One day in July we decided to go on another short trip. As our destination we picked Stockholm – the capital city of Sweden. As it turns out, it has been the shortest journey, which we made so far. Maybe you won’t believe us but we spent there only a little more than 12 hours! And it was really worth it. Read which Stockholm attractions we saw there and how we managed to visit such an expensive city on a budget.
Stockholm Attractions
FIRST STEPS AND THE CITY HALL
At 7.20 am we landed at Stockholm Skavsta airport and got to the city by the Flygbussarna coach. After a long ride we finally arrived at Stockholm Central Station (Stockholm Cityterminalen) and took direction to the symbol of this city – Stockholm City Hall (Stadshuset). It’s not far from the station so we could have a walk. By the way, we didn’t use public transport in the city during the whole trip as our route included spots only in the city center. On our way to the City Hall we passed the bridge, which is a good place to take photos of the City Hall and look up to the specific construction of the Waterfront Congress Centre. Maybe it’s not a touristic attraction itself, as it’s a building for hotels, offices and conferences. But still it’s worth to make a short stop by this point and take some pictures, especially when someone is into architecture :)
Then we decided to go on the top (without elevator) of the City Hall Tower, which is 106 meters above the ground. Tower tour is opened from May to September, so it was a perfect time for us. After breaking through 365 steps, we finally saw the wonderful panorama of Stockholm. It was the most unforgettable part of our trip. Unfortunately, the time when we were allowed to stay on the top was limited – maybe to something about 20 minutes. And it’s a pity because the picturesque view of the Stockholm was worth more time for sure.
OLD TOWN
Next we had a walk to the Old Town (Gamla stan). With it’s narrow cobbled streets, cosy cafes and touristic shops, it’s definitely a must see in Stockholm. It’s really enjoyable to have a walk there – we admired the beautful, colorful buildings and had some quality time together. We chose this destination because we wanted to make one of our weekends more diverse and we can admit it absolutely was a good choice. There is also a Nobel Museum in the area, but we didn’t manage to go there. Maybe next time we will visit it as we would love to come to Stockholm again.
PARLIAMENT HOUSE
On our route we passed Parliament House (Riksdagshuset) with its fabulous garden. We don’t have any idea how it looks in winter, but in sommer it’s faboulous. It’s possible to go inside, but as you can see on the pictures, it’s also impressive from the outside and it’s actually another place in Stockholm that deserves appreciating its architecture. It is placed very close to the center of the city and right next to the Royal Palace, which was our next stop.
We can say that the majority of tourist traffic in the old part of Stockholm concentrate on the The Royal Palace (Kungliga slotted), which is just next to the parliament. We took some photos, walked round it and looked around the courtyard. Then we chose visiting it inside and the tickets included visiting 3 parts of the palace: Royal Apartments, the Treasury and the Tre Kronor Museum (during peak season also Gustav III’s Museum of Antiquities). The whole palace was interesting and worth spending a few hours but big crowds, caused by many tour groups, definitely made our visiting longer (but it can only be a prove that it’s one of the Stockholm attractions that’s worth-visiting).
Then it was time to finish our trip and go back to the bus station. On our way back we bought some snacks and drinks in a nearby store, which was a real rip-off. We don’t remember exact prices, but it’s not a good idea to buy anything in the center of Stockholm.
After that we got on the bus and slept the whole ride to Skavsta airport. At the airport we realized that our flight to Gdansk was delayed by an hour. Fortunately, the pilot probably tried to make up the lost time and we landed in Poland in less than an hour.
Final Thoughts
To sum up, a trip to Stockholm was a great idea. We visited a few great and major monuments of the city, saw the Stockholm from above and got to know a little bit about the Swedish history. So, as you can see, we managed to sightsee many Stockholm attractions in a very short time. And the important thing is that we didn’t have to hurry at all. We were calmly circumambulating the city and took our time. Of course, it’s important that we did it in only one full day and spent not much money. So if you don’t have much money or time, you should know that it’s a perfect option to visit Stockholm even for one day and have fantastic memories for a long time.
That’s all of the Stockholm attractions we saw. It really is a perfect weekend to go to some other country and see places, we’ve never been to before. Please write us in a comment below, if you feel encouraged to visit this beautful city or what are your feelings on it, if you’ve already been there :)