Stockholm: what to see, where to stay and how to get around
Stockholm was built on the island that blocks the passage between Lake Mälaren and the Baltic — whoever held it taxed every boat. The old town is that island, and its lanes are genuinely medieval. In the main square ninety men were beheaded over two days in 1520, and that started a war of independence. Two hours.
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A short history of Stockholm
Stockholm is first mentioned in 1252, when the ruler Birger Jarl fortified a small island where Lake Mälaren flows into the Baltic Sea. In 1520 the Danish king Christian II executed dozens of Swedish nobles here, the "Stockholm Bloodbath", and within three years an independent Sweden arose under Gustav Vasa. In 1628 the warship Vasa sank in the harbour on her maiden voyage, and since she was raised in 1961 she has been displayed in a museum of her own. In 1912 the city hosted the Olympic Games, and since 1901 the Nobel Prize ceremony has been held here.
The ten best sights in Stockholm
1Vasa MuseumA warship that sank after 1,300 metres, raised whole in 1961
2Royal PalaceSix hundred rooms, and the king works but does not live here
3SkansenThe first open-air museum in the world, 1891
4Nordic MuseumA palace built for everyday Swedish objects, and it is enormous
5Moderna MuseetFree collection, on an island, and the terrace is the view
6NationalmuseumFree, reopened in 2018 after five years of rebuilding
7FotografiskaOpen until eleven at night, and the top floor café is free to enter
8Nobel Prize MuseumIn the old stock exchange, where the prize is announced
9ABBA The MuseumYou can sing with the holograms, and people do
10Stockholm City HallEight million bricks, and the Nobel banquet is held in it
Scan with your phone camera to open the map there
What is an audio walk?
Tours in Stockholm →A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Stockholm:
Free walking tours in Stockholm
The Town Between the Waters
Stockholm was built on the island that blocks the passage between Lake Mälaren and the Baltic — whoever held it taxed every boat. The old town is that island, and its lanes are genuinely medieval. In the main square ninety men were beheaded over two days in 1520, and that started a war of independence. Two hours.
- Stortorget · In November 1520 the Danish king invited the Swedish nobility to a banquet here, had the gates locked and executed about ninety of them over two days. One who escaped was Gustav Vasa, who raised an army and made Sweden independent three years later.
- Storkyrkan · Inside stands a life-size oak Saint George and the dragon carved in 1489, with real elk antlers set into the dragon. It was commissioned to celebrate a victory over the Danes, and the dragon is Denmark.
- Royal Palace · Six hundred rooms, more than Buckingham Palace, built after the old castle burned in 1697 — the fire started the day after the king died, and the court had to move out in the middle of a succession.
- Nobel Prize Museum · Alfred Nobel invented dynamite, and a French newspaper mistakenly printed his obituary in 1888 calling him the merchant of death. He read it, and changed his will to leave almost everything to the prizes.
- Mårten Trotzigs Gränd · Ninety centimetres at its narrowest, thirty-six steps, and named after a German merchant who owned the houses on both sides in the 1590s. It was bricked up for a hundred years and reopened in 1945.
- Riddarholmen Church · The burial church of Swedish monarchs since 1290, and no ordinary service has been held in it since 1807 — it is a mausoleum and nothing else. The cast-iron spire is from 1846, after lightning burned the original.
A Ship That Sank
In 1628 the grandest warship in Sweden set out, sailed thirteen hundred metres, heeled over in a light breeze and sank in front of the city. She lay in the mud for three hundred and thirty-three years and was then raised whole — ninety-eight per cent of her is original. The island she stands on holds half the city’s museums. Two and a half hours.
- Vasa Museum · She was too narrow and too tall, and the king had ordered an extra gun deck. Everyone knew: thirty men had run side to side on deck in a stability test weeks earlier, and the test was stopped before she rolled over. Nobody dared tell him.
- Nordic Museum · Artur Hazelius spent his life collecting ordinary Swedish things — clothes, tools, furniture — because industrialisation was destroying them, and built this palace to hold them. It is the size of a cathedral and it is about everyday life.
- Skansen · The same man opened this in 1891: a hundred and fifty real buildings taken down in the countryside, moved here and rebuilt — farms, a church, a whole town quarter. It is the first open-air museum in the world and every one since copied it.
- Djurgården · A royal hunting park since the 1500s, which is why it was never built on. It is still crown land, there are deer in the northern half, and no private car may drive on parts of it at weekends.
- Rosendals Trädgård · A working biodynamic garden in the middle of the island, with a bakery and a greenhouse café. You eat what grew in the beds you are sitting between, and in summer the queue is Stockholmers rather than visitors.
- Moderna Museet · The permanent collection is free, and it is one of the best modern collections in Europe because the museum bought American art in the early 1960s when nobody else in Europe was. The terrace looks back at the whole city.
Söder
Södermalm was the workers’ island — steep cliffs, wooden houses, low rent, and everyone Stockholm did not want lived there. Today it is the most wanted quarter in the city, but the path along the cliff edge stayed public and free, and the view from it is the one on every postcard. Two hours, mostly uphill.
- Slussen · The lake is a third of a metre higher than the sea, so every boat between them passes through a lock here, and has since 1642. The whole junction has been rebuilt four times, and the current rebuilding has taken over a decade.
- Monteliusvägen · Five hundred metres of path along the top of the cliff, with the city hall, the old town and the water laid out below. It is free, it is open all night, and it is the single best half kilometre in Stockholm.
- Mariatorget · Laid out in 1760 after a fire destroyed three hundred houses, and deliberately left open as a firebreak. Stockholm burned so often that whole quarters were planned around stopping it.
- SoFo · The name was invented by the shopkeepers themselves in 2004, copying SoHo, and it stuck. Fifteen streets of small independent shops, and the rule they agreed among themselves was no chains.
- Nytorget · A square of wooden houses from the 1730s that survived because this end of the island was too poor to rebuild. They are now among the most expensive addresses in Sweden, and the square in front is where everyone eats.
- Fotografiska · A customs house from 1906 on the waterfront, turned into a photography museum that stays open until eleven at night. The top-floor café has the best harbour view in the city and you can go up without a ticket.
Getting to Stockholm and getting around
- Arlanda Airport · The Arlanda Express is 18 minutes but 340 kronor
- Central Station · Trains to Copenhagen, Oslo and the night train north
- T-Centralen · The blue line platform is painted like a cave
- Slussen · Where the lake meets the sea, and the ferries leave
Cheap eats in Stockholm
Eight counters where Stockholm eats standing. A boat moored at the lock that fries herring and has done for decades, a 1928 café where the cakes are the same ones, and the cinnamon bun — which has its own national day, the fourth of October, and is taken seriously.
- Nystekt Strömming · Around 140 kronor, standing, by the water
- Vete-Katten · Cash or card, and the back rooms are the good ones
- Fabrique · Stone oven, and the cardamom bun beats the cinnamon one
- Meatballs for the People · Twelve kinds, including moose and reindeer
- Pelikan · A beer hall from 1904 with the original ceiling, in Söder
- Kvarnen · 1908, long tables, and the football club drinks in it
- Östermalms Saluhall · Eat at the counters, not the restaurants behind them
- Hötorgshallen · Underground, half the price, and the lunch everyone takes
Museums in Stockholm
- Vasa Museum · 190 kronor, and go at opening or after four
- Skansen · The first open-air museum anywhere, and a zoo in it
- Nationalmuseum · Free, and it reopened in 2018 after five years shut
- Moderna Museet · Free collection, and the terrace is worth the walk alone
- Fotografiska · Open till eleven, and the top floor needs no ticket
- Stockholm City Hall · Guided tours only, 160 kronor, and the tower is extra
- Millesgården · A sculptor’s own garden on a cliff over the water
Parks and gardens in Stockholm
- Djurgården · Royal hunting ground, never built on, and half of it is woods
- Monteliusvägen · The best half kilometre in the city, and it is free
- Hagaparken · Free, twenty minutes by bus, and nobody is there
- Skogskyrkogården · Free, twenty minutes on the metro, and go in autumn
- Långholmen · A prison island until 1975, with a beach and a hotel in the cells
- Fjäderholmarna · The first island of the archipelago, 25 minutes by boat
Things to do in Stockholm with kids
- Junibacken · 209 kronor, and under two is free
- Skansen · Wolves, bears and elk, and a glassblower who lets them watch
- Grönalund · 1883, on a headland, and the drop tower faces the water
- Tekniska Museet · A mine you walk down into, under the building
- Naturhistoriska · Free, and Sweden’s only IMAX dome is in it
- ABBA The Museum · You sing, and the recording is emailed to you
Live music in Stockholm
- Stockholm Concert Hall · From 200 kronor, and the blue building is 1926
- Debaser · Named after a Pixies song, and the bookings show it
- Fasching · Jazz since 1977, and the room holds four hundred
- Royal Swedish Opera · A king was shot at a masked ball in the old building
- Dramaten · Bergman directed here for years, and the foyer is gold
- Trädgården · Under a motorway bridge, outdoors, May to September
Nightlife in Stockholm
- Södermalm · Where the city drinks, and it starts late and ends late
- Nytorget · Tables outside from May, and the square fills by six
- Kvarnen · 1908, loud, and the club is through the back
- Pharmarium · Sweden’s first pharmacy, now a cocktail bar, in the old town
- Östermalm · Dressed up, expensive, and the opposite of Söder
- Trädgården · Outdoors under a bridge, and it closes in September
Frequently asked questions about Stockholm
What is there to see in Stockholm?
The top sights in Stockholm are Vasa Museum, Royal Palace and Skansen. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.
How many days do you need in Stockholm?
Three to four days are enough to see the best of Stockholm without rushing, including at least one walking tour.
Is there a free walking tour in Stockholm?
Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Stockholm, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: The Town Between the Waters.
How do you get to Stockholm and get around?
The main ways are Arlanda Airport, Central Station and T-Centralen. Full details are in the transport section on this page.
Where to stay in Stockholm, and for how much?
sleepntrip shows only rooms in Stockholm that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.
Looking for a hotel in Stockholm for your dates?
Only rooms that meet nine conditions, up to $80 a night.