The villa under palm trees is undoubtedly a beautiful place to spend your summer break. However, there is a growing love for cooler destinations among those who can afford property in several places around the world. This applies to domiciles in the Waldviertel or Semmering to escape the heat of the city on the weekends – but it also works internationally.
Seasonal shifts have also been noticeable for a long time between the often communicating vessels of Kitzbühel and Mallorca, where people now like to spend summer in the mountains, while spring and autumn are preferred by the sea. If you want to look for even cooler alternatives in the longer term, you can increasingly do so in sophisticated holiday homes in places that until recently were only on the list of literal summer retreats for the very initiated.
“Arctic Hideaway” in the north of Norway
Like a small island in the north of Norway. More precisely on the island of Sørvær in the Fleinvær archipelago in the Arctic Circle. There, the composer and musician Håvard Lund created the “Arctic Hideaway”, a small village as a retreat for artists and holidaymakers. Here, ten monofunctional huts made of Kebony wood stand on stilts and are attached directly to the rock with steel cables.
These include four sleeping houses, a bathing house, a cooking and dining house, a sauna and an outdoor kitchen as well as a residential building with an electric piano. At the top of the hill, the Fordypningsrommet model, which translates as “space for thoughts,” sits like a huge birdhouse. There is plenty of space here behind large glass windows.
The holiday home in the Arctic Circle offers space for thoughts. urlaubsarchitektur.de / Jesse Beaman
In summer you can watch sunsets without breaking a sweat and spend the days fishing, collecting shells, hiking and excursions. Over the winter it is a promising place to see the Northern Lights. Information at urlaubsarchitektur.de, the complex can only be booked completely, the prices per hut are between 210 and 320 euros per night.
Summer vacation in the forests of Canada
In the middle of two hectares of Canadian forest, a good hour and a half drive north of Montreal, stands a house that is a harmonious architectural melange of different styles: The builders are an Icelandic-French Canadian couple who wanted to bring their respective roots and their understanding of design into the house in La Conception.
Holiday home north of Montreal. boutique-homes.com / Malad Communication
The result is a wabi-sabi facility with a strong Scandinavian influence, where people eat and cook at a five-meter-long kitchen island. Works by local artist Robert Ducharme hang on the walls, and a few antique or whimsical elements add French touches. There is space here for eight adults and two children, who can spread out across four bedrooms with four bathrooms and a bunk bed room.
Meter-long kitchen island. boutique-homes.com / Michel Allaire
Outside there is a saltwater and large hot tub, a sauna, a fire pit and a grill on the dining terrace. Information at boutique-homes.com, the prices are between the equivalent of 560 and 1100 euros per day.
Summer months in cool South Africa
Luxury villa in the Grootbos nature reserve. domizile.de
The knowledge that South Africa can also be a cool destination in summer is often only known to passionate golfers – or misguided travelers who had to start their summer vacation by buying fleece clothing. The highest temperatures on the Cape in July are just 19 degrees. Among other things, many whales appreciate this because they frolic off the coast here in the (European) summer and can be observed, for example, from a luxury villa in Fynbos in the Grootbos nature reserve on Walker Bay.
Grootbos Forest Lodge. domizile.de
Through glass fronts, surrounded by the finest design and modern works by South African artists. 1000 m2 The house is large and can accommodate up to twelve people, who are looked after by a butler and cook and have a car and driver at their disposal. You can travel comfortably thanks to a heliport and a runway for small aircraft, booked via domizile.de at prices of up to 8,900 euros per day. (sma)
