3-day weekend trip to Stockholm – some tips and experiences

Just came back from a 3-day weekend trip to Stockholm and honestly had a really good time there.

We landed in Arlanda and took an Uber into the city. There’s a dedicated pickup area for app taxis at the airport, and the whole thing was surprisingly easy. Cost us around €50, which was actually reasonable since we were traveling as a group. There’s also a train into the city for much less, but for 4 people Uber was just more practical.

We stayed at Hobo Hotel near Rosenbad and the location turned out to be perfect for exploring the city. Most things were reachable on foot and being close to the water made the area feel really nice and calm. Only downside was that there was a rooftop party one evening, so it got pretty loud until around midnight.

One of the first things we did was watching the changing of the guard at the Royal Palace. Definitely worth seeing once if you’ve never been to Stockholm before. We arrived around 30 minutes early and it was already getting crowded.

We also spent a lot of time just walking around Gamla Stan, which was probably my favorite part of the city overall. Very touristy obviously, but still really atmospheric, especially in the evening.

One of the highlights of the trip was the wooden boat archipelago tour. It lasted almost 2 hours and honestly felt much more relaxing and authentic than the usual quick tourist boat tours you get in most cities. The guide onboard was actually interesting and not overly scripted.

Food-wise we had some really nice experiences too. Skeppsbro Bakery had excellent cinnamon buns and surprisingly good salmon sandwiches. We also ate at Gamla Stan Hof, which was a tiny restaurant with a small local menu and a very cozy atmosphere.

On the second day we visited the Swedish Parliament. They offer free guided tours, but the groups are very small so arriving early is definitely important. I wasn’t expecting much, but it ended up being genuinely interesting and gave a good overview of Swedish politics and history.

We also did the Hop-On Hop-Off bus later that day and honestly… that was probably the most skippable thing we did. Stockholm is much nicer to experience on foot or from the water.

In the evening we joined the Ghost Walk tour in Gamla Stan. Thought it might be touristy nonsense, but it was actually entertaining. Lots of stories about executions, diseases, old legends and darker parts of Stockholm’s history.

Afterwards we went to Sjätte Tunnan, which has a medieval-style theme. Pretty fun atmosphere, although some of the food choices were very unusual. We originally wanted to try Aifur, but it was fully booked days in advance.

On the last day we visited the Vasa Museum and that place really deserves the hype. The ship is incredibly impressive in person and you can easily spend several hours there without getting bored.

One important tip: buy tickets online. The queue for buying tickets onsite was absolutely massive, while online ticket holders basically walked straight in.

We also visited Storkyrkan, the cathedral where Princess Madeleine got married. Very beautiful church, although personally I found the interior a bit overloaded decoration-wise.

A few random things I noticed during the trip:

Uber is cheap and very easy to use in Stockholm

card payment works literally everywhere

I barely saw any cash during the entire weekend

alcohol is REALLY expensive in Sweden

everybody speaks very good English

people were generally extremely friendly and helpful

Overall Stockholm felt very clean, calm and easy to explore. Definitely a city I’d visit again.