Stockholm

What Stockholm is:

  1. Clean and friendly
  2. A city of parks surrounded by water
  3. Modern

What Stockholm is not:

  1. A country with a thriving beer scene
  2. A City that stays open late
  3. A large-sized city

We visited Stockholm in September 2019, after falling in love with Scandinavia on our previous Norway trip. We had heard Sweden was a nature lover’s paradise and that Stockholm was a really great city. We were looking forward to checking it out!

If you didn’t read our Copenhagen post, this was part of our honeymoon trip where we visited Stockholm, Copenhagen, and Amsterdam. We can’t say enough about the deal we got through Scott’s Cheap Flights – San Francisco to Stockholm and returning from Denmark to San Francisco for $384 round trip!! It was too good to pass up!

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When planning our trip, we had to weigh our transit options between cities (discussion in our Copenhagen post), and which city to spend more time in. That second question was really difficult to answer because all of the cities looked great. So, as we do for most things when making a decision, we consulted a Google Search, which basically revealed that…

  1. Amsterdam is for lovers and partiers,
  2. Stockholm is smaller than Copenhagen but has more nature, and
  3. Copenhagen has more activities than Stockholm.

We ruled out spending extra time in Amsterdam by telling ourselves we would come back to see more of it later if we really liked it. So the choice was between Stockholm and Copenhagen. While we truly love nature (can you tell from all the hiking posts?), we ended up choosing to spend more time in Copenhagen than Stockholm. Maybe we watched too much Bron/Broen, but we just wanted to see Copenhagen more – and that turned out to be the right decision for us. We hope our posts on the three cities will help you make the right choice for yourself. Here’s our experience with Stockholm.

Stockholm

If you’re flying directly to Sweden, depending on your final destination, you’ll probably cross Stockholm. It’s a unique city surrounded by islands, and in fact, the various neighborhoods of the city are islands connected by ferries and bridges. It’s an excellent small- to medium-sized city to explore, but we recommend a shorter trip for this one (~2 days).

Transit

Transit in Stockholm was very comparable to transit in Norway and Denmark. It was fast, clean, efficient, and modern – and they were building a large new subway station at Slussen (it was a mess to navigate around but will be AWESOME when it’s done).

The subway around Stockholm is pretty extensive and great to use – and the subway stations are ART. In fact, you’ll see plenty of articles calling Stockholm’s subway stations the “longest art gallery in the world.” Even the ones that aren’t painted are pretty cool since they are made to appear as if they are unfinished, with artwork painted directly on the rock. While we didn’t go around checking out all of the art in the stations, they were beautiful to walk and ride escalators through.

Transit generalities aside, here’s what you really need to know:

  1. You don’t need to buy a ferry pass to get around the city, the various islands are almost all connected by bridges, light rail, or subway. In fact, the basic 72-hour pass gives you access to one ferry – which you can ride to the beautiful Djurgården
  2. Even if you have the 72-hour pass, there’s a fee (something like $13/person) to transfer to the Arlanda airport. DON’T pay the fee, we did on the way into town because we were in a rush and worried about finding the transfer bus. On the way out of town we took the transfer bus and saved $26 and it was SO EASY. The “station” that houses the transfer bus is a tiny cement curb right next to the train into Stockholm – you can’t miss the transfer bus that pulls up to it. Follow the guide here under “How to Get The Public Bus And Commuter Train to Stockholm”.

Lodging

We stayed at the Rygerfjord Hotel & Hostel, thinking it would be romantic to stay on a boat – and it was! The room was tiny, but something about being on the water was really nice! The boat even had a bar downstairs and we bought a few drinks one night and took them to the top of the boat where there was a game room and a couple great spots to sit and overlook the city lights. It was absolutely lovely – and with a Hotels.com discount it was affordable too!

  • The city lights from Rygerfjord while enjoying nice drinks on the boat!
  • Rygerfjord – view from our bedroom porthole

Best of all it’s just a 10-15 minute walk to public transit at Slussen station -which is just a stop away from tourist favorite Gamla Stan. It’s also right below the beautiful Södermalm cliff viewing point, right on a beautiful fjord, and a little walk away from the one and only Ominpollo Hatt.

Food & Drinks

We started off this post saying that Stockholm did not have a thriving beer scene, but that’s not totally fair. I mean, no, it’s not an epic beer scene like Copenhagen, but it has some decent spots, some good food (and rad vegan options), and FANTASTIC coffee. Check out some of our favorite spots below:

  1. Omnipollos Hatt – If you’ve had Omnipollos Hatt, you know that they make a ton of super weird, experimental brews with really eccentric flavor profiles. Visiting the actual bar was great because they had so much variety and I found a couple of top notch IPAs. This was the last beer spot we went to, but if I could do it over again, I’d go multiple times. Caution: We went on Friday around 4pm and it was wall-to-wall people, I had to part the red sea to get to the bar.
  2. Grön Hermitage – Located in the heart of Gamla Stan, this is the spot for any vegans visiting Gamla Stan. It has a vegan buffet (YES!) with a ton of options (they’re all kind of hidden in drawers in a tiny kiosk). Everything we had was delicious and the price was really reasonable. Check the hours before you go, though, as we think they close in between meals.
  3. Stockholm Brewing – This spot is far out of the way in eastern Stockholm, but it has some great selection and it’s a wonderful atmosphere. This is the one spot we visited in Stockholm that was like an American Brewery (i.e. big open space, constantly rotating tap list, big brew tanks on-site. Again, their beer was really great, don’t miss this spot (FYI – they close early!).
  4. Greasy Spoon – Mmmm. You know when you order breakfast and get 10 different items on your plate? That’s the greasy spoon, they have a WONDERFUL vegan breakfast that has a lot of variety and is absolutely delectable!
  5. Johan & Nyström – Swedenborgsgatan – COFFEE!! This Södermalm coffee spot has the best coffee we had all trip, definitely check it out and enjoy your coffee outside in one of their tiny, brightly colored chairs.
  6. Folk & Friends Kungsholmen – This is a cute little bar/food joint across the fjord from Rygerfjord. It’s owned by a really nice couple (one Swedish, one American – love knows no borders) that are great to talk to. It has some really unique low abv beers, it’s a cozy atmosphere, and it has at least one vegan “pie.” Check this place out if you want a unique, local experience.
  7. Rosendals Trädgård – This is a cafe in Djurgården. It’s hidden in this beautiful garden and greenhouses. It has almost a full buffet of options, but we just opted for a vegan pastry and craft beer. The IPA was fantastic and it was lovely to sip it in the garden, but beware the bees! My IPA was sweet and led to a bee stinging me on the lip to get the sweetness 🙁
  8. Mikkeller Stockholm – Emily and I are on a mission to visit all the Mikkellers around the world. This one had great service and the location was sleek and classy, as most Mikkellers are.
  9. Max – Basically a Swedish McDonalds, Max was a fun spot to stop in. We ordered through their automated kiosk and they had several vegan options, like a BBQ chik’n sandwich. Impressive for fast food.
  • Greasy Spoon, yum!
  • Greasy Spoon: Vegan Breakfast

Activities

Okay, okay, Emily & I run around like crazy on our adventures, so I limited our recommended activities to a list with 1-2 sentences per activity. The activities are in order, #1 is the activity we recommend most. There was a lot to do in Stockholm and we loved it all. See the gallery at the end of this section for some visual highlights!

  1. Hike Monteliusvägen – The views of downtown Stockholm are gorgeous, especially at sunset. It’s a super short 5 minute walk down a pathway, make sure you don’t leave Stockholm without doing this.
  2. Djurgården – This lovely island is full of immaculate lawns and beautiful gardens and other flora left and right. Spend the morning walking around with a coffee and then stop for a nice IPA and lunch in the garden at Rosendals Trädgård (vegan options available, see Food/Drinks above).
  3. Gamla Stan – Old town Stockholm…with its buildings centuries old, tight alleyways, town squares, and a number of cool beer cellars, Gamla Stan is a major tourist draw. It’s a small neighborhood, you can walk around the entire island in 20-30 minutes, but it’s well worth exploring. Don’t miss its graffiti covered narrowest street. Gamla Stan has a number of bars with various themes and it’s a good place to grab a drink near the end of the day. It’s also renowned for having some really cool beer cellars. While Emily and I didn’t get a chance to check those out, we wish we had…don’t miss out on the opportunity!
  4. Stockholm Library and Park – The Stockholm library is definitely photo worthy. It’s a 3-story circular library and the park next to it has beautiful views of the city if you take a 5 minute walk up the hill. This library is beyond lovely & definitely worth making the stop.
  5. Fotografiska – An amazing photographic museum, this is well worth a visit. The entrance fee is relatively low, the building is located in a beautiful spot on the water, and the exhibits are cutting-edge.
  6. Vasa Museum – We aren’t the biggest museum lovers, but this one was very unique. The story of the Vasa ship is intriguing and seeing the ship put back together standing in an oversized warehouse is pretty awe-inspiring.
  7. Subway Art – Every time Emily and I rode the subway we were always impressed with the cool tunnels made to look like roughly hewn rock. When they were painted, they were even more majestic. Use this guide to stop and see your favorites will be well-worth it.