Stockholm Tourist Attractions

Stockholm Arlanda Airport is situated some 40 km outside of Stockholm city. The airport is Sweden’s largest and busiest airport, recording more than 25 million passengers last year.

Within the airport compound at Stockholm Arlanda Airport there are free bus transfers to hotels, car hire companies’ offices and the long-term parking areas. For travel outside the airport there are high-speed and long-distance trains, buses, coaches, taxis and car rental companies Avis, Budget, Europcar, Hertz and Sixt to take visitors to Stockholm city center and onward destinations within Sweden.

Stockholm Tourist Attractions

Sweden’s capital city is not just the seat of the Swedish government, it is also the largest urban area with the largest number of citizens. Here the Swedish monarch resides and the official residence at the Royal Stockholm Palace is one of many Stockholm tourist attractions, together with the private royal residence at Drottingholm Palace outside of Stockholm city center.

Heritage Sites

The Gamla Stan or old town has many fine examples of baroque architecture. Many of the buildings were constructed between 1697 and 1760, just like the Royal Stockholm Palace. The city itself was founded around 1250 and is actually located on 14 different islands at the southern coast of Sweden at the mouth of Lake Mälaren, where the lake meets the Baltic Sea.

Cited among the UNESCO World Heritage Sites are both Drottingholm Palace and Skogskyrkogården (known as the Woodland Cemetery), making them two of Stockholm’s most visited tourist attractions. It is well worth hiring a car to drive to the Enskededalen district south of central Stockholm to see this wonderful, romantic 20th century cemetery with its pine trees, Holy Cross and Resurrection Chapels.

Art and Culture

Other Stockholm tourist attractions are the 100 or so museums and art galleries, where millions of people come to look at the paintings and fine art collections every year . The Museum of Modern Art houses paintings by Picasso and Salvador Dali, while the National Museum can boast pictures by Rembrandt, Antoine Watteau and Carl Larsson. Here visitors will find Sweden’s largest collection of art – some 16,000 paintings and 30,000 artefacts are housed at the National Museum.

The Royal Swedish Opera and Royal Swedish Theatre are two of Europe’s most renown places of culture, the former having been founded in 1773. On Stockholm’s 14 islands visitors will find many parks and on the island of Djurgården the main Stockholm tourist attraction for families is the amusement park Gröna Lund. Offering over 30 attractions like rides, restaurants, cafes and music events, Gröna Lund attracts thousands of Swedish and international tourists every year.

Beyond the City Limits

Hiring a car for longer visits to Scandinavia is a good idea, since there’s so much to see within the country side and Sweden has many excellent camping grounds and log cabins for holiday rentals along its rivers and lakes. Nature enthusiasts, hikers, anglers, mountain bikers and climbers will certainly find something to thrill them: from the pine forests, rivers and lakes in Sweden to the national parks across the border in Norway. Stockholm is a gateway into the North: ferry services connect Stockholm with Helsinki and Turku in Finland and Tallinn in Estonia. There are also services to Riga in Latvia and to Saint Petersburg in Russia.

Stockholm by Bike

If you don’t like to negotiate Swedish traffic by car or public transport, why not hire one of the city bikes provided by Stockholm City Bikes? Various retailers throughout Stockholm sell rental bike cards and card owners are allowed to use the rental bikes within the city area and then return them to any of the official stands dotted around the city. There are season cards for longer stays in Stockholm and 3-day cards for short city breaks. It is possible to rent the bike for 3 hours at a time, leaving plenty of opportunity to cycle to Stockholm’s tourist attractions.

Taking the bike leaves you free to enjoy the bars and nightclubs the city has to offer without having to worry about the odd glass of local brew you might try or where you’ve parked your rental car.

Stockholm by Boat

The best views of Stockholm’s historic skyline is from the water and there are several cruises visiting the medieval parts of the city: Gamla Stan and Riddarholmen, the City Hall and the many museums of Djurgården are just some of Stockholm tourist attractions on these tours.

Stockholm for Kids

If you are travelling with your family, there are many child-friendly places in Stockholm for all the family to enjoy. At Lill-Skansen Zoo there are small animals like bunnies for petting and big animals like bears for admiring from a safe distance. At Aquaria young and old visitors can stroll through a rain forest or come nose-to-nose with a shark and at the Butterfly House in Haga Park young visitors can learn all about the exotic, often huge butterflies flitting in and out of the tropical plants providing the background.

At Junibacken families will find a storybook museum for younger children, bringing many of Astrid Lindgren’s stories to life. Kids can take a ride on Pipi Longstocking’s horse or meet Emil and Karlson, two much loved Swedish storybook characters from one of the greatest children’s writers in literature.

Stockholm tourist attractions are manifold and the city is perfect for a short city break to get a feel for Sweden and Scandinavian hospitality. For more information please visit the official tourism site at https://www.visitstockholm.com/