Best time to visit
Sweden can be visited year-round. In summer you'll experience the midnight sun, and in winter the northern lights.
Sweden round trips: Stockholm, Northern lights and Kiruna
Sweden experience: Lapland, midsummer and fika
Sweden smells of cinnamon and pine resin. In summer, the sun barely sets for weeks on end, the light turns golden and the lakes mirror the sky until midnight. At midsummer, everyone dances around the maypole with flower crowns in their hair, then jumps straight into the lake. In between, there's fika – coffee and a cinnamon bun, twice a day, the whole country takes a break. In winter, darkness falls early, but the northern lights sweep across the sky and snow muffles every sound. Stockholm floats across fourteen islands, beyond which the archipelago begins, followed by red timber cottages and endless forest. Sweden is a country that transforms itself completely with every season.
Tips and info for your Sweden trip
Currency
Sweden's currency is the Swedish krona (SEK). Payment is generally made by debit or credit card.
Flight time
A direct flight from the UK takes around 2 to 4 hours, depending on your destination.
Language
Swedish is the official language, but almost all Swedes speak fluent English. Sami is recognised as a minority language in Lapland.
What are the must-sees in Sweden?
Sweden is full of highlights, but these must-sees belong on your bucket list.
Stockholm: Gamla Stan, Vasa and Djurgården
Stockholm floats across fourteen islands, connected by bridges and ferries with water at every turn. Gamla Stan sits at its heart: medieval alleyways, ochre-coloured facades and the narrowest street just 90 centimetres wide. On Djurgården stands the Vasa – a warship that sank on its maiden voyage in 1628 after travelling just 1,300 metres and was raised from the seabed 333 years later. Today the wreck fills the entire Vasa Museum. On the other side of the water lies Södermalm: vintage shops, bars, cinnamon buns with coffee and the best rooftop views in the city. Beyond the city, the archipelago stretches out – thousands of islands, some inhabited, many not, all reachable by ferry.
Southern Sweden: From Gothenburg to Gotland
Gothenburg tastes of the sea. Fresh prawns sit on ice at the Feskekôrka market and fishing boats bob in the harbour outside. From here, the coast winds through Skåne – yellow rapeseed fields, white chalk cliffs and the sea alongside. At Kåseberga, you stand on a clifftop above the Baltic: 59 stones form the shape of a ship, 67 metres long and aligned towards the sunset at the summer solstice for the past 1,400 years – Ales Stenar. The wind never stops here. Malmö turns up the pace – the Turning Torso spirals above the skyline and the Øresund Bridge puts Copenhagen just twenty minutes away. Off the coast lies Gotland and Visby: a medieval city wall and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Swedish Lapland: Northern lights and the Ice Hotel
In Kiruna, the sun doesn't rise for weeks at a time in winter. Instead, green and violet light sweeps across the entire sky – northern lights that shift, fade and flare up again. In Abisko, where a unique microclimate keeps the clouds at bay, the views are at their clearest. Nearby stands the Icehotel in Jukkasjärvi: rooms, beds and a bar – everything here is made of ice at minus five degrees. Every spring it melts, and every winter ice artists redesign it from scratch. Outside: reindeer, dog sledding and silence. In summer, everything reverses – the midnight sun bathes Lapland in a continuous golden light and the Kungsleden long-distance trail stretches 440 kilometres through Sarek National Park.
Pure nature: Between forests and 100,000 lakes
A summer trip to Sweden is above all one thing: nature. More than half the country is blanketed in forest, with 100,000 lakes scattered throughout – perfect for fishing or canoeing. A canoe trip along the Klarälven takes you through Värmland for days at a time, with nothing but the sound of your paddle in the water. In Sarek there are no marked paths, no huts and no roads – instead you trek through glaciers and mountains that have barely changed since the last ice age. At the Treehotel in Harads, you sleep above the forest floor and the Mirrorcube disappears among the pine trees – glamping, Swedish style. In Sweden, nature isn't a backdrop; it's the reason you came.
