Fårö

Fårö lies off the northern tip of Gotland, a flat limestone island where the wind has carved raukar sea stacks into shapes that look like they were abandoned mid-thought by a sculptor. The beaches here are white, long, and usually empty. Ingmar Bergman spent his last decades on this island, and the landscapes that drew him — the spare light, the silence, the stone — remain unchanged.

Fårö is reached by a short free ferry from the northern tip of Gotland. The island's raukar formations at Langhammars and Digerhuvud are among the most photographed natural features in Sweden — limestone pillars standing up to eight metres tall, shaped over millennia by wind, rain, and the retreating sea. Sudersand beach on the eastern coast stretches for over a kilometre of fine white sand. Bergman's home and cinema are open to visitors during the annual Bergman Week in late June. The island has no hotel chains — accommodation is converted farmhouses, fishermen's cottages, and self-catering cabins tucked behind stone walls.