Sweden

Sweden is a country of space and calm. Forests and lakes cover most of it, cities are green and well run, and the culture values fika, the coffee break taken seriously, and a balance between work and time outdoors. Summers are short but glorious, with very long evenings, while winter brings candlelit windows, Lucia celebrations and Christmas markets.

Stockholm is spread across fourteen islands where Lake Mälaren meets the Baltic. The medieval lanes of Gamla Stan, the Royal Palace, the Vasa Museum with its preserved seventeenth-century warship, and the open-air museum at Skansen are the highlights. In summer, boats run out to the archipelago of thousands of islands. Gothenburg on the west coast is more relaxed, with canals, a strong food scene based on seafood and the Liseberg amusement park, which becomes a large Christmas market in winter. Uppsala, the old university city with its Viking burial mounds, is under an hour from Stockholm, and Malmö in the south is linked to Copenhagen by the Øresund Bridge. In the far north, Swedish Lapland offers dog-sledding and the northern lights in winter.

Swedish food is better than its reputation. Meatballs with lingonberries, cured gravlax, pickled herring at midsummer, cinnamon and cardamom buns, and crayfish parties in August are all part of the year. In December, the julbord Christmas buffet is a feast. Swedish design, from furniture to glassware, is worth a browse in Stockholm's Södermalm district.

We offer a Stockholm city break and Christmas market walks in Stockholm and at Liseberg in Gothenburg. Sweden also features on our Scandinavia private van tour, the Oslo, Stockholm and Copenhagen rail tour, and a self-drive itinerary through Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Travelling between Stockholm and Gothenburg by train takes around three hours, so the two cities combine well on a short trip.