Sweden Travel Guide

From the Arctic wilderness to the crisp blue waters of the Baltic Sea, Sweden is best known for its great outdoors with endless fresh Scandinavian air. But never forget to appreciate its sophisticated beach resorts and elegant modern cities, too.

Vikings, Volvos, ABBA, IKEA, Nobel Peace Prizes, bicycle commuting, the midnight sun, blonde tennis players, blonde models, blondes everywhere. What country do you think of? Sweden of course.

Let's start with the capital Stockholm, certainly one of the most stunning capital cities of the world. Blessed with a beautiful harbor, the city planners from centuries past and still today have always gone in for terracotta colored houses lining their hillsides by the water. A cosmopolitan and vibrant city, Stockholm is known for its sleek minimalist designs, famous nightclubs and chic fashion. Gamla Stan, the old town, is a little island with a maze of cobbled hilly streets lined with red and orange stucco homes all sagging in on each other like old happy friends. Interspersed between the houses are souvenir shops, cafes, ice cream shops and the Royal Palace. South of Gamla Stan is another island, the neighborhood of Sodermalm. Also hilly and overlooking the water, Sodermalm is full of beautiful old homes while the main street attractions, including the cafes and nightclubs, are bohemian in nature, attracting artists and students from all over the city. The main city center is located to the north of Gamla Stan and this is where you’ll find the throbbing metropolis rivaling the biggest and best cities of the world anywhere in terms of restaurants, nightlife and shopping. Surrounding the city are a remarkable 24,000 rocky islands. The city dwellers are famous for being friendly and polite. In the past decade, Stockholm has become much more cosmopolitan with 15% of the population now made up of immigrants, a fact which is changing the face of the city in small but interesting ways.

With over one hundred medieval churches, countless prehistoric sites, burial mounds and fortress ruins, the island of Gotland, in the Baltic Sea, is a tourist mecca. All along the roads are information signs pointing out historic regional facts. Gotland's only town, Visby, has a fascinating museum and the villages throughout the island feel like step back into another century. Faro is another island to the north of Gotland, and further north of that is Gotska Sanon, an island national park. Lilla Karlso and Stora Karlso are two small islands off the west coast, also worth visiting for their lakes and forest hikes.

The world's first open air museum, Skansen, just outside of Stockholm, gives visitors a captivating insight into how the people of Sweden lived 200 years ago. A fascinating 'Miniature Sweden', the museum contains over 150 traditional Swedish houses as well as a working farm, several real restaurants, working mills, blacksmith shop, cheese shop, and actual school, all staffed by the workers wearing period costumes and pretending they were actual villagers from centuries past.

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