USP Five-star comfort and style outside of Stockholm and Gothenburg.

AMBIENCE The spa uses natural materials - grey Schiffer stone walls, birch wood planks to build teepee-style treatment rooms and reindeer rugs. A pool and sauna look out through glass windows to the snowy pistes that flank the hotel, and there's a rank of joined-up brown sofas for lounging.

There is an experience shower (changing colours and water pressure), a separate sauna in each changing room and plans for an outdoor hot tub. The spa has nine treatment rooms in total - the teepee ones each have starry ceilings, piped Sami "jokj" music (rhythmic heartfelt stuff that sounds a bit like Bjork), a massage bath and shower room.

The hotel, which is part of the Design Hotels group, resembles a smart community housing project from the outside and has the layout of a pine wood prison in its voluminous inner courtyard dominated by a vast slate and copper chimney. The clever design creates a community feel with most rooms having doors that open onto balconies overlooking the impressive lounge with its shapely Scandinavian furniture, central bar and restaurant lit by a hundred copper lamp shades. The hotel has five Swedish stars but the relaxed informality of staying at a Malmaison or Hotel du Vin.

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EXPERIENCE First up, after a day of wind-whipped skiing, was a full-body massage using Arctic birch tree oil. A spell in the sauna and a weighty heated bean bag placed at different places on my back warmed up the muscles.This being Sweden meant that the pressure applied to the knots in my back hit the pain threshold which hurt at the time but paid dividends later.

The next day, following some "whiplash" from ziplining among the high forests of Are, I had a jet massage bath with a calming facial that used Neroli oil cream. This was a great combination of treatments. Especially as many spa goers consider just idling in a bubble bath as a waste of time and money in a spa. It was followed by a massage using pine and eucalyptus oil for tired muscles.

Jennie had 12 years of experience as a therapist having worked in Stockholm previously for much of her career before starting here when the hotel opened in December 2008. She knew how to go easy on the neck muscles that had been yanked about a bit by the zilpine activity. The spa uses Kerstin Florian products made in the USA.

FOOD AND DRINK Neat beakers of sliced fruit, juice, beer, water and wine in the spa bar. The main restaurant serves global dishes using local produce where possible such as lamb from the valley, char from the lake, reindeer and Jamtland cheeses. I tasted strip loin beef with new potatoes and Jerusalem artichokes followed by a pear terrine with sweet and sour hazelnuts and a subtle rosehip ice cream. Breakfast was a help-yourself smorgasbord (it's hard to avoid the word) that included blueberry soup, cloudberry jam and crisp rye breads.

IN-CROWD Weekending Stockholmers who come in on the overnight "ski train" sleeper or fly SAS to Ostersund about 80km away. Other Scans, Dutch and adventurous Brits who can fly Ryanair to Trondheim, in central Norway near the Swedish border and take a two-hour train to the heart of Are village. For those seeking a change from the Alps, the resort offers a good range of pistes, expansive slopes and forests and plenty of other activities to help you earn a spa bath - husky dog sledding and ski-dooing on the vast frozen lake, for example.

WALLET WATCH The 110-minute treatments cost a hefty SEK 1,995 (£170) with cheaper 50-minute body scrubs and massages at SEK 895 (£75). An interesting range of group treatments allow guests to learn the secrets of the spa ritual.

NEED TO KNOW Copperhill Mountain Lodge, Åre Björnen, 83013 Åre, Sweden (00 800 37 46 83 57; www.designhotels.com)

For more information: Visit Sweden and Skistar

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