By Paul Dhadda, CEO, Exquisite Travel Group
Stockholm is built across fourteen islands where a lake meets the Baltic, and the water is what makes it. You are never more than a few minutes from it, the light comes off it, and in summer it barely gets dark.
Three days does the city. A fourth gets you out into the archipelago, and you should take the fourth.
Day one — Gamla Stan and the Vasa
Gamla Stan, the old town, occupies its own island — ochre and rust-coloured buildings, lanes barely wide enough for two people, and the Royal Palace at the top. It is touristy in the middle and empties completely two streets off the main run.
Then the Vasa Museum, which is the reason to come to Stockholm even if you think you are not interested.
The Vasa was a warship that sank in the harbour on her maiden voyage in 1628, about 1,300 metres into the journey, because she was top-heavy. The cold, low-salinity Baltic water preserved her, and she was raised in 1961 almost entirely intact. She now stands in a purpose-built hall, ten storeys of original seventeenth-century oak, roughly 98% original timber.
There is nothing else like it anywhere. Give it two hours.
Day two — Djurgården and the metro
Djurgården is the museum island and a former royal hunting ground. Beyond the Vasa it holds Skansen, the world's first open-air museum — buildings relocated from across Sweden and rebuilt, plus Nordic animals — and Fotografiska, one of the better photography museums in Europe with a café view over the water.
Then ride the tunnelbana. Stockholm's metro is often called the world's longest art gallery: something like ninety of its stations are decorated, several blasted straight out of bedrock and painted. T-Centralen, Kungsträdgården, Solna Centrum and Stadion are the ones to see. A standard ticket gets you all of them and it costs the price of a journey.
Day three — Södermalm and fika
Södermalm is the island that was working-class and is now the interesting one. Vintage shops, small galleries, and the Monteliusvägen walkway along the cliff, which gives the best free view in the city, back across the water to Gamla Stan and the City Hall.
And do fika properly, which is the thing most visitors miss.
Fika is not a coffee to go. It is a scheduled pause — coffee and something sweet, sitting down, usually with someone else, often twice a day. Swedish workplaces build it into the day. The kanelbulle, the cinnamon bun, is the traditional partner, cardamom-scented and less sweet than an American one.
Doing fika is the closest a visitor gets to how Swedes actually live.
Day four — the archipelago
The Stockholm archipelago runs to roughly 30,000 islands, and boats leave from Strömkajen in the centre of the city.
Vaxholm is the easy one, about an hour, a small town with a fortress and restaurants. Fjäderholmarna is twenty-five minutes and works as a half-day. Sandhamn and Grinda are further out and quieter.
In summer this is the single best day you can have here.
When to go
June and July for the light — it stays bright until eleven at night and the archipelago is in full use. This is when Stockholm is at its best and it is not a secret.
Midsummer, around the longest day, is the biggest holiday of the Swedish year. Extraordinary if you are invited to one, and be warned that shops and restaurants in the city close and the population leaves for the country.
December is dark — around six hours of daylight — but the Christmas markets in Gamla Stan and the candlelight everywhere are genuinely lovely.
August and September are the value months, still light and much quieter.
Two practical things
Stockholm is effectively cashless. Cards and phones work everywhere including buses, market stalls and public toilets. A number of places no longer accept cash at all. Do not change money.
Alcohol comes from Systembolaget, the state monopoly, for anything stronger than mid-strength beer. Limited hours, closed Sundays. Same system as Norway.
Where Stockholm fits
Stockholm is an hour's flight from Oslo and pairs naturally with a Norwegian trip — the cities are very different and the contrast is the point. Our Norway itinerary covers that side and treats Stockholm as the add-on it works best as.
Call Roseville Travel at (916) 782-6363 and we will build the Nordic combination around the season, which matters here more than almost anywhere.