Have you ever dreamed about escaping to your own private island? Through a new initiative called “Your Swedish Island,” Sweden is giving travelers the chance to win an island for a year.
Ted Logardt
Have you ever dreamed about quitting your job and living in paradise? What about escaping to your own private island? Sweden is making that dream feel surprisingly within reach.
Through a new initiative called “Your Swedish Island,” Sweden is giving travelers the chance to “win” one of its 267,570 islands for a year.
“Sweden has more islands than any other country in the world,” Susanne Andersson, CEO of Visit Sweden, told me in an interview. “We want the world to discover Sweden as the original luxury: nature, silence, sustainability and space.”
And what could be more luxurious than enjoying the peace and tranquility of nature on your own private island?
Each of the five islands being offered in the contest is uninhabited and secluded, yet close enough to nearby communities for everyday essentials, whether that means picking up groceries, mailing a letter or joining a traditional Midsummer celebration.
But before you imagine building a cabin and relocating for a year-long off-grid reset, it’s worth understanding what the prize actually entails.
“Winners don’t ‘own’ an island—they receive the right to use it for a year through a formal usage certificate issued in partnership with Statens fastighetsverk,” says Andersson. “Their responsibility is simply to enjoy the island while respecting Sweden’s nature and the principles of allemansrätten: take care, leave no trace, respect wildlife and local regulations.
The winners will get a one-year right to use one of the five selected islands, a diploma certifying the winner as an official “island custodian” and a travel voucher worth up to 20,000 Swedish kronor (about $2,200) for round-trip flights to Sweden.
So what does custodianship actually mean in practice? What responsibilities would a winner have over the course of the year?
“There are no operational duties, no maintenance, and no obligations beyond acting responsibly. The intention is to invite people to experience what luxury of a different nature actually feels like—not to give them a project to manage,” says Andersson.
The islands are all small, raw and untouched. “That’s the point,” says Andersson. “These five islands are all uninhabited, without built structures or services (no electricity, no plumbing, no Wi-Fi).”
They also span Sweden’s diverse geography. “They were selected together with Statens fastighetsverk to reflect Sweden’s incredible range: from inland lake islands to windswept skerries in the archipelagos,” says Andersson.
Tjuvholmen, near Lake Vänern, is fringed by pine and spruce woodland where sea eagles and gulls soar overhead. Medbådan, shaped by the last Ice Age, offers calm water ideal for canoeing and swimming. Skötbådan is a low rocky stretch once used by fishermen anchoring herring nets. Storberget (which literally means “the big mountain,” even though it’s modest in scale) is a windswept granite outcrop sculpted by open sea. And Marsten, defined by pale stone and sparse vegetation, sits near enough to the mainland to balance solitude with access.
While winners won’t be relocating permanently, they will gain something increasingly rare: time in a place untouched by infrastructure and noise. In an era of overtourism and constant connectivity, even temporary custodianship of a quiet stretch of granite or forest can feel transformative.
Applications are now open, and winners will be announced later this year.
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