Gällivare's railway station stands on the Centralplan Square in the city facing towards the centre, which is two blocks further north. Just behind the railway tracks is the Gällivare River. The most noticeable feature of this impressive station is that it is made of wood in the style of a winter chalet. It serves as the terminus for Sweden's ‘Inlandsbanan' that runs from Kristinehamn 1,000 miles south. Travellers who arrange to collect a hire car at Gällivare Station can easily drive into the grid of streets around the old centre or join the E45 highway that passes within a few hundred yards.
Using a hire car from the station, visitors can easily reach the main attraction of the area: the Dundret ski resort. This is a popular winter destination with six ski lifts, ten slopes and a hotel. Gällivare lies 60 miles within the Arctic Circle in Sweden's Lapland and the surrounding area has long been a centre for iron ore mining. Further to the west however, the landscape is very protected. The Muddus National Park is a vast wilderness of spectacular river rapids plunging through ancient rocky forests. Such is its beauty as part of the mountainous Laponian area, in the 1990s it was designated an UNESCO World Heritage site.
