Since we moved to our new home in Spain, we have more than a handful of neighbours from Northern Europe -Scandinavia. Consisiting of mainly 4 countries -Finland, Norway, Denmark & Sweden, it is well known to be some of the coldest region of Europe (apart from easterly neighbours, Russia & the Baltic countries)
We have been suggested (by our friends/neighbours) to visit the region as it offers a different landscape and atmosphere. We were in for a surprise!
We started planning for the trip almost 9 months in advance, with lots of research, planning, revising the plans to have a close-to-seamless trip.
Don’t worry, most Swedish people that we have met speaks English, or at least understood what we said and communicated in their own way (gesturing).
The day finally came, it was in July, 4.00am when the alarm rang, on a Monday morning, off to the airport we go!
We have been told that in July, it would be a weather-roulette between sunny & nice or cloudy and drizzles (or rainy). It was pretty accurate.
Upon arrival, we checked the weather reports religeously every 6-8 hours just to make sure that we won’t be caught in the rain when we were out on our adventures. We used Windy.com and AccuWeather for most of the trip.
Expectations vs Reality
When we think of Sweden, the first things that came to our minds would be undoubtedly :
IKEA, Volvo, Swedish Meatballs and Spotify, also probably the musical artists from Europe, Roxette, Aviici to ABBA.
To break it to you, yes there were lots of Volvos around Stockholm city, most of them were the unusual models that you don’t usually see elsewhere (for those who likes cars).
The city doesn’t look like IKEA, sorry to disappoint. But, it was mostly clean, in comparison to the other European countries we have been to. Buildings were well maintained and hardly seen many homeless people in the city centre. No offence to the homeless folks.
We were not expecting a whole lot of foodie adventures in Stockholm. But to our surprise, there were flavourful foods everywhere from restaurants, bars to street food stalls. Peer into the windows of their bakeries or cafés and you’ll see what we mean, hahaha.
Just so you know, in the northern-parts of Europe, it doesn’t get dark at nightfall in July. Bring your eye-masks if you’d like a good sleep. At 3am, the sky glows orange like a long sunset, then comes back to daylight. This would be a advantage if you’d like to explore the city, except for the shops that closes by about 6pm.
Water off the tap
If you’re wondering how was the water in Stockholm, we tried filling up our recycleable water bottles right off the tap and it was good. It is as fresh, or better than mineral water.
No funny smells, taste of limescale or tummy aches.
We are quite particular with drinking water in our household, so we bought Evian (mineral water) on day one but realized the water off the tap was equivalent or better than the €2.50/bottle.
Traffic in the city
If you come from parts of Europe or countries that respects pedestrians right-of-way, please reset your mind to being extra cautious when walking on the streets.
We noticed that there were cars, lorries, bicycles and electric scooters on the streets were somewhat ignoring the pedestrian/zebra-crossings that had no traffic-lights.
It’s always safer to triple check before crossing a street even when you are on a legal-crossing.
Maybe it’s a Stockholm thing? We can’t comment further on that as we have never been to other parts of Sweden.
Stockholm, in a nutshell
Accommodation – where to stay?
When were doing our research on this trip, our criteria was quite clear. It had to be cheap (by price), good location (convenient to public transportation) and safe (which definitely wasn’t a problem in Stockholm).
I must admit, lodging in Stockholm won’t be in any way cheap. It was in fact one of the most expensive we have paid for, being the tiny-attic AirBnB studio we stayed back in Paris (summer 2019) would take 2nd place.
If you are staying for less than 5 days, just pick anything around Stockholm city center around Norrmalm, Ostermalm, Sodermalm, Gamla Stan, Kungsholmen or about the same walking distance to the Central Station (Stockholm C).
Why? Because if you are visiting Stockholm, you would most probably arriving by airplane which lands in Stockholm Arlanda Airport (ARN) which have convenient connections to Stockholm C.
Economic Option
We picked the ones that were not too cheap (too far), nor too expensive (too posh, haha).
Since we wanted a private room to ourselves, we chose the Generator on Torsgatan. This establishment had both private rooms & hostels. We are neither in any way rewarded by the Generator to write this article, nor recommending them directly.
We paid €110 per room/night. The room was basic, hot shower, towels, lots of power sockets, a desk, chairs, pillows, clean sheets, hair dryer and no TV included.
Shoe-string Budget
We have seen hostel bunk-beds going for €50/night that includes shared shower-rooms & storage lockers.
As we walked around Stockholm, there were a few hostels around the city that would be good for single travellers or a group of friends visiting the city.
Be sure to compare prices on Booking.com, Trivago, Agoda and so forth.
Longer Term Stay
If you are planning for a stay longer than 2 weeks in Stockholm, try looking for accommodation outside of the city center between Stockholm & Arlanda as there are possiblities of cheaper stays per night.
As long as it has the commuter train (Pendeltåg) or Metro (Tunnelbanan) is nearby, it is convienient to travel between lodging to the city center on a travel-pass.
We clocked 57 kilometers!
Consu & myself, we prefer to walk when exploring a town or city, as always. We just love to take our time stopping to look at things and enjoy the moment.
It was about 18-20 degrees Celcius in July roaming the streets in Stockholm. It was a little breezy and some drizzles, but that didn’t stop us from doing 78,000 steps in just 4 days.
When you burn your calories walking, climbing & inhaling the fresh air, be sure to refuel with Fika!
The food …oh I’m getting hungry!
Stockholm was quite a gastronomic-experience. We didn’t expect much of the Swedes to have good flavours, but we were proven wrong!
If you have been to IKEA’s Food Hall for their food, it’s not too far off on the style of dishes on their menus.
As a good example, this meal we had at the Rosendals Trädgård. The restaurant gets their supplies directly from the farm that they were operating on as a biodynamic farm. Everything on those plates were ecologically grown and you guessed it right, the flavours are super good!
We paid €36 for the meal here at Rosendals. No, it wasn’t cheap, but it was good (high quality) food.
Food Budgeting
When visiting Stockholm, over-budget your trip by about 3x what you would spend in Madrid or 2x comparing to Paris or Amsterdam as it won’t be cheap. This is our honest opinion, no buttering up on this.
To paint you a better picture, in Madrid, you probably spend €15-20/pax on a ‘menu-del-dia’ (menu of the day) which includes a primero (first-starter), segundo (second-main dish) and postre (dessert), also in most cases includes a free drink.
In Stockholm, a single main course dish costs anywhere between €17-€35, excluding starters, drinks, desserts. That totally depends on if it’s a high-end restaurant or in a touristy location.
If you are up for Fika or a snack, a single piece of kannelbullar (cinnamon roll) costs anywhere between €3.50 to €5.00 depending on the quality. IKEA Food Hall sells them for about €2.00/pc but they were baked from frozen, that shouldn’t be compared to fresh-made dough, straight out of the oven.
Same goes to grocery shopping at a local supermarket. Even shopping to make your lunch-packs, snacks or dinner won’t be cheap. It would slightly cheaper than dining at a restaurant, but still noticeably expensive in comparison to the rest of the European cities we have visited.
Stockholm’s coffee
During our research on the trip, we stumbled upon some posts and comments about how expensive coffee could be in Stockholm.
Yes, a single cup of coffee in a café could set you back between €3.50 to €5.00, again depending on location, variety or quality of the coffee itself and if you’d like black-coffee, cortado, espresso, or cappuccino.
At the Generator (hotel) we stayed, the bar has coffee off a hot-flask selling for €3.50 (37SEK). Yes, a hot flask that you pump to get coffee, not the barista on a coffee-press machine.
So, having said that, if you cannot function without coffee, where coffee is life, throw in extra coffee money for the trip, just in case.
How long do I need to visit Stockholm?
Our planning for this trip was mainly as a ‘preview-visit’ with loose schedule to free roam. We have a list of places we planned to visit, but not expecting to see everything.
On a 4 days 3 nights trip, we covered most of Stockholm, excluding museums, amusement parks, etc. The only museum we visited was Fotografiska (Photography) Museum which took about 2-3 hours to see every exhibit, and of course grab Fika! 😉
We walked everywhere and used about 10-15% of our time on metro-lines, trams and buses to get to places quicker (because we have been to the places on the route before).
However, if you’d like to visit including visiting the 100s of museums, amusement parks (Grona Lund & Skansen) and see Aviici or Abba museum, allow at least 7-10 days in Stockholm. Skansen or Grona Lund alone takes a whole day each.
Alternatively, if you wish to live the Stockholm life for an extended period (over 2 weeks), stay outside of town that’s close to the commuter line where you can get to the city centre on a travel pass. Take your time to visit, see, taste & live the full experience.
Give me a cheat-sheet for Stockholm, please!
Sure, who doesn’t like a cheat-sheet?!
SL Travel Pass
If you’re planning to visit Stockholm for a few days, it is worth to get yourself a SL Travel Pass.
Install the app on your mobile phone, buy the ticket, activate the ticket (upon arrival at ARN) and you’re good to go!
Why? Because a single journey ticket costs €4 for any Metro, Tram or Ferry ride.
Why? Because…
72 Hour Ticket costs €33 (8 single trips)
7 Day Ticket costs €43 (11 single trips)
30 Day Ticket costs €48 (12 single trips)
Having said that, this SL Travel Pass also allows you to use public transportation from Stockholm Arlanda Airport (ARN) to get to the city centre. We have a separate post on ways to get from Stockholm Arlanda Airport (ARN) to Stockholm City Center.
If you wish to save some money to spend on Fika & coffee, just do this and thank us later!
Drottninggatan (Queen Street)
Spanning 1.5 kilometers from north to south finishing at the Riksbron Bridge, would be a must visit when in Stockholm.
It is a pedestrian only street, so it’s comfortable to take your time to walk, stop, peer and window shop.
Why? Because the street is filled with everything from shops, bars, restaurants, offices, ice cream stands, music shops, florists, you name it!
We stumbled upon this ‘by accident’ as we didn’t put this onto our planner, but saw a sea of people from the Riksbron Bridge after a day out in Gamla Stan.
If you look closely in the middle of this picture, there is a sea of people walking in the laser-line straight street. Honestly, my picture won’t do justice, haha!
So, we checked on GoogleMaps and Consu said, yes she have seen this mentioned a few times on videos and vlogs.
We decided to go for a long walk up and down which turned into a 3 kilometer walk. I found this shop called Clas Ohlson, a Home Improvement store very interesting. Imagine TEDI + ACE Hardware, something like that.
Rosendals Trädgård (Rosendal’s Garden)
This place is a must visit for you plant & nature lovers. It is an farm, garden centre & farm restaurant all in one place. It is known as a bio-dynamic farm. Please check their opening times both on Google Maps & also their webpage
Getting to Rosendals Trädgård from Stockholm Central
From Stockholm Central, take a tram ride from T-Centralen towards Waldemarsudde. Walking to this place from the last tram-stop takes about 12 minutes on forest trails, gardens, some nature walks and some small hill-slopes.
Waldemarsudde is the terminal station. To return to Stockholm Central, walk to Bellmansro which is just on the opposite side of the ’roundabout’.
The tram is on SL, so your SL travel pass app works on this.
What do they offer?
The place have a garden centre which sells plants, gardening bits and more plants.
Rosendals Café offers good food sourced directly from the bio-dynamic farm right in front of the café.
How do they grow such good produce?
The food waste that comes from the visitor’s plates are turned into compost from their circular program from farm to plate to compost and back to the vegetables they grow.
In order to dine here, you’ll have to buy food or drinks from their café and not bringing your own food to picnic. They have a sign that prohibits picnicking. It makes sense because the café’s profits pays for the farm’s maintenance.
Also, they do not allow alcoholic drinks in the orchard area and some specific areas in the farm. I believe it had something to do with not ‘accidentally’ watering the plants with alcohol which could be damaging to the plants themselves.
However, you could get alcoholic drinks to be consumed within the greenhouse-room or the garden benches.
Djurgardens
Djurgardens actually houses Skansen, Rosendal Gardens, Grona Lund Theme Park, Nordic Museum, ABBA Museum, Vasa Museum, Viking Museum, Junior (Kids) Museum, Maritime Museum and VRAK Wreck Museum.
Have you noticed how many museums I’ve mentioned?
Yes, there were probably a 100 museums in Stockholm, not literally, but more than you’d expect.
Generally, if you were to walk from the tram stop outside the Nordic Museum, you could see all these places of interest on the west coast of the Djurgardens (island).
The Maritime Museum was free entry, but we didn’t visit as we wanted to make our way to Rosendals for lunch.
By the time you reached the end of the west coastline of Djurgardens, you would most probably ran out of fuel. It’s time for …Fika!
Swing by Slipen Bakery for nice pastries and coffee or tea to be enjoyed by the waterway or down by the docks.
We did not dine here as we were saving it to have a proper lunch, but we did take a peek and they looked delicious!
Gamla Stan
It is an island accessible by car, bus, metro and on foot. Yes, you could walk over the bridges if you like to have a little adventure. There were quite a lot of people accessing via the bridges in summer.
Catching a metro train from Stockholm C is possible, but hey it’s only 1 stop away lasting about 3-5mins train-ride. Yes, it is a very short distance.
This town is quirky in it’s own way. You have lots of restaurants, second hand item shops, bookshops, vinyl-music stores and of course -souvenir shops.
Most of the center of this town is only accessible on foot or on a bicycle. In summertime, it’ll be a little crowded especially on days with good sunny weather.
Make sure you visit Stortorget (yes, the colourful buildings). Entry is free, it’s like a plaza with restaurants, bars, artists painting the scene and also the Noble Prize Museum (with entry tickets).
Also, grab a Nystekt Stromming. It’s Fried Herring with Potatoes, Lingonberry sauce, Red Onions & Pickled Cucumber for €12.
Oh trust me, this little shop makes a better flavours than a restaurant that sells the same for €20. We tried that.
What else to see in Gamla Stan?
These little tiny houses are not only found in Gamla Stan, they are also in Sodermalm.
Keep your eyes peeled when walking the streets!
Who is Bamse?
A Bamses hus (Bamse’s house) is a real-life replica of the home belonging to Bamse, a beloved Swedish cartoon character known as “the world’s strongest bear.” Found in popular Scandinavian theme parks like Kolmården Wildlife Park, this whimsical attraction brings the classic comic strip to life.
Visitors, especially young children, can step inside the iconic wooden cottage, explore Bamse’s cozy rooms, and immerse themselves in his friendly world. It is a magical, nostalgic experience that lets families create lasting memories while walking through the pages of a favorite childhood story.
The Royal Palace
Yes, the Royal Palace is located in the north of Gamla Stan.
If you time correctly, you could see the change of guards which is 12:15 PM on weekdays and Saturdays, and 1:15 PM on Sundays and public holidays.
If you want to watch the incoming guards marching or riding with the military band before they enter the palace courtyard, look out for them along the city streets or at their starting locations.
Weekdays & Saturdays: The parade departs around 11:35 AM – 11:45 AM from either the Army Museum or the Cavalry Barracks.
Sundays & Public Holidays: The parade departs later, around 12:35 PM – 12:45 PM.
Sodermalm
Located in the south of Gamla Stan, a quite big area to cover on foot, offers accommodation, restaurants, the Fotografiska (Photography) Museum and view points.
Mariaberget View Point
It houses a newly built view point and walk path overlooking Stockholm’s city, waterways & Gamla Stan, would be sone of the must-visit places in Stockholm.
Fancy a little picnic? Bring your lunch or breakfast packs here as there are benches, decks and some tables for you to enjoy your meal overlooking the city. It is breezy up here, but nice when it’s sunny!
Fotografiska (Photography) Museum
The museum is located on the north east side of Sodermalm, also overlooking Gamla Stan & Djurgardens (Grona Lund, Rosendals & Skansen).
It also has a nice view right in front of the museum’s entrance.
We chose to enter this museum for the love of photography. It wasn’t too expensive, €21/person. It took us about 2 hours to see all the exhibits.
If you love art in the form of photography, this would be a candy shop for you.
