Latitude (N): 59.35 Longitude (W): 18.0667
Country: Sweden
Introduction
Stockholm is the capital and biggest city in
Sweden and the primary hub in the Baltic Sea for politics, economics and culture. It has become known for design and gastronomy in recent years. Stockholm is built on a number of islands, each representing a distinct part of the city.
It was founded by Birger Jarl in the middle of the 13th century as a stronghold to control the inlet to Mälaren. The castle Tre Kronor (also from the 13th century) was placed in the most strategic position between Saltsjön and Mälaren but was destroyed in a fire in 1697. A new castle replaced it which was designed by Nicodemus Tessin the younger and finished in 1754.
Orientation
Central Stockholm is divided into seven main parts called City, Gamla Stan, Norrmalm, Östermalm, Södermalm, Vasastan and Kungsholmen. These are all within walking distance of each other.
Around
Since Stockholm is part of an archipelago the sea, coast and islands are never far away.
Waxholmsbolaget has ferry-lines to all major ports and islands in the archipelago. One of the most popular islands is
Sandhamn which also is one of the last outposts before the open sea.
Getting There and Away
Arlanda airport is the main airport situated around 30 minutes by car north of Stockholm on the highway to
Uppsala, however domestic flights also go to Bromma airport and some flights (particularly Ryan Air) use Skavsta airport just outside Nyköping. All airports have bus connections to the Central Station, Arlanda has direct trains going there taking about 20 minutes.
The Central Station is also the main hub for trains and the public transportation system.
Getting Around
Use the public transportation system or walk. The subways and blue buses form the backbone. Use
SL's homepage to plan your trip by entering the start and destination adresses.
Actually, the quickest way to get around is by using a bicycle, if you can find your way. A number of tests have shown that wherever you are going inside tullarna (Central Stockholm) a bike is quicker than both public transport and car/taxi.
Bikes are available for rent at 80 different stations around the city. You can buy a one day (25 SEK) or seasonal pass (200 SEK) at any SL center or
online.
Restaurants
Stockholm has emerged as one of the major gastronomic forces during the last 20 years. The success in Bocuse d'Or for Mathias Dahlgren (gold), Melker Andersson (with Daniel Couet, silver) and Henrik Norström (silver) and Culinary Olympics (gold in 2000 and 2004) have spawned a number of restaurants that rivals the best in the world. The lack of two and three Michelin starred restaurants is more a question of politics than quality. Most gastronomic restaurants provides often changing menus based on seasonal ingredients with a base in the traditional Swedish and French cuisine.
Most major cities have one star chef which greatly influences the culinary scene (Ramsey in London, Ducasse in Paris), in Stockholm it's Melker Andersson through Grupp F12 (Group F12) named after his first restaurant in Stockholm, Fredsgatan 12. The other major players are Mathias Dahlgren Grand Hôtel Stockholm, Lux Stockholm, Operakällaren, Esperanto, Leijontornet and former two-star Edsbacka Krog.
Most good (and some bad) restaurants in Stockholm fill up for lunch at 12.00 and are full until 1pm or so, however, almost all resturants have ample of seating available at 11.55. Swedes go to dinner earlier than most, the restaurants starts to fill up by 19.30 on the weekdays and weekends.
Average rating: 90%: One of the best upscale restaurants in Stockholm city, situated very close to Stureplan. The focus is on good contemporary food and good service.The setting is quite stylish and modern and the restaurant also holds a popular cocktail bar.
The menu is divided in four parts, cold starters (195 SEK), hot starters (225 SEK), main courses (295 SEK) and desserts (145 SEK) with fixed prices. You can ... [
more]
Average rating: 88%: Josefina is a very popular fairly upscale restaurant beutifully situated next to the Nordic Museum and the Vasa Museum in Djurgården, Stockholm. During the summer there is a very big outside lounge combined with the restaurant that gets very crowded on days with nice weather. In case of bad weather and off-summer the restaurant is moved inside to a very posh setting.
The food is based on local ... [
more]
Average rating: 80%: Beirut Café is one of the few Lebanese restaurants in Stockholm. They have a lounge, dinner area and room for private parties seating 10-15 (called The Pearl of Beirut), total capacity is 155 guests. It's situated just north of Humlegården on Östermalm.
The spectacular interior design was created by London W8 and they have released two cd's with the ambient music they use. All in all they put ... [
more]
Hotels
The Jumbo Hostel is a 25 room hostel situated by the entrance to Arlanda airport just north of Stockholm. Stockholm has a couple special hostels hosted in ships, but this has another twist. It's a 30 year old Boeing 747 Jumbojet.
Most of the rooms are 20 square feet, 9 feet high 3 bed rooms with a shared shower and toilet, however, the cockpit have private amenities and a view over the take-off ... [
more]
Rica Hotel Kungsgatan is situated close to the corner of Kungsgatan and Drottninggatan in the central shopping district of Stockholm. This location is very close to the central station, Hötorget and some of the shopping malls, Pub for example.
It has 271 rooms in a modern scandinavian design with all the usual amenities of a inner city business hotel. [
more]
STFs (The Swedish Tourist Society) Hostel on Fridhemsplan in Stockholm won the election among its members as the best hostel for 2008. The hostel seeks to blur the definitions between hostel and hotels by having stylish, clean rooms with flat-screen televisions and free internet.
All rooms have standard hotel beds (no bunk-beds) while the Vandrarhem+ rooms have private bathrooms. A double room is ... [
more]
Nightlife
On the weekends the places usually start to fill up at around 23.30, so to avoid excessive cueing at popular places it can be a good idea to get there slightly before that. Much of the nightlife in Stockholm is centered around Stureplan and Söder. The upscale nightclubs can be found near Stureplan while Söder has more pubs.
Average rating: 90%: Village is one of the most tricky places in Stockholm to get in to for the male crowd without the right connections, girls are having an easier time but most still need to fork out the 250SEK coverage. They're located on Norrmalmstorg. [
more]
Average rating: 75%: Very stylish bar/lounge-themed nightclub. They have one of europes largest LED-walls in the main room. Fellows has multiple bars and two dance floors, amenities for hanging up the outerwear is downstairs where a also makeup room is available. They are located right across the street from Pontus!.
Fellows is open Friday to Saturday 21.00-03.00. [
more]
Average rating: 73%: The Soap Bar is a small and very popular bar/nightclub right next to Dramaten in Stockholm. It goes from being a bar to a nightclub around 11.30pm in the weekends and gets extremely crowded after that. The Soap Bar mixes oldies music with modern RnB and house. [
more]
Things to do
There are a few places where bathing is possible in the city during the summer (Långholmen, for example), but the best idea is to rent a boat or kayak and head into the archipelago. Many of the thousands of islands are uninhabited and no are off limits due to Everyman's right to access all properties. Private and secluded beaches and cliffs can be found everywhere.
Average rating: 88%: Every third year (2005, 2008 etc.) in May the students of the Royal Institute of Technology hosts a carnival in the streets of Stockholm. They showcase a range of funny and spectacular machines, converted cars and other types of rides. More normal entries also participate and make this an enticing event.The next Quarneval will probably be around May 10, 2011. [
more]
In central Stockholm, this is the place to go for a game of boule. Dinner, beer and other things to drink are available. [
more]
Dramaten, or Kungliga Dramatiska Teatern (the Royal Dramatic Theater), is the swedish national stage for the spoken drama. Dramaten was founded in 1788 by king Gustav III and has been in continous use since then. The current building was designed by Fredrik Liljekvist and was finished in february 1908.
Dramaten has six stages on which they shift contemporary plays with classics from the likes of ... [
more]
Shopping
Most stores are open from 10.00 to 19.00 Monday-Saturday. On Sundays most large department storessuch as Nordiska Kompaniet and Gallerian are open but not the smaller boutiques.
Boutiques can be found all over the city, Söder has more bohemian and pop/rock, Östermalmupscale designer and City/Vasastan more neutral shops.
Articles
Pontus has emerged as one of my absolute favourite restaurants in Stockholm, I was recently there for my fourth visit with 6 of my friends and they exceeded my expectations again. The entrance to Pontus might seem a little small, the Oyster bar and clothing room flank a quite narrow path which splits to some stairs that goes to the dining room on the lower floor and the bar on the left side on the ...
After some time with trying to reserve a table with too narrow margin I finally managed to plan ahead and call the two weeks in advance needed for a table for two at Grill on the weekends. The different sections in the dining room vary greatly in style and ambient sound level so me and my company were very pleased when we saw that we got a table in the inner Victorian section. There's an abundance ...
The lovely colours of the autumn is starting to find its way to the photos published on flashpacker.org. Stockholm, Sandhamn and Paris have all gotten their fair attention. Speaking of Paris, I recently visited the culinary capital of the world to find out what to exptect from its blooming bistronomies, my results can be found in A Weekend to Discover Bistronomy in Paris.
I recently ...
A couple of years ago I moved out from my parents to begin my university studies in Stockholm, during the first years I lived as students most do; I brought food every day to school and generally took it very easy with my money since the available funds were very limited.
During the last year in school I started to make some money from some of my hobbies and I started to allow myself ...
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Comments
The lovely colours of the autumn is starting to find its way to the photos published on flashpacker.org. Stockholm, Sandhamn and Paris have all gotten their fair attention. Speaking of Paris, I recently visited the culinary capital of the world to find out what to exptect from its blooming bistronomies, my results can be found in A Weekend to Discover Bistronomy in Paris.
I recently ...
