Hillesgarden, Sweden: Shopping, Dining, and Lots of Flowers Beside a Beautiful Lake

My husband's mother, Agnes, often goes interesting places with her pensionares group. One day after such an excursion she brought home a pamphlet to Hillesgården, a place even Lars had never heard of. Naturally, we had to go check it out.

The name would tend to indicate just a big ol' garden of a spot. It does have lots of pretty flower and tree-lined walkways, but there is quite a bit more than just that.

Just a short hop north of Helsingborg, this place is in a gorgeous part of Skåne (south Sweden.) The drive to it was a nice adventure in itself. Do bother to grab a map or you will never find it.

After parking, we went into the fairly nice restaurant on premises. It is the type of places with fanned cloth napkins standing up inside wine glasses. Don't let that scare you though as the prices are really quite reasonable. We went with what was billed some kind of steak, but was actually a very nice roast. This was a special of the day and only ran around 100sek and included coffee and the saladbord (salad bar). It wasn't quite an all-you-can-eat kind of deal, but it was serve-yourself and Lars was told he could go back for a second helping if he so desired. The roast was very tender and just mm mmm good. It came with boiled New Potatoes and your choice of two gravies. I adored the rich, dark gravy, while Lars much preferred the white gravy on his.

Service in the restaurant was just perfection. The gal who helped us was perky and exuberant, as well as very helpful to me when she realized I wasn't grasping most of what she was saying.

Outside the restaurant is a small kind of craft area selling used book, a variety of garden stuff, and figurines. I bought two of the most adorable little faeries (29sek each) to set on the pot where my beloved fuchsia resides. I also grabbed a pen with their name on it for around 10sek and a keychain for about the same.

After filling our bellies and lightening Lars' wallet, we headed to the booth to pay to get into the main part of the place. I cannot find the receipt now, but I believe it was around 40sek to get in.

The first thing we came to was the beautiful lake. What we particularly liked was a floating platform with a little log cabin in the center. A giant house for the ducks here. They were sunning themselves on the deck of the thing and it was just very cool to see. All around the lake are beautiful flora, and across the small bridge is a small pond with really nice waterfalls and plenty of schlocky figurines like frogs sunning themselves. I loved it.

The thing is, though, that the water was very dark and murky. For some reason, even the water running down the waterfalls had a reddish tint to it. I know that this is fed from the mountain rising up behind, so you would think it would be clear. It really was gross though. Shame, that.

Now, the path here is very even, though a little hilly, so it is ok for wheelchairs but in a few spots you may need some muscle power to get up the hills.

After admiring the water and debating on the reason to the bad state of it, we found a small zoo type of area. Guess what. They had monkeys! Oh yes, lots of adorable little tamarinds and some other kind of small breed. The front of these caged areas is nothing but screen and is accessible from the walkway. In other words, I got to stick my finger in and hold hands with a brave little gent for a bit. Stupid? Yeah... it was... and had I gotten bit then I would have blamed nobody but myself, but I did not get bit... and this monkey and I had one of those moments as we locked eyes and he gently clasped my finger. I would not trade that moment for the world. I did not want to leave him. I wanted to take him home with me.

Also in here you will find a few iguanas, frog, and fish galore. It is a small area, but it is cute and I enjoyed it a great deal.

Outside of this area you will find the birds. Lots and lots of birds. There were quite a few breeds of exotic chickens, but also a few different peacocks. I cannot recall the name of every bird here, but there were a ton. Some I'd never seen before. Nice bit, that.

There is a stage as you follow the path back towards the exit. They apparently have comedy skits here periodically. Also, there were a few live musicians up by the ice cream stop. There are plenty of places to sit and rest, but the place just isn't all that big so it isn't a major worry.

Oddly enough, this place has a small motel on premises and several cabins. I've no idea as to the price on a room, but it just struck me as a bit odd. This is not a prime location to be touristing from, yanno? They do have conference area though, so perhaps that is what the rooms are for, folks coming for a workshop or something.

Also, they have a spa where you can get a full massage if you like. I am guessing that, again, this is for the folks attending one of the conferences held here. I noticed a building for members of a car club only.

There is a butik as you go back to the parking lot too. Don't get your hopes up too high, like I did, though. This is what is more what is termed a Loppis here, or used junk to you English-speakers. heh. Hey, some folks like this kind of place. I found nothing I wanted though... much to Lars delight.

In the end, I am going with 3 stars out of 5 for Hillesgården. If you live in the area and want to kill a pleasant hour, then this is a good spot to do that. If, however, you are planning your itinerary for a visit to Sverige, this is not a major attraction and would mostly be a waste of time which you could be spending somewhere like Malmö. So, recommend, yes, but that is situational. I just hope they get that water cleared up.

(Current conversion, which changes daily, is about 7.31 sek to the Dollar)