Stockholm
Sweden
Fourteen islands of pale stone and dark water, with an archipelago of thirty thousand more behind them
Photo by Jon Flobrant on Unsplash
Photos by Joel Klasén, Raphael Andres, Andriy Oliynyk and Yang Yang on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of Sweden
May to September (June and July for the light, which barely goes out)
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 72mm in Jul
Where it is
59.33°N, 18.07°E Open in Google Maps
Things to do
A week easily- Stand inside the Vasa, a warship that sank in 1628 and was raised whole
- Ride the blue line for the painted metro stations
- Take the ferry to Vaxholm or Sandhamn in the archipelago
- Walk Södermalm's cliff paths at midnight in June, when it is still light
- Do fika properly, in a café with a queue
Stockholm travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget Sweden
ExpensiveSweden is close to cashless and many cafés, museums and buses refuse notes outright. A card is not a convenience here, it is the only method. There is nothing to change.
ATMs & cards
Bankomat machines exist and you will probably not use one. Swish, the local phone-to-phone system, is what Swedes use and needs a Swedish bank account, so a card is your version of it.
Avoid these
- carrying cash at all, which several places will refuse
Use these instead
- Bankomat
Sweden is closer to cashless than anywhere in Europe. Museums, buses and many cafés do not accept notes, and a card is the method rather than the convenience.
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of Sweden
Very safeVery safe, and comfortable to walk alone at night in the central districts. Pickpocketing happens in Gamla Stan and on the T-bana in summer. In winter the ice underfoot and the four-o'clock darkness are what actually catch visitors out.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (8 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
Worth more attention
- Gamla Stan — and the T-bana in summer, for pickpockets working the crowd
- Stockholm Central Station — and Sergels torg late at night
- Ice underfoot from December to March, and four o’clock darkness, which is what actually catches visitors out
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa Sweden visa rules
No visa needed
Freedom of movement — no time limit, and no visa. Bring a passport or national ID card.
Other passports
No visa neededup to 90 days
90 days within any 180-day period, counted across the whole Schengen area, not per country. ETIAS, a paid online authorisation, is being introduced for these passports — check the official link for whether it applies to your travel dates.
Visa required in advance€90 (Schengen short-stay visa)
A Schengen short-stay visa is applied for before travel, at the consulate of your main destination.
How to get it: Apply at the consulate or visa centre of the country you will spend most time in, typically 15 working days ahead and no more than six months before travel.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Health & emergencies all of Sweden
Excellent and cheapRequired to enter
No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Tetanus up to date
- Tick-borne encephalitis for a summer in forest or archipelago
Getting treated
Excellent and universal. The EHIC and GHIC are accepted; visitors pay a small patient fee like residents do. In Lapland the nearest hospital is Kiruna, and remote areas rely on helicopter evacuation.
Ticks in the summer, which carry TBE and Lyme in the south and along the coast. In the far north the cold is the whole health question: at -30°C the operators lend the suits for a reason. Mosquitoes in July in Lapland are extraordinary and not a joke.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
Very goodTake the lunch deal — dagens lunch, a main, salad, bread and coffee for a third of the evening price, served everywhere between eleven and two. And go to a proper fika: coffee and a cardamom bun, twice a day, is a national institution rather than a snack.
Nightlife
Cocktail bars, a strong club scene for its size, and a summer when the whole city drinks outdoors until it gets dark, which in June is not at all.
- Södermalm — the bars, and the best of the city
- Stureplan — the expensive clubs, and their door policies
- Kungsholmen — the quieter neighbourhood version
- Djurgården — the summer outdoor venues, including Gröna Lund
Closing: 01:00 for most bars, 03:00 or 05:00 for clubs.
A beer in a bar: SEK 75–110
Systembolaget, the state shop, is the only place to buy anything over 3.5% and it shuts at 15:00 on Saturday and all day Sunday.
Getting around
Easy and cheap- UberWorks here
- BoltWorks here
- Taxi StockholmWorks here
- From the airport
- Arlanda to central Stockholm is a fixed 600–700 kr by taxi, 340 kr on the Arlanda Express
- Against a taxi
- Under the meter. Swedish taxis set their own tariffs, so an unbooked one at a rank can be startling.
Always check the yellow price comparison sticker in the window of a street taxi — that is what it is for.
Time zone and your working day
Europe/Stockholm — 6 hours ahead of you
2 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — 09:00–11:00 your time, 15:00–17:00 theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 03:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 03:00–11:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
Internet speedall of Sweden
What these numbers mean
Home broadband — Fast. Several people on calls at once, large uploads, 4K. Broadband here runs at 1.8× the global median of 130 Mbps.
Mobile data — Fast. Enough to work from a cafe or a beach on a hotspot all day. Mobile runs at 3.8× the global median of 109 Mbps.
A median is the middle of every connection tested there, old copper and new fibre together — so in a country part-way through laying fibre it sits well below what a fibre line actually delivers, and a rental on one can run several times this number. Half of the connections are slower; a fibre flat is rarely one of them. It says what a place can do, not what your rental does, so every listing on Holistay carries its own measured speed and the date it was tested.
Getting online: Airalo or Holafly — a data eSIM for Sweden, installed before you fly and working the moment you land.
Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured June 2026
Must-see
Nearby day trips
Say a few words
Swedish
- HelloHejhey
- PleaseTacktahk
- Thank youTack så myckettahk saw MEE-ket
- Yes / NoJa / Nejyah / nay
5 more phrases
- Excuse meUrsäktaoor-SHEK-ta
- How much is it?Vad kostar det?vahd KOS-tar deh
- Coffee and a bunFikaFEE-ka
- CheersSkålskawl
- GoodbyeHej dåhey daw
English is near-universal and excellent. The one word worth knowing is fika, which has no translation and is an institution rather than a coffee.
Religion
Lutheran by heritage, and one of the most secular societies on earth
Church membership is a cultural formality for most and attendance is very low. What is observed instead is the calendar — Midsummer, Lucia and Christmas Eve are kept seriously by people who never go to a church.
Do's and don'ts
Do
- Take your shoes off in a home, always
- Take fika seriously — a coffee and something sweet with somebody is a social obligation, not a break
- Split the bill exactly, which is normal and expected
- Queue by taking a number, which is how almost every counter in Sweden works
Don't
- Do not boast, and do not single yourself out — lagom, "just enough", runs deeper than it sounds
- Do not sit next to a stranger on a bus if another seat is free
- Do not turn up late; fifteen minutes early is on time
- Do not skip the shoe rule, even at a party
Where to stay in Stockholm
No Holistay rentals in Stockholm yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Stockholm on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Arlanda ARN
20 minfrom the airport· 36 km as the crow flies
20 min on the Arlanda Express.
Also worth pricing: Bromma BMA — ten minutes from the centre, domestic and short-haul only.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
