALS! We didn't and our feet are suffering from painful frostnip now. Luckily some girls there were super nice and for our second dip, they lent us their flip flops for the icy walk down to the water. It made a HUGE difference. A bus takes you right from Slussen to Hellasgarden (about a 20 min ride), and it's only 60kr entrance fee for many hours of entertainment- best deal in Stockholm! Only drawback is the guy who is working at the cash register where you pay to enter is a real nightmare. But aside from him, it was sweet :)

There were lovely bakery and espresso options nearby, and the hotel was located near many must-see…read moreexperiences. The room was set up to accommodate my son with a pull-out couch. I enjoyed the infused water available at the front desk. The staff seemed more focused on making sure you were out of the gym area by its closing time than on refilling water in the gym. The cleaning man hung out in the women's room cleaning or whatever, some 20-25 minutes before closing on one evening, which kept my wife from being able to use the women-only sauna. The next night, the hotel had the nerve to send a 'security guard' or some authoritative figure to ensure we were out by closing. For clarity, we weren't aware of the closing hours for the gym the first night, and the cleaner informed us that the gym was closed; we'd just asked the front desk to turn on the sauna, and they'd said nothing about closing when acknowledging that we wanted to turn it on. Of the four nights we stayed, half of those had no water in the gym. There's no phone or way to contact the front desk for more, so more consistency in checking would be nice, at least as much care to kick out patrons trying to get in a post-exploration workout. Also, one day we asked for new towels; they left a stack on the counter, and left all of the dirty towels. They took that quite literally, but the implied task was to pick up the old towels left on the floor. Lastly, just a preference, but I like the double beds better than singles placed next to each other.

Absolute worthless customer service. I booked last minute room as I ended up staying in town…read moreovernight for work, restaurant area closed at 11. Went to my room to continue to work, but the wifi didn't have signal in the room (which ended up being in the basement). Called the reception to ask for support on wifi, only response I got was "not my problem" and the receptionist hung up on me. I'm baffled. Improvements needed; 1) For the receptionist; don't work in a hotel if you don't like the service industry. 2) For the hotel; Don't hire employees that doesn't belong in the service industry.