[1] This would often take the form of a small, roofed building on the grounds of a larger one, but could also be built in a garden or park, often designed to provide cool shady places of relaxation or retreat from the summer heat.
Especially in the Nordic countries, sommerhus (Danish), sommarstuga (Swedish), hytte (Norwegian), sumarbústaður or sumarhús (Icelandic) or kesämökki (Finnish) is a summer residence (as a second home).
[2] Sommarhus (in Swedish: sommarstuga or lantställe), in Norwegian hytte, is a popular holiday home or summer cottage, often near the sea or in an attractive area of the countryside.
Many of the Danish resorts depend on the rental of summerhouses to accommodate national and foreign tourists who can rent them, usually on a weekly basis, at prices (for a family) well below those of hotels.
In some attractive areas of Norway, there is "residence duty" (Norwegian:boplikt), meaning that an owner of a house must use it as their primary home and spend most of their overnight stays there.