Medieval Week 2025 Saga Tour
Friday August 1st to Friday August 8th, 2025
Ready yourselves for an unforgettable week of pageantry here on my adopted home of Gotland! We will experience the renowned spectacle of Medeltidsveckan – Medieval Week 2025, along with some very special and exclusive experiences just for Saga Tour guests. A more appropriate setting for our adventure could not be found than the beautiful, safe, and friendly medieval town of Visby, an UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Click here to express your interest in the Medieval Week 2025 Saga Tour.
The year 2025 will mark Medieval Week’s 41st anniversary. Besides the astonishing array of medieval themed goods on display in the vast marketplace, there will be craft demonstrations, spontaneous performances, concerts, and many more lively diversions.
The additional elements I am planning are meant not only to celebrate you as Saga readers, but to deepen the experience of being here as a group with me for this very special week. Things such as our Welcome Reception, the day at Stavgard (which I am extremely excited about), the picnic lunch at tranquil Ireviken, our evening at the Tournament, and of course a Farewell Feast, in a most picturesque setting. Beyond this is the opportunity to form, and expand upon, meaningful friendships.
Our base this year will be the highly attractive and comfortable Hotell Slottsbacken. The entire hotel is ours for the week Friday August 1st to Friday August 8th. Requests for additional nights either before or after will be accommodated; call the hotel directly. The Hotell Slottsbacken will provide a tranquil night’s rest after your daytime activities. It is also located near many nice small restaurants and cafes, for your dining pleasure in the evening.
This is what awaits you:
Seven nights at the Hotell Slottsbacken within the medieval walls of Visby. All rooms are finished to a high standard and have private bathrooms. It is a handsome old building, built in 1773, and solid as a rock. It served as the Archives building for Gotland for a long time before its transformation into the Hotell Slottsbacken. There is a modern elevator to ALL floors, including the lower floor breakfast room, or “Matsal”.
The rooms are just as attractive and well-equipped as seen in the photos on the website (see below), through all are on the small side. Every room has a mini-bar, full length mirror, hair dryer, free wi-fi, high quality towels, and really superior beds. Some rooms have sea views, others views of trees in the nearby small park. The bathrooms are very nice indeed. There are two “accessible rooms” with wheelchair accessible bathrooms as well.
There is a conference room on the lower floor, one half-flight up from the breakfast room, which you will be free to use should you need a larger desk or working space than what might be found in your room. Again, the whole hotel is yours. Outside the breakfast room is a small coffee/tea station with hot beverages available 24/7.
We will begin with a Welcome Reception on Friday afternoon August 1st at the Hotell Slottsbacken. This is our chance to meet and mingle, and in many cases, renew friendships made last year during the August and September Saga Tours.
On Saturday, to place us all in total immersion mode, we will spend a day at Stavgard, which those of you who came on last year’s Saga Tours will recall. Stavgard is the site of the hall of a Viking Era chief, Stavar, and an educational center for the era; a hoard of many silver coins was found here by students on a school outing in 1975, kicked out of a burrow by rabbits.
It is also the focus of a fascinating supposition that the great hero Beowulf may have been a Gute – from Gotland – and not a Geat – from the mainland. Hans and Lisa Wanneby, who direct Stavgard, will offer us a fascinating hands-on day there, featuring a walk to the foundations of an enormous past longhouse, which may have been that where Beowulf lived, and see the beginnings of the replica timber longhouse being built on the Stavgard grounds. Hans will tell us all about this, and present each of you with a copy of his new book in English, “Home of Beowulf”. There will be Viking Era handcrafts to try, longbow archery lessons, and a sparring demonstration by the skilled Warriors of Stavgard! Not to mention just walking the beautiful grounds, and exploring the many carefully crafted replica buildings created there. We’ll enjoy lunch, Swedish “fika” – coffee/tea breaks with snacks, as well, before our coach picks us up at 4 pm to return us to Visby.
When Medieval Week begins next day, Sunday August 3th, the highly-anticipated Marketplace – Marknad – will open at 11 am. It will open every day at that hour, with a supplementary and very worth-while market nearby in the historic Chapter House, which opens at 12 noon each day.
During the course of the week we will take a short motor coach ride up the coast to Ireviken, a coastal site of outstanding beauty. Impressive pines run down to the sea from the rugged cliffs, and a meandering wooden walkway offering easy footing invites walking and contemplation. We will enjoy a picnic lunch here, and have time to admire trees, sea and forest birds, butterflies, and simply absorb the peace of the Gotlandic seascape. This is a nature-focused and quiet activity to counter the excitement and bustle of Medieval Week, and to allow you a breather.
On one evening we will attend the thrilling Tournament, just a short stroll outside the town walls. Here we will enjoy long-bow archery demonstrations, the antics of acrobats, and of course watch rival teams of knights joust and perform acts of derring-do on their trusty steeds as they thunder down the lists before us.
Finally, on Thursday evening 7 August we will take another short motor coach ride to the charming coastal fishing sheds at Nyhamn for our three-course Farewell Feast. Along the way we will stop at Lummelunda Grotto to explore the caves on a guided tour, and enjoy “cava in the cave” – a glass of sparkling cava while we are there.
The Tour price includes seven nights at the Hotell Slottsbacken; Welcome Reception; the day at Stavgard with lunch, two snacks, a copy of Hans Wanneby’s new book, “Home of Beowulf”, and all activities; the catered lunch at Ireviken; the Tournament; visit to Lummelunda Grotto; and our Farewell Feast. Luxury motor coach transport to and from Stavgard, Ireviken, and the Farewell Feast is included.
The highly-experienced Nick Bylund of Creative Gotland will again be our Tour Operator, with whom I worked on the two memorable Saga Tours in 2023. And am delighted to be ably assisted on this new Tour by Facebook Saga Forum staff Misi, and Jessica Redman. All four of us will do our best to assure that your special week is as happy as it is memorable.
In short, this is a Tour which provides you with a great deal of free time to take in Medieval Week at your own pace, while also presenting you with some unique Saga experiences which we will share as a group. Come join our joyous adventure!
Click here to express your interest in the Medieval Week 2025 Saga Tour.
Tour Cost
I am truly delighted to present this exceptional week at the same cost as the September 2023 Saga Tour. Given the demand for this most desirable week – Medeltidsveckan – this feat is only possible due to our Tour Operator Nick Bylund’s strong contacts and sterling reputation. As his is a Swedish company, the tour cost is payable in Swedish Kronor (SEK), which your credit card company will automatically convert from your home currency.
Tour cost, including seven nights at the hotel with breakfast; Welcome Reception; day at Stavgard; evening Tournament performance; catered picnic at Ireviken / Svarthällar Beach; visit to Lummelunda Grotto and Farewell Medieval Feast, and all bus excursions, is 42,255 SEK (Use an online currency converter to estimate your cost from your home currency) per person double occupancy, and 47,495 SEK single occupancy. This includes VAT (value added tax) of 25%.
We have 40 spaces available. We understand interest is high, and to make the selection process as fair as possible enrollment will be on a first come, first serve basis. We are accepting deposits per person via credit card of 5,000 SEK (approximately US $500). A secondary payment of 5,000 SEK will be due January 2025. Final payment will be due June 1, 2025, sixty days before the commencement of the Saga Tour.
If more than 40 deposits are received, an Alternates List will be created, in which you may place your name should a registered guest need to withdraw.
We have a limited number of single rooms at the Slottsbacken, and hope that as you did last year, many of you will be willing to pair up with another. Nick Bylund achieved an extraordinary feat in securing an entire small hotel for us, during a week when 30,000 to 40,000 additional visitors will be on Gotland. Misi and Jessica will help you pair up, if you need assistance.
There is an elevator to all floors at the Slottsbacken, and the stairwells are wide and have excellent handrails. The front entrance has a rather imposing range of steps leading to the door, but your taxi can easily drop you at the rear door, with many fewer steps. The breakfast room is down one flight, but again, the elevator goes directly to it. There are also well-lit steps and good handrails leading to it. Please let Misi or Jessica know if you need a room with the least number of steps leading to it.
Click here to express your interest in the Medieval Week 2025 Saga Tour.
More about Medieval Week:
This is Scandinavia’s oldest and largest Medieval Festival, with an enormous range of events and performances, and the quality of the goods on offer at the Marknad – the Market – is exceptionally high. You can re-visit my posts about the 2024 Marketplace here (video) and here (photo essay).
Entrance to these Markets is by wristband. One can buy a daily or weekly band, with steep discounts for those over 65. A weekly band for elders was 480 crowns in 2024, or about US $48. This allows you daily access, not only to wander about and shop, but to enjoy the many performances and demonstrations taking place in the marketplace area. Once you have your wristband, which you can purchase at the entrance of the Market, you will be able to go everywhere and explore at your own pace. As I show in my video there is a large and varied outdoor food court as well. (One cannot shop on an empty stomach…)
Questions answered:
Do I need to dress in medieval or Viking style?
Of course not! Many people attend Medeltidsveckan in modern dress. But if you are inspired, know that many stalls in the Marknad – the marketplace – await your custom, and can outfit both men and women from head to toe. Note that Sweden is essentially a cash-free society, everyone pays with credit card, or in the case of Swedish vendors, with the phone app Swish, available only to those with a Swedish bank. But your credit card will serve you well.
What about the language issue?
All the craftspeople selling their wares speak English, many to a high level. As Medieval Week attracts visitors from across Scandinavia and Europe, English is a common language. Most direction signs in and around the marketplace and in town will be in Swedish, but there are many red-sashed volunteers about to direct you if you get turned about. There will be event maps and printed and on-line guides as well, to aid you. And you will have fun running into each other as you explore, and share tips.
What if I have dietary issues/restrictions for our meals together?
You are in good company, as I am a vegetarian! Vegetarian, gluten free, and other dietary restrictions cheerfully accommodated.
Am I fit enough?
You very likely are. The grounds of the Marketplace is a tree-filled, mown grass field, adjacent to the Botanical Garden. There are benches to rest upon, especially in the food court area. (If you like, bring a “shooting stick” so you can use it as an assist to walk, and then open it and sit down at will.) The beach landscape at Ireviken features a broad and comfortable wooden walkway through the woods for you to explore. We will have tables and chairs for our picnic. The streets of Visby are paved in square cut blocks of limestone, and vary in smoothness, and some lanes are paved in round sea stones. The footing can be uneven. None of us needs to be an Olympic athlete, but all of us should be able to walk one US mile at a comfortable pace. If you can do that, you’ll be in fine shape for the week ahead of you.
Some links you might enjoy looking at:
Hotell Slottsbacken: hotellslottsbacken.se
Stavgard: www.stavgard.se/om-stavgard.html
Ireviken / Svarthällar Beach: www.guteinfo.com/?id=574
Lummelunda Grottan (Caves): lummelundagrottan.se/en/startpage/
Nyhamn fishing huts: www.guteinfo.com/?id=2244
Click here to express your interest in the Medieval Week 2025 Saga Tour.