Stockholm Travel Guide: Fourteen Islands, and the Train Ride Out

Stockholm is built across fourteen islands connected by bridges, at the point where a lake meets the Baltic.

That geography is the whole character of the city, so this Stockholm travel guide is arranged by island rather than by attraction. Each bridge lands you somewhere with a different feel, and the water is never more than a few streets away.

Gamla Stan, and when to walk it

Gamla Stan, the old town, occupies its own island. It is medieval, narrow, and painted in ochres and deep yellows.

The main streets carry the crowds. Turn off them and the alleys empty almost immediately, and some are barely shoulder-width.

Go early morning or evening. Midday in summer is the one time the old town feels like a queue.

Fika is not a coffee break

Fika is a pause, taken with something baked, usually with other people, and it is genuinely built into the working day.

The distinction matters because doing it properly means sitting down for half an hour rather than taking a cup away. A kanelbulle, the cinnamon bun, is the standard pairing.

Do it daily. It is the cheapest way to stop being a tourist for a while.

Östermalm, Södermalm, Djurgården

Östermalm for the food hall and the smarter shopping. Södermalm for the independent side of the city and the view back over the water from Monteliusvägen. Djurgården is a green island holding most of the major museums, including the one built around a seventeenth-century warship raised from the harbour.

English is spoken essentially everywhere and to a standard that makes menus and directions a non-issue.

The day most Stockholm travel guides leave out

Stockholm's archipelago runs to tens of thousands of islands, and ferries leave from the centre.

A day trip to one of the nearer islands is easy, and it is the thing most short-stay visitors skip. In summer it is the best day you will have. We put it in every Stockholm itinerary of four nights or more.

Six hours west, and a second country

This is the one to build in if you have the days. The rail route west across the Swedish countryside to Oslo takes roughly six hours, and the landscape is the reason to do it: lakes, forest, wildflower fields, and the red-painted farmhouses that really are as constant as the pictures suggest.

It is a cheap way to add a second country and more pleasant than flying between them. Rail legs like this are the sort of thing our transport booking handles, and the wider route is what our custom itineraries service is for.

Long days or candlelight

Summer brings very long days, light until late evening, and the city lives outdoors. It is also peak season.

Winter is dark and cold, and Stockholm handles it well: candles, cafes and Christmas markets. It suits a short city break rather than a long stay.

Late spring and early autumn are the balance: decent light, fewer visitors, lower rates.

Call Exquisite Travel Group on (916) 757-6300 and we will tell you whether your dates are the long-days version or the candlelit one, because they are very different trips.