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Whenever she finds some free time, my wife sits down to plan our next ‘hytte’ trip in Norway.
Yes, ‘hytte’, the Norwegian word for ‘cabin’ in English.
We love taking these trips whenever we can. We usually invite friends to join us, but sometimes we simply enjoy going only ourselves.
A ‘hytte’ is a cosy wooden house built close to nature. There are ‘fjellhytter’ or ‘sjøhytter’. Fjellhytter are located in the mountains, while ‘sjøhytter’ are situated beside the sea or fjord.
Cabin culture is deeply rooted in Norwegian society and perhaps throughout Scandinavia and other parts of Europe.
Norway has a population of about 5.5 million and has around 452,000 private cabins and leisure homes, known as hytter. This means roughly one cabin for every 12 people, which makes one of the highest per-capita cabin ownership rates in the world.
About 97.5 % of these holiday homes are owned by Norwegians themselves. Many are shared or made available to friends, making the hytte an important part of Norwegian family and social life.
