Stockholm is a place I have been to many times, and most likely will visit most years. At the time of updating this blog page, I have now been 7 times, with my 8th visit planned for New Years later this month.
Summer and winter both bring very different experiences here and given the number of visits to this wonderful city, it’s difficult to know where to start telling you about the things to do here across the seasons.
My first experience of Stockholm was a strange one, it was my seventh and final stop of a three weeklong holiday going from city to city across Europe. The hot weather at the start of August (2018) had turned autumnal, now in the final days of August and much further north than the south of France, my suitcase containing only shorts and t-shirts, started to feel a little unpractical. Also, I was exhausted and the novelty of travel had worn off a little bit. I had planned so much for Stockholm, done so much research that I felt disappointed I didn’t make the most of my time here, so soon after returning home I booked to go again in the winter for a different experience.
I love Stockholm but it’s difficult to say exactly why. It certainly feels like I am abroad when I am there, but there is something very homely about it. The people are always smiling and friendly, Scandinavians certainly know how to cook, the architecture and it’s such a stunning city. There is so much to do, and every visit I manage to do something new.
First things first though, and that is a massive shout-out to my favourite hotel in the world (and that’s some accolade!).
I don’t usually write about hotels or accommodation as generally they are places that I dump my bags and sleep. However, The Downtown Camper is much more than a hotel. It is owned by Scandic who have nearly 300 hotels across Scandinavia, The Downtown Camper is one of their signature/premium hotels. It’s aimed at urban explorers and has (very sparingly) a camping theme throughout.
The hotel runs daily activities for its guests, such as city runs, kayaking experiences, city bike tours, yoga, movie nights and a daily sound and body experience which takes place in a big net that hangs over the main foyer and reception area. They also have kayaks, bikes and skateboards that you can rent out for a very low fee.
The restaurant 'camp fire’, has gorgeous food and they do the most amazing breakfast buffet. There is a rooftop cocktail bar and spa area ‘the nest’ and the rooms are decorated very modern, each has a desk and bathroom products with a scent especially created for this hotel.
It isn’t the cheapest hotel by any means, but it’s the sort of hotel you want to spend some time in, winter or summer. And with their daily activities and cheap kayak or bike hire, you can certainly get your monies worth.
Sergels Torg is located right outside The Downtown Camper hotel, it houses the entrance to T-Centralen (the main metro station), therefore every day, every new experience and journey starts at Sergels Torg. The best part is a glass tower that sits in the central part, in the evening it lights up. The colour changes very gradually throughout the seasons. In the summer it’s blue before gradually turning purple for autumn, red at Christmas, orange to yellow to green throughout winter and spring and back to blue again. Åhléns department store is also located here along with restaurants, bars and offices for co-working spaces.
Stockholm is very much broken into districts, and each has their own style and vibe. Gamla Stan is a small island nestled between Norrmalm (the modern district with shops, bars and large department stores) and Sodermalm (the hipster district with more independent type of establishments). Gamla Stan or “Old Town” is one of the best-preserved medieval towns in the world. Much of it is pedestrianised and all the old buildings and cobbled streets don’t look any different than they did hundreds of years ago. There are many bars and restaurants in this area which are lovely to sit overlooking the streets with a glass of wine in the summer, or bunker down in a warm cozy cafe with glogg or hot chocolate in the winter.
Mårten Trotzigs is here in Gamla Stan, it is the narrowest street in Stockholm (and in the top 5 narrowest streets of Europe) at a mere 34 inches wide. If you pass someone, you literally have to turn sideways to pass! It’s very narrow, and a great Instagram opportunity.
Gamla Stan is also home to the Royal Palace and Stockholm’s Houses of Parliament.
Stortorget is the medieval square in which public hangings and executions took place. Now it is a very picturesque square (in the middle of Gamla Stan), preserved beautifully full of restaurants and cafes.
This square, for obvious reasons, is super touristy and a price for a glass of wine can be around £15 (price as of 2022). However, as a one off, I personally think it is worth it, getting to sit in the square and soak up the history. This is the square with the 3 tall, coloured houses on which is what you see pictured in most guide books when talking about Stockholm.
On my first visit to Stockholm, I managed to catch the end of the Royal Guards Ceremony (much like the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace), it lasts around 40 minutes in total and is stripped back somewhat in winter months to a shorter/more basic ceremony. During my first winter trip, I went inside the palace for a tour of the royal apartments. For the cheap entry price, it was a great way to spend 90 mins, and whilst walking out from the tour I happened to see the Royal Guards Ceremony from the front row.
When I saw the city hall for the first time, I actually thought it was pretty ugly! In comparison to the other buildings in Stockholm, especially in the old town “Gamla Stan”, a very simple dark brown brick design! However, the building has grown on me over the years, I think because it’s such an iconic building in Stockholm’s skyline, I can now see the beauty in it.
Because of timing, I didn’t get to go inside and up the tower on the first visit, then they stopped the tours during the pandemic, and the tower tours only take place in summer. So, it wasn’t until my fifth visit I did the tour and went up the tower. It didn’t disappoint.
You can go into the grounds for free, which is worth a visit if you are in the area. The main tour lasts just under an hour, and you get to see the Nobel prize banquet hall, the hall where weddings take place and the gold room, amongst leaning some basic facts. It’s a government building which is still in use today, so all the tours are guided. The gold room in the photos is made up of 18 million mosaic tiles and each one is 23 and a half carat gold.
As a separate tour you go up to the top of the tower, 300 steps in total and amazing views over the old town of Stockholm and Sodermalm.
Riddarholm is a little island west of Gamla Stan, and is home to the old house of parliament and Riddarholm Church. Not much of interest here, however it has some great views overlooking Soddermalm and the iconic City Hall. During the summer, on a warm evening I can often sit along the edge of the water for half an hour or so watching the sun go down behind city hall, and the Evert Taube Statue.
Riddarholm church is a former medieval abbey in Stockholm and the church serves as the final resting place of most Swedish monarchs and is otherwise known as “the sad church” whilst the other main church back over on Gamla Stan that performs weddings is known as “the happy church”
Behind Riddarholm Church is the Evert Taube, a statue of a Swedish author, artist, composer, and singer. Taube died in Stockholm and is buried in the graveyard of Maria Magdalena Church on Södermalm. For me this was nothing more than a great Instagram opportunity with the iconic Town Hall in the background.
Södermalm is supposedly the ‘hip and trendy’ area of Stockholm, that is home to many cafes and boutique stores and independent traders as well as many residential areas. The island is south of Gamla Stan and like the other areas of Stockholm, contains a number of parks, city squares and obviously waterfront areas.
The water between Gamla Stan and Södermalm is Lake Mälaren, an area called “Slussen”, and this area is noteworthy of going through a massive 10-15 year transformation (due for completion in 2026, at the time of writing). For the last 60 years or so, most of this lake was covered in concreate with 2 huge ugly roundabouts, it was simply a traffic solution.
Now, the city have decided to take the waterways back, prioritise pedestrians and make this area beautiful again to become a meeting place for the residents (and tourists) of Stockholm. Upon my first visit in 2018, the area had half been demolished and resembled something akin to ground-zero in new York! Since then, the water has been opened up, one single bridge installed (that was transported from China), roads and metro tracks moved underground and the start of the Mälaren/Slussen Terrace construction, which will become cafes and view points over looking Gamla Stan.
Freyja + Söder, a new rooftop bar opened in 2023, which is right in the heart of Slussen. Once the construction works are completed, this bar will most likely have the best views in Stockholm. There are no bookings for the bar, and it does get busy. I came here with a friend, and we stayed around 40 minutes and had 2 drinks each at sunset.
Södermalm is much more elevated than Gamla Stan, and the Slussen area with steep climbs on roads and pathways. There is an elevator (called Katarina Elevator) much like the Santa Justa Lift in Lisbon I suppose, that hadn’t been operational for some time. However, this lift has now been restored and operational again as part of the New Slussen development.
Katarina Kyrka (church) is one of the major churches in central Stockholm, the architecture and colours of the church are stunning, and provides a unique Instagram opportunity in Stockholm, both at day and at night.
Being a ‘hip and cool’ area, there are many pieces of artwork, statues, and installations in this island for people to enjoy.
Just a little walk west from Slussen is Monteliusvägen which is a hilltop overlooking Gamla Stan and much of Norrmalm, Stockholm. Its hugely popular for seeking the sun set, especially in the summer where the “golden hour” lasts from around 10pm-2pm (never getting dark), and the fireworks on New Years Eve.
Summer is my favourite time in Stockholm, and at the end of June, during the longest days of summer, there is almost 24 hours daylight. The sun rests at its lowest position from 22:30 and from 01:00 starts to get lighter, it doesn’t get dark!
The best place to go and watch the sun set is the cliff top on the northern side of Södermalm, Monteliusvägen. It looks out over to Slussen, Kungsholmen and Gamla Stan and reveals the entire city skyline.
This is usually the first place I head to when visiting Stockholm, especially in the evening. On this clifftop, even at 1am people are still there quietly watching the sun. This picture was taken at 1am (end of June).
On my first visit to Stockholm this was my highlight, being at the end of August the weather had started to turn cold and on one of the days it just rained all day. So this was a perfect way to spend a big chunk of the day riding the metro. Many of their stations are decorated by a different artist and has a different theme and is known as one of the longest art galleries in the world. From T-Centrallen, I rode on 3 of the lines, each lines take around 90 minutes there and back allowing for a 5 minute stop at most of the stations. The blue and red lines are the ones with the best stations, the green line which is older only had a few stops of interest.
Djurgården is a huge island with museums, parks and lovely scenery over the waters. The best way to explore this island is on bike, and I can’t recommend doing that enough. It’s too vast to do it on foot and in summer could be quite uncomfortable. I’ve been to Djurgården a handful of times over the years, and visited some of the attractions (Grona Lund amusement park and the Vasa Museum).
On one of my summer trips, I decided to really explore and spend some time here on bike. There are some lovely sights along the way, over the water and quite often small pebble areas (I’m stopping short here of saying ‘beach’) that you can stop and cool off for a quick swim or dip. There are small cafes, large grass areas for sunbathing or picnics and large wooded areas with pine trees. You’d be surprised just how close it is to the city centre but feels like it could be miles away as you can be at one with nature.
Stockholm is one of the nicest cities to grab a bike for the day and explore. It’s got easy cycle routes around the city, and each of the islands that form Stockholm has full pedestrian and cycle access around each permitter making for some great scenery.
The Vasa Museum is the most visited museum in Sweden and was one of my highlights! The Vasa is a 1600th century ship that sank only 1000 meters into its first journey due to a design fault. It spent 333 years under water and was finally brought to land and restored in 1979 and was so well preserved because of the cold Baltic/salty sea! 98% of the ship you see today is original! I spent about 2 hours here and it was well worth it.
In 2022, Vasa opened a new museum a few doors down which complements it very well, Vrak - Museum of Wrecks. There are smaller vessels that have been discovered, that have interesting stories to tell. Whilst Vrak doesn’t hold actual ships, like Vasa, it documents their findings.
Grona Lund is a small theme park and concert venue in Djurgården (located near the Vasa Museum). Most evenings in the summer they have bands playing. Unfortunately, when I visited it was pouring with rain and I was soaking wet by the time I got there, so going on rides wasn’t high priority.
Skansen is a Swedish open air museum which covers a lot of land. Within it there are some old wooden buildings (I suspect replicas) recreating a small old town, A Nordic zoo along with lots of parks and woodland. I had only ever heard good things about this place, but it was never high on my priority list. On my fifth visit to Stockholm, it was during midsommar, midsommar is celebrated on the weekend nearest to 21st June (the longest day of the year). Friday is midsommar’s eve which is the second most important day of the year in Sweden after Christmas Eve. Most of the bars, restaurants and shops close for the day (and indeed the full weekend), and people of Sweden take to parks or countryside to raise and dance around maypoles. They will take food and drink, usually wine and fish or pickled herrings (at least this is the traditional delicacy) and enjoy their national holiday into the early hours where the sun never quite sets. Skansen host a day of activities for tourists who are in the city centre, so I choose this day to go. It was packed to the point it was uncomfortable. I managed to see the end of the ceremony that raised the maypole from a far distance but that was about it. It didn’t help that it was Sweden’s hottest midsommar in 50 years, being a hot 28 degrees, not a single cloud in the sky and little breeze. I ventured to the ‘Nordic zoo’ but I saw no animals whatsoever! Perhaps they were all sheltered from the heat. I’m not really sure what the hype is about this place, honestly, I found it disappointing.
A low price museum to get into, and I spent just under an hour here, it’s quite small. But I have a large interest in Stockholm and so was curious to see what their transport system was like in the past. This houses old trams, collection of tickets, staff unforms and tells the story of how the transport network has evolved over the years, it’s staff and most interestingly how they switched from left to right hand driving in the 60’s.
The only issue with this museum is that it’s quite far out of the main city centre, I spend the day doing a bike ride around Norra Djurgården and so made the stop.
Norrmalm is a busy commercial area, with mainstream Swedish fashion and design shops, and many department stores which seem a thing of the past here in the UK. It’s also a cultural hub, with opera and ballet at the Royal Swedish Opera, art exhibitions and modern dance at Kulturhuset Stadsteatern and orchestral performances at the neoclassical Stockholm Concert Hall.
There are many shopping centres here, Gallerian and Mood, both of which are great for clothes shopping and Scandi style homeware. Gallerian is also home to IKEA city store.
Norrmalm is also where most of Stockholm’s stone lions are pretty much the local version of vehicle crash barriers. It has been explained to me that they were put up following the 2017 truck attack on Drottninggatan, a pedestrian zone. Clearly, with obstacles like these around, it would become pretty hard to go in there at speed with a big vehicle.
Kungsträdgården can also be found in Norrmalm, a large park where in summer you can sit and enjoy a beer or aperol spritz with a fika, or in winter you can hire some skates and go ice skating.
Like a few other places I have talked about in this blog, it wasn’t somewhere high on my list of priorities, and it was on my fifth visit I made the one hour boar ride to Drottingholm Palace, the main residence of the Swedish royal family. I didn’t do a tour of the palace inside (as I toured the main palace in the city on a previous visit), but I spent an hour walking through the gardens and the boat ride was also a lovely experience. There is a beach nearby and so I spent a couple of hours there before my boat ride home.
Skyview is an attraction that takes you to the top of the world’s largest spherical building, the Avicii Arena.
A friend of mine who had visited Stockholm had told me that the sky view ride was not worth going on. I love views of cities at height, but there are very few opportunities for this in Stockholm. So on my 4th visit to Stockholm, I had some time to kill one afternoon and decided to finally make the visit. The ride goes up one side of the structure and come’s back down again.
The ride lasts 18 minutes in total for roughly £20. The Globen is too far out of the main city centre to really get a good view of anything, however you can get a good perspective of the scale and size of Stockholm, and best of all you can see the Nacka nature reserve and Hellasgården.
One of the reasons I love Stockholm is because of the vast amount of nature close to the city. The nearest nature reserve to Stockholm is called Hellasgården on the Nacka nature reserve, which is a 20-minute bus ride out of the city.
Getting to Hellasgården is fairly simple, just grab the 401 bus from Slussen, they run roughly every 20 minutes during the day.
Once you get to Hellasgården you arrive at the reception area where there are a few wooden huts, in one of these there is a reception area and café where you can get all the information you need.
There are many activities you can do in Hellasgården (check their website) but I wanted to do a short hiking trail. There are many coloured routes you can do, I opted for the shortest trail as I only wanted to spend half a day here.
The route I choose was the one the directly followed the lake around which took around 90 minutes at a brisk pace. This isn’t an easy trail though at a big part of it is a climb uphill, but you are rewarded with some great views. You can’t get lost on this trail as you never really lose sight of the lake and you simply follow it around. I have done this trail on both winter and in summer, both are equally as beautiful.
The viewpoints at the half way mark, on this particular hiking trail, are stunning. Great place to stop for a picnic or glass (or bottle) of wine! When you are here its hard to believe how close this is to the city.
In the summer it’s very hot and dry and a quick dip in the lake is much needed. In the winter it is the perfect crisp winters walk in a pine forest, the lake in the middle is frozen over where people can skate on.
In the winter there are a few places you can skate on the frozen lakes. Not many though where you can rent skates and equipment from. Hellasgården allows you to rent, though it seems to be a bit hit and miss as to whether or not they deem it safe to skate (I guess if the ice is thick enough). Their website isn’t the easiest to understand up-to-date news, and also when I got there, they told me I had to book the equipment online. So I was stood in the reception area for 5 minutes on my phone figuring it out! However once booked I picked up the skates and went for it. Great experience and definitely a new experience. A bit worrying in parts as a couple of times I heard the ice crack beneath me, however I think that’s normal. The guy at reception told me that the ice is around 15cm deep and thinner towards the edges. It was however a little expensive, it cost £33 to hire the skates and safety line. I only spent 40 minutes skating (as it’s not something I do often the old legs and ankles were aching!). Also, I was getting cold, and the thought of a hot sauna which they also have here was too tempting!
After you have spent a couple of hours, and freezing cold (skating or hiking), it’s so rewarding knowing you can go for a hot sauna! Swedish saunas are so much hotter than any you would find in the UK! You can hire a towel at reception, and don’t worry if you don’t have shorts as you won’t need them! In Sweden it is compulsory to go into Saunas naked! Saunas are usually separated by gender (this one was). At first it felt quite strange sat there stark bollock naked whilst talking to complete strangers sat next to you. However, it also felt very liberating, and it really doesn’t take long to feel at ease.
When you get too hot there is some decking outside where you can cool off and if brave enough a dip in the lake. During winter months they cut a large hole in the ice (when the lake is iced over). I walked out of the sauna and onto the jetty with another guy I got talking to in the sauna. He just jumped right in and given that I was stood there in the freezing cold, naked, I wasn’t going to hang around! I lowered myself in using the bars on the steps but did not let go for the life of me!! Repeat the cycle a few times; sauna/dip in the lake, sauna/dip in the lake and you’re officially a local.
The Nest is a pool, sauna, and spa on the top floor of the Downtown Camper hotel. The pool overlooks the southern part of the city and is adjacent to a cocktail bar and of course, you can enjoy the cocktails in the pool. There is a sauna shaped like a bird’s nest that plays restful bird sounds inside. You can enjoy this any time of the year, but winter is always the best time for saunas.
Given that during December (the shortest days of the year) it gets dark shortly after 2pm, it’s no surprise that they make a big deal about Christmas decorations and making the streets of Stockholm feel warm and cozy during these dark months. Trees and streets are lit up from late November until February.
Every cafe and restaurant you walk past looks warm and inviting, very little temptation is needed to go inside and warm up with a hot chocolate, or glogg (mulled wine).
Parks are turned into ice skating rinks, and the winter season is truly embraced here, even in subzero temperatures.
The Nobel Prize Ceremony also takes place every December at Stockholm city hall. In 2020 they started a new tradition of having light installations across the city for a week to celebrate the Nobel Prize (usually the first week of December). I mainly went to Stockholm in December to see the Christmas markets and lights, but luckily I managed to catch the Nobel Prize light installations on their final night.
It was well worth the trek around Stockholm in sub-zero temperatures. I think there was around 16 installations and I saw most of them. My favourite was seeing the city hall lit up and Santa turning up on his kayak!
As part of my 4th visit to Stockholm in December 2021 and an attempt to embrace all things Christmas, visiting this free exhibition was a no brainier! Also, I had never been to the island of Skeppsholmen before. ArcDes is an art gallery/design and architecture studio.
The gingerbread exhibition was the only thing I wanted to see, it’s an annual competition where anyone can build a gingerbread house and then people of Stockholm vote for their winner. I think there was just short of 200 entries, and as you can imagine the smell of gingerbread in this place was amazing!
In the summer, my favourite past time is finding city squares or water fronts, and sipping a nice glass of white wine or an Aperol spritz, even if they are tourists hotspots and cost a fortune.
In the winter, and certainly Sweden’s sub-zero temperatures, this isn’t as enjoyable. But an equally good alternative in Stockholm, and especially in Gamla Stan, find a really cozy café and drink Glögg (Swedish version of mulled wine) and eat their lovely pies or gingerbread.
Having been to Skansen (the vast open-air museum) the previous summer for the Midsommer festival and activities, and wasn’t impressed, Skansen wasn’t on any list at all to ever return to. However, having seen some photos from last year’s winter light trail, they looked quite good and thought that this might be a good way to kill a couple of hours on New Year’s Eve.
Skansen is well known for its seasonal activities and a popular place to see in the new year and fireworks at midnight. Whilst we (a friend and I) had other plans for seeing the New Years fireworks, we went early evening for the winter light trail, and it didn’t disappoint. It was around £22 to get in for the evening, even if you were only planning on staying for the light trail. Quite expensive for what could only have been a one hour visit, but the lights were stunning. Plenty of hotdog and mulled wine (or Glögg) stalls for you to keep warm and fed, also little fires to toast marshmallows.
In December 2023, I headed back to Stockholm for a 4 day New Years break with a friend, and very excited to see in the new year here and new year celebrations. Not really knowing what to expect, we were pretty surprised to see that gradually across the afternoon (on New Year’s Eve) bars and restaurants begin to close down (unlike here in the UK, bars all open as late as possible with extended hours). I guess New Year’s Eve just isn’t celebrated in the same way in Sweden, and I supposed they have a vastly smaller population in Stockholm (in comparison to London). Whilst there were places open, most had to be booked, and we found it difficult to find any area of Stockholm where a number of bars were open in the same area that you could just hope from one to the other.
Freyja + Söder opened in the early part of 2023, I had made a point of visiting during my September trip to Stockholm, two months prior.
This bar and restaurant is a rooftop bar on the northern part of Södermalm overlooking Slussen and Gamla Stan. At the time of writing this, there are still a lot of cranes in Slussen, although work here is reaching its final stages. Still, the views are impressive and once the work is complete in Slussen, this rooftop bar will have the best views in Stockholm (if it doesn’t already).
It was the perfect place to see the fireworks on New Year’s Eve and would highly recommend making a visit here any time of the year.
Meatballs for the People is a small restraint located in Södermalm that will always come up on a Google search of “best places to eat in Stockholm”, and it really is one of the best! I have visited this restaurant on most of my trips to Stockholm.
They sell one main thing, meatballs, where the only decisions to be made (besides what to drink of course) is the type of meat you want, here goes; Chicken, Pork, Veal, Boar, Beef, Moose, Deer, Lamb, Pork, Bear or Reindeer. You then get your 8 meatballs with mash potato, pickled cucumber, gravy and lingonberry sauce, the traditional way to east this Swedish classic dish.
If you can’t choose between the meats, you can get a chef’s choice dish (with 4 meat types) or a 16 or 24 meatball feast to share.
It’s a small restaurant, (cozy and intimate) so always best to book ahead.
You’ll see Fika’s and many variations of them in bakeries all over Sweden! They are a cinnamon bun/pastry and absolutely delicious. In winter the best thing to do on those dark days is to find the cosiest looking cafe, find a table in the corner or near the window, bunker down and enjoy Fika and coffee. In summer walking around the streets at leisure with an iced cold latte and Fika is perfect.
My favourite bakery chain, and you’ll find these all over Stockholm is Bröd & Salt.
When I visit Stockholm solo, going into restaurants for a full on sit down meal isn’t always enjoyable, so I always like to have a few places up my sleeve where I can get some food to go. Here are a few of my favourites.
This is a food hall, just a few mins walk from Sergels Torg, Norrmalm in the Östermalms area. Mostly it’s food is to take away, but there are some nice eateries to sit in, including “Smorrebrod” which are open sandwiches on rye bread. Very Scandinavian.
As the label says, its seafood! But slightly posher than English fish and chips! The Fishery is located right opposite The Downtown Camper Hotel, there are tables to sit inside and some outside in the summer. They even sell wine to wash down the lovely dishes.
Max Burger is the Swedish version of McDonalds, and can be found across Scandinavia and some other European countries. The burgers and fries are amazing and certainly a cut above McDonalds. However, their touch screen ordering devices are not multi-lingual, so you really need to order by pictures and common sense!
Also located opposite The Downtown Camper is Bastard Burger, now these are mammoth burgers with various toppings. The classic (with cheese and bacon) is called “The Bastard”, which makes it funny/odd to ask for!
There are three Urban Deli's around Stockholm. Towards the front of the stores, there is a store/market type layout where you can buy health foods, then at the back is a bar/restaurant. I had some sort of white fish with a mild chilli sauce and potatoes, and it was one of the best fish dishes I’ve ever had!
This small place located in the northern part of Norrmalm sells the most delicious cookies you have ever tasted, amongst the standard choc chip cookies, you’ll find flavours such as Mexican Hot Choc and Crumb Brûlée! If you are not travelling solo and fancy going somewhere a bit more substantial, here are some places to try.
The new rooftop bar overlooking Slussen and Gamla Stan. They do both food and cocktails, and once the development over Slussen is finished it will have the best views over Stockholm.
Himlen is a steak grill and cocktail bar. Well worth a mention if not just for the magnificent views over Södermalm. But actually, amazing food too.
The Camp Fire is the restaurant in The Downtown Camper hotel. The menu changes each season, but everything that is cooked is flavoured with the smoke from the actual fire they cook on. Highly recommend a meal here, even if you’re not staying here.
It’s a huge city, without doing a Google lookup, sprawls about the same sort of area as London and there are just as many things to do. However, for someone that really doesn’t like spending hours and hours trawling through museums and churches, Stockholm has a lot of nature in and around the city. A 20-minute bus ride from Slussen and you can be in the middle of a pine forest, it’s the sort of city you’d want to hire a bike for the day and bike the perimeter of the islands that form the city. A country with nature at the heart and a strong sauna culture.
It’s a city on the water and is divided into very distinct districts of old town, hipster and independents, museums and downtown department stores.
The people are super friendly, and one of my favourite things is that they embrace the seasons of the year, unlike we do here in the UK. The weather is very much celebrated here all year round, of course the never-ending summer nights and amazing, but equally I love the long dark nights, and even dark days with their cosy café and fika culture.
The food is simple but gorgeous, stunning architecture and I could go on and on. But I think because I’ve spent so much time here, I almost feel like I can easily slot in as a local. I never get bored here, even on my longest visits. I always find something new to do, and many things I repeat each visit.
