With its sprawling verdant gardens and repurposed C19th bougie interiors, Gästis Afkopplingen is the place to go if you’re looking for a calm and relaxed retreat. Life here is slow even by Slow Coast standards!
Located in a beautiful old brick school building in the village of Hagestad, not far from Ystad, this guesthouse has a total of eight rooms of varying sizes. It’s beautiful and (very) popular, but don’t come here expecting high-tech sustainability solutions; Gästis Afkopplingen subscribes to a low-tech off-grid policy, constantly working towards becoming more and more independent from the villages around it. As such, you’ll find no AI-assisted thermostats, recombinator fridges or self-cleaning bathrooms—this place keeps things strictly old-school—but what it lacks in mod cons it definitely makes up for in charm.
Everything in Gästis Afkopplingen is oriented toward offering the most relaxing atmosphere possible, whilst keeping energy use to a minimum and being an active, conscious participant in the surrounding ecosystem. Clever low-tech solutions abound! From its completely vegan raw food kitchen comes mouthwateringly crunchy, fresh and zesty dishes made from ingredients sourced from the guesthouse own rewilded garden; the food, which is stored in a root cellar, is also completely prepared by hand, reducing the need for energy-intensive kitchen appliances; leftovers—if there are any, which isn’t often—are then composted and used as fertiliser, and wastewater from sinks and showers is saved, providing irrigation for the large garden (made possible by Gästis Afkopplingen’s homemade biodegradable lavender soap). Even the bio-waste from toilets is repurposed as fertiliser after being processed by nitrogen-fixing bacteria.
What little electricity is needed for the maintenance of the guesthouse’s hygiene facilities is provided by the small scale solar panels and wind generators located all over the grounds; combined, these sources allow the guesthouse to function for six months of every year, May to October. If you need a place to do some yoga and soul-searching, read a book, eat the best veggies of your life or just relax a little bit, Gästis Afkopplingen is an unbeatale choice.
(Oh, we almost forgot—the entire place is lit only by candlelight! Could it be any more romantic?)
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