In southern Sweden's Kronoberg County you'll find the municipality of Älmhult; a town with delights both natural and commercial - as well as the opportunity to bathe in crystal-clear waters and enjoy some canoeing on Lake Römningen, Älmhult is the birthplace of the world-famous furniture retail brand IKEA, with the first of its current 365 stores based here.
Hire a car in Älmhult and, as well as the chance to visit the original IKEA and play a round of golf at the nearby Älmhults Golfklubb, you can take advantage of the town's intersecting two major Swedish highways - roads 23 and 12, the former connects major cities like Linköping in the north-east to the region around Malmö in the southwest.
The two famous names from the Älmhult Municipality are Carl Linnaeus, the noted botanist who, having grown up with a fascination for local plant life, became one of the world's leading scientists, and Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of IKEA. Linnaeus' life is celebrated in nearby Råshult at the museum dedicated to him, where visitors can explore the surrounding area and find out more about this great man, credited with shaping science as we know it today. Hire a car from Älmhult and the museum is just 15 minutes' drive away for Älmhult IKEA.
