A friend texted me from Paris this summer, complaining that the fans in his apartment did nothing to combat the 100-plus-degree heat wave. While he contemplated jumping into the Seine to cool off, I was feeling quite smug, enjoying a splendid 70-degree day in Sweden. I’d timed our visit to coincide with the annual Midsummer holiday, celebrated around the solstice. In Stockholm, twilight lingered well past midnight. Up north, the sun never set at all. We basked in the never-ending daylight as we traveled from Swedish Lapland, near the Arctic Circle, south to the island of Gotland, one of the sunniest places in Sweden.

I even relished the drizzly days, when we could stay cozy inside with a good book, go museum-hopping or enjoy the tradition of a Swedish sauna. Our summer trip included immersive experiences in nature as well as seeing the Stockholm archipelago at its best, with outdoor cafés abuzz with locals, street musicians performing in Gamla Stan and classic wooden yachts cruising the harbor.

Over the course of our journey, we reviewed six very different hotels, ranging from a historic manor house to an ultra-contemporary treehouse.