In Luleå, tropical heat and sandy beaches are offered in the middle of the winter cold

Every now and then, the northern botanical pensioners Ebbe Nyberg and Börje Westermark tire of the darkness and the cold.

Both are therefore grateful for the sunroom offered by the municipality since 2007 on the lighthouse near the central city.

- I've been here a few times and probably it's good, especially when it's winter and bad weather, says pensioner Ebbe Nyberg.

The sun room is decorated as an exotic South Sea environment where the floor has been transformed into a sandy beach and the walls are partly painted as ocean with picturesque details such as windows with flower boxes and worn tile decorations.

- You relax here and that is what people should do, says pensioner Börje Westermark.

This is really an environmentally friendly way to travel, but it is different from a real sun holiday, is it something you miss here?

- I miss more people talking to here about fishing and hunting, yes about everything, because it is the company that is most important, to have someone to share all this nice with, says Ebbe Nyberg.

Today, the room is filled with bird song and hot Bali heat. But you can choose brighter winds with morning or evening sun through the Miami and Mauritius programs. And the sun here even gives a real tan, but with 60 percent less UV radiation. Either you can pre-book an hour's holiday or you will come on the week's drop-in visit.

- When the sunroom was built there was a huge interest in this but now it is as if it has fallen a bit into oblivion or that those who are older and those with disabilities are not reached by the information that we still exist. So I hope that more people will catch their eyes and come here and use this, says Maria Björnfot, who works at the Lighthouse.