Flight time
2h 30m
Best season
May–September
Budget
Splurge
Best for
Design, museums, archipelago, food
Overview
Why Stockholm for a city break?
Stockholm is one of the most beautiful cities in the world — a capital built across fourteen islands where Lake Mälaren meets the Baltic Sea, its skyline of copper rooftops and church spires visible from any of the bridges that stitch the city together. The Vasa Museum, which houses a perfectly preserved 17th-century warship raised from the harbour floor in 1961, is perhaps the finest single museum experience in Europe. The food scene, transformed by the New Nordic movement, makes it one of the great eating cities of the continent. The archipelago of 30,000 islands begins directly outside the city.
From most UK airports it's two and a half hours — well served from London, Manchester and Edinburgh. Stockholm Arlanda Airport is 40km north; the Arlanda Express train runs to Stockholm Centralstation in 20 minutes (€25). The city is best from May to September: the long Nordic evenings, the archipelago boat trips, the outdoor swimming and the summer energy that makes Swedes emerge, blinking and delighted, after the long dark winter. In December, the Christmas markets and the Nobel Prize ceremony make it one of the finest winter city breaks in Scandinavia.
Where to stay & explore
Stockholm's best neighbourhoods
Gamla Stan (Old Town)
The medieval island city — the Royal Palace, the Cathedral, the narrow lanes of Stortorget and Köpmantorget, and the most visited part of Stockholm. Tourist-heavy but genuinely atmospheric.
Södermalm
Stockholm's coolest neighbourhood — the Fotografiska photography museum, the best independent restaurants and cafés, vintage shops along Götgatan, and the Monteliusvägen cliff walk with extraordinary views over the water.
Djurgården
The royal island park east of the centre — the Vasa Museum, the ABBA Museum, Skansen open-air museum, and the most pleasant walking and cycling in Stockholm. Free to enter the island.
Things to do
What to see in Stockholm
1
Vasa Museum
The most extraordinary museum in Scandinavia — the Vasa, a Swedish warship that sank on her maiden voyage in 1628 and was raised from the harbour floor in 1961 after 333 years, is preserved almost entirely intact at 98% original material. The ship is 69 metres long, 52 metres tall, and displays the ambition and the catastrophic engineering of the Swedish imperial era. The museum is built around the ship; the surrounding exhibitions explain the lives of the 30 crew members who drowned. Book online; it sells out.
2
Fotografiska
The finest photography museum in the world — four floors of temporary exhibitions in a converted 1906 customs house on Södermalm, showing the most important photographers working today alongside retrospectives of the great names. The rooftop restaurant has extraordinary views over the water to Gamla Stan. Open until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays; the late evening with a drink on the roof is one of the finest things to do in Stockholm.
3
Skansen & Djurgården
The world's first open-air museum (1891) — 150 historic Swedish buildings relocated from across the country to the Djurgården island, with period-dressed craftspeople, a zoo of Nordic animals (lynx, reindeer, moose, wolverine), and extraordinary views over the archipelago. Combined with a cycle around the island (bike rental at the bridge), it's the finest day in Stockholm. Book online.
4
Archipelago boat trip
The Stockholm archipelago — 30,000 islands stretching 150km into the Baltic — is the city's greatest natural asset. Waxholmsbolaget ferries run from Strömkajen quay to the near islands (Vaxholm is the most popular, 75 minutes each way) and to the outer islands in summer. A day trip to Sandhamn or Grinda gives the open Baltic, pine forests and the extraordinary island café culture. Buy a Båtluffarkortet (archipelago day pass) for unlimited ferry travel.
Food & drink
Where to eat in Stockholm
Frantzén
Three Michelin stars / New Nordic
The finest restaurant in Scandinavia and one of the great restaurants in the world — Björn Frantzén's 24-course tasting menu combines Japanese and Nordic techniques with Swedish produce of extraordinary quality. Book exactly three months ahead; the waitlist is long even then. A once-in-a-lifetime meal.
Pelikan
Traditional Swedish / Södermalm
The most beautiful traditional restaurant in Stockholm — a belle époque beer hall of painted ceilings, dark wood and white-aproned waiters serving the classics of Swedish husmanskost (home cooking): meatballs with cream sauce and lingonberry, pickled herring with crispbread and butter, Jansson's temptation (potato and anchovy gratin). Book ahead; excellent value.
Café Pascal
Coffee & pastry / Vasastan
The finest café in Stockholm — the cardamom buns, the sourdough and the coffee are all exceptional. In Vasastan, a 15-minute walk from the centre. The queue forms before opening; worth joining. The Swedish fika (coffee and pastry break) culture is at its finest here.
Itinerary
3 days in Stockholm — a suggested itinerary
Day 1
Gamla Stan, the Vasa, Södermalm at dusk
Arlanda Express from the airport to Centralstation (20 minutes, €25). Drop your bags in Södermalm or Gamla Stan and walk immediately to the Vasa Museum on Djurgården (tram 7 or ferry from Slussen). Give it two hours — the ship, the exhibition on the crew members' lives, the conservation story. Walk back through Djurgården to the Nordiska Museet (Nordic culture, free with the Stockholm Museum Card). Gamla Stan for the afternoon: the Royal Palace exterior (the Changing of the Guard at noon), the Cathedral (Storkyrkan), the medieval lanes of Mårten Trotzigs gränd (the narrowest alley in Stockholm — 90cm wide). Monteliusvägen cliff walk on Södermalm for sunset: the 500-metre path along the cliff edge gives the finest view of Gamla Stan and Lake Mälaren. Pelikan for dinner.
Day 2
Fotografiska, Skansen, archipelago ferry
Fotografiska opens at 10am — the current exhibitions, then the rooftop for coffee and the view. Walk or cycle along the Djurgården waterfront to Skansen (30 minutes on foot, 10 by bike). Half a day at Skansen: the historic buildings, the Nordic zoo (the wolverine enclosure is extraordinary), the craft demonstrations. Waxholmsbolaget ferry from Strömkajen in the late afternoon to Vaxholm (75 minutes) — the island's 16th-century fortress from the water, a fika at one of the island cafés, the ferry back as the sun drops over the water. Dinner in Södermalm: one of the neighbourhood restaurants along Bondegatan or Skånegatan.
Day 3
ABBA Museum, Moderna Museet, a Swedish farewell
The ABBA Museum on Djurgården (book online) is more than the kitsch it sounds — an extraordinary multimedia tribute to the most successful pop act in history, with hologram performances and the recording studio where Waterloo was made. Allow 90 minutes. The Moderna Museet (Museum of Modern Art) on Skeppsholmen island — free entry, excellent collection of Picasso, Dalí, Matisse and the Swedish modernists — is a 15-minute walk. Lunch at the museum café, which has one of the best views of the water in central Stockholm. Final Swedish fika at Café Pascal (tram to Vasastan) before the Arlanda Express back to the airport.
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