In November 2022, we took a 12 day Scandinavian vacation, first arriving for 3 nights/2 days in Copenhagen, Denmark, then flying up to spend 3 nights in Oslo, Norway, flying down to spend 2 nights in Stockholm, Sweden, and then taking the train to end back in Copenhagen for 2 nights (to end up with a total of 4 days in Copenhagen). Here is our 2 nights in Stockholm itinerary, as part of our 12 day Scandinavian vacation itinerary!
Day 0: Arrival in Stockholm
Travel to Stockholm
We took a mid-day flight from Oslo to Stockholm after spending 3 nights in Oslo, Norway. It was a pretty quick flight and went very smoothly.
As we descended into Stockholm, we got some more snowy landscape views among the clouds and fog.
We landed in Stockholm and took the local train from the airport to the city center.
It was getting dim as we arrived into Stockholm central station, and then had a short 7 minute walk over to our hotel, the Hotel At Six, in the Norrmalm area, just north of the famous Gamla Stan/Old Town of Stockholm.
The Hotel At Six is in a cute trendy square, which was all lit up, with tree-reindeer too, for Christmas-time!
We walked across the square, checked in, and headed up to our room.
We had a lovely view of the lit up square!
Dinner in Gamla Stan (Old Town) – The Hairy Pig
For dinner, we decided to walk into Gamla Stan, which is Stockholm’s Old Town and original medieval city center, dating back to the 13th century.
We strategically chose our hotel to be close enough of a walk to the Stockholm central station and also a close walk to Gamla Stan, which was just across a small island containing the Riksdagshuset Parliament House.
Apologies for the upcoming series of terribly blurry nighttime photos! We were busy walking thorough crowds and my phone was just not good enough to take walking nighttime photos!
The narrow streets of Gamla Stan were all lit up with Christmas lights, making the area feel extra magical!
I was really intrigued by how many tiny alleyways were in Gamla Stan! It’s definitely a cool feature of this medieval city!
Our dinner destination was a pub called The Hairy Pig. We would have gone in for a drink just for the name alone, but the reviews for food were stellar, and they had Swedish meatballs which I was craving!
I got a delicious locally brewed Dark Winter Lager once we sat down at a table. We were lucky to get a table, if we hadn’t gotten there as early as we did (right before 6pm) I don’t think we would have been able to sit without a reservation. Others were turned away shortly after!
The pub was super cozy, and I was so happy to be there to relax and eat!
It definitely had a London pub vibe but with sort of a wild/folksy vibe. Spot the hairy pig on the wall with the football scarf!
It hadn’t gotten crowded yet, but would be soon, including a couple with a noisy toddler (yay…)
We started out with some delicious croquettes which had a small dollop of sour cream and a lingonberry on top of each one.
For our meals, James got a wild boar sausage with mashed potatoes, and I got the Swedish meatballs I was craving! They were made with “wild meat”, which I assumed was probably at least wild boar and maybe reindeer meat, and topped with the most delicious gravy! The mashed potatoes were also amazing, and I loved pairing it all with a side of lingonberries and pickled cucumbers for some freshness.
This was definitely my favorite meal in Sweden, and maybe one of my favorites on our whole trip to Scandinavia! It was so much food but we ate every bite!
Drinks in Gamla Stan – The Bishop’s Arms
After dinner, since it was so early in the evening when we finished, we decided to take a walk over to another pub called The Bishop’s Arms for some after-dinner drinks.
This was definitely a London pub vibe, with a huge beer list!
It was super crowded but we found an open table and James went up to grab beers.
Later on, it cleared out and I was able to get some better photos of the pub aesthetics.
I can’t remember what beer(s) I had but they were all delicious! I tried to stay local to Sweden or at least Scandinavia, but they had beers from all over, mostly Europe.
After our first round or 2, James got peckish and decided to order a side of pommes frites (aka French fries). I didn’t think I could eat another bite but the fries were a nice salty side to the beers and came with a yummy aioli, so I couldn’t say no.
After our nightcap it was time to walk back to the hotel and get some sleep before our first full day in Stockholm! Walking through Gamla Stan at night was adorable, even if there was a TGI Friday’s and some other touristy stuff in the area.
Since it was less crowded, I was able to stop and get some better photos of some of the neat features of Gamla Stan, like this tunnel.
When you walk from Gamla Stan towards Norrmalm, you will pass through, literally, the Riksdagshuset Parliament House!
The water was looking a bit rough through this section, but was a cool effect next to the lovely Christmas lights along the waterfront.
Stockholm is really pretty at night!
We got into the Norrmalm neighborhood which is a lot more modern than Gamla Stan but still had a magical Christmas-y vibe to it this time of year. I loved these lion barriers they had on the edge of one of the pedestrian-only streets I believe called Drottninggatan.
Cocktails at Hotel At Six
After arriving at the hotel, we thought we’d tie another one on at the hotel’s cocktail bar since it was so adorable and we had some AMEX food/beverage credit to use!
The bar was pretty crowded but the staff helped us find a table in the very back corner.
I can’t remember what I ordered but I think it was a gin cocktail. Whatever it was, it was delicious, and they gave us some yummy assorted spicy/sweet nuts on the side. This was a nice way to end our first of 2 nights in Stockholm!
Day 1: Explore Stockholm
On our first full day of our 2 nights in Stockholm itinerary, we wanted to go back in to Gamla Stan to explore more of the sights, check out the Christmas Market (Stortorgets Julmarknad), and then end up at one of the local museums for the afternoon.
Explore Gamla Stan
There are 2 bridges you can take to get to Gamla Stan, and this morning we took the one that gave a nice view of the Försvarsutskottet Sveriges riksdag, or the Department of Public Safety, which is part of the Parliament grounds (Riksdagshuset).
In the distance, you can see the tower of the Riddarholmen Church (Riddarholmskyrkan) poking through the buildings.
On the edge of Gamla Stan, we found this adorable cafe to go and have breakfast before we started our day of exploring.
This was the Café Schweizer and was highly rated on Google maps. I loved the outside decor and all of the fresh oranges gave a really nice scent!
The cafe had many small tables with chairs that had blankets made of sheep skin/fur, which was a cozy touch. We ordered at the counter and then found ourselves a table.
They were also heavily into the Christmas aesthetic which made it even more cozy. The walls also had a lot of writing on them which was kind of neat.
I really wanted a Swedish cinnamon roll but they didn’t have any left. I got a fruit filled pastry with whipped cream and it was delightful! I also got a cappuccino. James got his cold milk (“like a child”) and some sort of chocolate pastry.
I had my DSLR camera with me so I could take some more “artsy” photos of Gamla Stan. It was a bit dim so it was a bit tough to get the lighting right, but I liked how moody the pictures made it feel, especially down the tight alleways.
This was one of the main streets in Gamla Stan, with more of the touristy shops.
There were so many dark alleyways spurring off of the main street!
We passed by a Pirate themed restaurant that was advertising a Pirate festival, which we unfortunately had missed by a day.
As we made our way toward the center of Gamla Stan where the Christmas market was located, we passed by where Stockholm’s narrowest street was on the map, so I routed us over there to check it out.
The photos above and below were of Stockholm’s narrowest street (Mårten Trotzigs gränd). There were several groups of people walking through, seeming to be doing the same sightseeing activity as we were.
There were a lot of stairs up so we just went halfway to take some photos and then turned back around. It was really tight and was definitely a squeeze to fit 2 people side by side.
Heading back out to a larger street was a lot more freeing after the narrowest street in Stockholm!
I really loved the aesthetic of Gamla Stan, and I felt like I could walk around all day and just take photos!
I loved the tunnels during the daytime, providing a cool contrast between light and dark.
Stockholm this time of year, during the Christmas season, is just lovely!
There were a lot of cute little cafes I would have loved to sit at and watch the world go by.
Stockholm Christmas Market (Stortorgets Julmarknad)
We finally made it over to the Stortorget square where the Stortorgets Julmarknad (Christmas Market) was being held.
Not only was this square beautiful on its own, but it was so magical with all of the lights and the big Christmas tree in the middle.
There were a bunch of stalls in a circle or 2 around the square, so we wandered around to see what they had to sell.
This was definitely the background of our Christmas card this year (with us in the photo as a selfie)
It was quite crowded and tough to walk around, but we managed to take a few laps to make sure we saw everything.
I loved the buildings surrounding the Stortorget square, each one felt like it had a different personality.
There was a neat fountain in the center, the Historischer Brunnen.
I didn’t know at the time, but apparently this building in the photo above is the Nobel Prize Museum. I would have loved to check that out!
We shopped around for a bit and bought some gifts for some family members, and then decided to do some more exploring.
We went down some more narrow streets to head over to The Royal Palace (Kungliga slottet).
The Royal Palace (Kungliga slottet)
When we arrived at The Royal Palace, we were just in time for the changing of the guards ceremony. It was funny that we caught this because we also saw the changing of the guards ceremony during our 4 nights in Copenhagen at The Amalienborg Palace!
This ceremony had a very long trumpet call, and then the troops came in.
There were a lot of people standing and watching the ~25 minute ceremony. It was quite captivating! I wish I had taken more pictures of it.
Most of it though was spent waiting for the soldiers to make their walk around the palace and back to the center again. We followed the group relieved of their duties out of the palace center as we headed toward our next destination.
On the way out of the Royal Palace, we passed by the Storkyrkan, the pink church on the right, and got a view of the tower of the Saint Gertrude German Church in the background.
Stockholm Medieval Museum (Medeltidsmuseet)
It was still early in the afternoon so we decided to check out the Stockholm Medieval Museum next, which I read was free and a pretty quick tour.
The Medeltidsmuseet, Stockholm Medieval Museum, is located on the same island as the Parliament House (Riksdagshuset), just across the Riksplan park.
In order to get to the entrance of the museum, you have to take some stairs down to the bottom of the Norrbro bridge that spans the island. There are plenty of signs to guide you on your way.
The entrance to the museum is free, and it is open Tuesday-Sunday from 10-17 (10am-5pm) but closed on Mondays. We were lucky to catch it on a Sunday, and it was a bit crowded with families enjoying the exhibits.
The museum had some medieval city foundation walls preserved inside.
It was so cool to see these walls and think of how old they were!
They had an example of a medieval prison cell which was creepy, and decorated with a little mouse Nativity set for Chrismas. I’m not sure this did anything to ease the creepiness for me.
They had some reconstructed medieval buildings, showing what life would have been like back then.
There was also this cool ship bottom that had been preserved and reconstructed. All in all, it was a great museum and a nice way to keep warm for a few hours during the day.
Here is the top of the museum sticking out from the ground above it, and featuring the Solsångaren sculpture looking out toward the Strömbron bridge and the buildings beyond.
Lunch at Pickwick Restaurang & Pub
After the museum, it was mid afternoon and we were getting hungry for a late lunch/snack. We looked on the map and found a pub closeby, back across the bridge toward Norrmalm, so we headed that direction.
We went into the Pickwick Restaurang & Pub, grabbing some drinks first and sitting down at a table.
This was another cute pub that had a British vibe, but still kept that Scandinavian/modern cozy feel.
I loved the vintage lighting and the dark green color with the wood accents.
We sat in the back corner since the pub was pretty full. James went to get some drinks as I looked over the menu.
We got some beers and then a waiter came over to take our food order. We split a seafood soup and some French fries, all of which were delicious! This was a great late lunch, since we didn’t want to fill up too much before dinner but we were definitely too hungry not to eat.
After our late lunch, we went back to the hotel, which was only 2 blocks away, to relax for a bit and recharge before heading out for dinner.
Strömkajen Observational Point
When it got dark, we decided to make our way towards Gamla Stan for dinner, but first wanted to explore the boardwalk area heading toward the Strömkajen observational point.
I wanted to get some cool nighttime shots with my DLSR, and some of them came out quite nice.
Stockholm is beautiful lit up at night, especially during Christmas time (even the construction crane in the background was decorated festively!).
This was only about 5pm or so, and it was already very dark!
There was a cool ship outside of this interesting looking building. It turns out the building is the The Admiralty House (Amiralitetshuset), a historic Dutch Renaissance building that is now the Swedish Tourist Association, and the ship is part of the STF Of Chapman & Skeppsholmen Hostel, where you can actually stay on the ship!
At the end of the observation point, there was a cool statue casting a great dark shadow over the view across the water.
I loved all of the up-lighting on these buildings.
This red building was really cool too!
Kungsträdgården
Next, we noticed we were close to the Kungsträdgården which is a large park that looked like it had some Christmas stuff going on, so we went there next to check it out.
They had some beautiful lighted walkways where we posed for some pictures, hoping to get some good Christmas card options!
In the center of the park, they had this large ice skating rink underneath string lights. I would have loved to partake but again James doesn’t like ice skating and I didn’t want to go by myself.
At the end of the park, there was a restaurant that caught our eyes. It said “American Bar & Cafe” and we then saw the “Friday’s” logo…it turns out this is a TGI Fridays! We were surprised to see another one in Stockholm, so I guess they are quite popular here. It did look like the nicest TGI Fridays we’d ever seen, but we weren’t really interested in having dinner there.
This park was so pretty and Christmasy!
We took a lap around the block to check out more of the neighborhood next to the park.
We passed by the gigantic NK Stockholm department store below, which had some beautiful Christmas lights up as well.
We saw this cool red lighted sculpture, which is the centerpiece of the Sergel Fountain (Sergelfontänen).
I hadn’t gotten any pictures of the trams yet, so I got this blurry one as we passed by one on the street.
We did end up taking the tram the next day when we went a bit further out of the area.
Dinner in Gamla Stan – Zum Franziskaner
We walked back over the bridge in Gamla Stan to head to our dinner destination.
We headed down more to the tip of Gamla Stan, down some more cozy alleyways.
We ended up at Zum Franziskaner, a German restaurant and beer hall.
It was very crowded but we got a table pretty quickly. The only photos I took of the restaurant were also of ourselves, so I blocked out our faces so you can see the cute inside of the restaurant.
We sat at this booth with a pretty glass wall separating us from other booths.
We started off with some German beers, of course!
We also ordered a beef carpaccio appetizer which was topped with an egg and some type of fish roe/caviar. It was delicious!
For dinner, we split a Wiener schnitzel which was pretty good but not nearly as good as a Wiener schnitzel I had in Germany that I still dream about…
We usually don’t get dessert but we had to try this fried cheese dessert which came with candied gooseberries. It was really good, a nice savory dessert with a bit of sweetness.
On our walk back to the hotel, Gamla Stan was quite dead at this time of night, about 8pm.
It was great to be able to get photos without a ton of people in them!
If we hadn’t already had dessert, and if this place was still open, I would have wanted to get some churros at this place with the fun churro statue outside!
Gamla Stan was looking really beautiful this evening!
I got some better non-blurry non-crowded photos this evening which was great!
Normally we would have ventured to the Christmas market for one of the nights for some dinner and desserts but the Stockholm Christmas Market unfortunately closes at 6pm! We thought this was way too early, as it could have stayed open during the evening to provide some beautiful Christmas nighttime atmosphere.
Passing through the Parliament building offered some cool photos as well.
Day 2: Explore Stockholm
After our second of 2 nights in Stockholm, we still had some dining credit to use from our AMEX booking, so we ordered in some room service for breakfast! We usually don’t do this but having the credit made it an easy decision.
James ordered an omelet and I ordered a delicious eggs benedict with smoked salmon, and a capuccino. We also got some pastries on the side. This was a yummy breakfast and also very convenient to have delivered to our room to eat in bed!
Monteliusvägen/Mariaberget Observational Point
Because we spent 2 nights in Stockholm and planned accordingly, we had almost an entire full day before we had to head back to Copenhagen to round out our 4 days in Copenhagen itinerary, so we wanted to make the very best of it and fill it with activities!
First we decided to go up to the Monteliusvägen/Mariaberget Observational Point to get some views of the city from afar.
We took the tram down past Gamla Stan which took us to the Kvarteret Kattörat neighborhood across the water from the Gamla Stan island.
Crossing over the bridge on the tram, you get some great views of the city already!
It took us a while to find the entrance to where the overlooks are. There is a small park in a neighborhood with a pathway called Monteliusvägen which had an overlook of the same name on Google maps.
Google wanted to have us enter where there was a pathway through a school which was clearly closed to the public, so we went around a different way and finally got through! We caught a nice glimpse of the Münchenbryggeriet Brewery, which was supposed to have a nice beer garden, and which I had originally wanted to go to after going to the observation points, but unfortunately I found out it was closed for the season.
We walked along the pathway which was a little muddy at first (James was not happy since he was wearing leather bottomed shoes…sorry!) and then it became a wooden boardwalk. The path had a few areas to pull off and look out over the edge.
The views did not disappoint!
I got some nice zoomed in photos with my DSLR camera.
It was so cool seeing Gamla Stan from this vantage point, having walked all through there the last 2 days.
It was kind of cloudy which was giving my photos a dimmed look.
We walked a bit further down to finally get to the Mariaberget observation point which gave us a clearer view of the whole area.
We had a nice view straight ahead of the Stockholm City Hall (Stockholms stadshus).
This was looking west away from Gamla Stan.
I was able to get a great panoramic photo of the area from the Stockholm City hall, Gamla Stan, and off toward the east. Overall the walk from the tram station and the short hike up to these observational points was definitely worth it to get these great views!
There was some construction going on in the neighborhood, but it was cute, even though we had to walk up these stairs just to get to the observational point! It is a bit hilly but again, totally worth it.
Ferry to Alberget/Vasa Museum
We still had a few hours to kill before our train ride back to Copenhagen, so we decided to take the ferry over to the Vasa Museum, which is a museum about the ship Vasa that sank in the Stockholm harbor in the 1600s.
We just missed a ferry unfortunately, so we considered other options to getting over to the Vasa Museum, but the ferry was both the fastest (even waiting for the next one) and the easiest option. Also, James really wanted to ride the ferry!
I’m glad we waited (only 20 minutes or so) because the ferry ride on the water was a great way to see the city!
We left from the Slussen kajen terminal on the southeast end of Gamla Stan, and the ferry took us around the Skeppsholmen and Kastellholmen islands.
There’s that green crane again!
It was really neat to see Stockholm from the water, and get a glimpse of the unique old & new architecture.
We passed by the Gröna Lund amusement park which is on the same island as the Vasa Museum. It’s too bad they were closed for the winter, I might have wanted to go on some rides!
We pulled into the ferry port Allmänna gränd, which is at the entrance of the Gröna Lund amusement park and the ABBA Museum.
Those looked like some fun rollercoasters!
We had a short walk from the ferry station over to the Vasa Museum, passing through the area outside the amusement park.
Vasa Museum (Vasamuseet)
We got to the entrance of the Vasa Museum, which was a really interesting looking building.
It had what looked like part of the ship’s masts sticking out of the building!
As soon as you walk inside the building, you see the massive 1600s ship right there!
There were a few floors you could venture onto to see all of the parts of the ship up close. Starting out on the first floor, you can go to the ground floor or up 2 more floors.
We started walking around the first floor, and they had signs telling you what each part of the ship was and some of the history behind the ship.
They had a map showing where they eventually found the Vasa in the harbor. Apparently, the Vasa left on its maiden voyage and sank almost immediately. We saw a documentary at the museum explaining what happened: there was a design flaw where the ship was constructed incorrectly, with the gun ports being too low, and the center of gravity of the ship being too high causing the ship to become unstable in even just slight windy conditions. The ship wavered too much in the wind on its maiden voyage, causing water to get into the gun ports, and therefore she sank to the bottom. They tried to retrieve Vasa a few days later but it was too stuck in the mud. Then, 333 years later the Vasa was finally retrieved, breaking the surface in 1961 after a few years of searching and then preparing the ship for lifting. The Vasa was stored in a temporary facility for a while and then the current museum was constructed, opening to the public in 1990.
The intricate details of the ship were on close display, and I was shocked at how much detail there was in all of the carvings!
Apparently the carvings had once been painted bright colors, and it was a little hard to imagine what that might have looked like.
Fortunately they had some statue carvings that had been repainted to represent what colors they once were. The preservationists were able to figure out (by science!) what colors were formerly on the statues, which really blew my mind!
The masts were super tall, and in fact this is only the first third of the length of the masts! They had extensions that were taken off so that the building didn’t have to be 3X as tall! The extensions are actually are the masts that were mounted on the building’s roof on the outside!
It was quite amazing seeing how tall this ship was, and impressive that the building was able to be built to accommodate it!
We learned an interesting fact about this part of the ship, see below:
I thought it was funny and actually quite innovative that the toilets were “self flushing” simply because they were washed “clean” by the waves as the ship moved along! I also thought it was funny they pointed out where people hung out over the side of the ship to do their business when the main toilets were occupied!
Here’s another better view of the back of the ship with all of the intricate carvings!
There was an area in the museum that had a replica of the inside of the ship which was cool.
They also had a small model of the ship as a cutaway, showing the inside floors and what was stored inside. It was crowded in front of this model so I wasn’t able to get a photo of the back of the model.
This was another model of the outside of the ship, showing how it was probably painted as well.
We spent about 2 hours or so at the museum, and it was a great activity and we learned a lot!
Instead of taking the ferry back to Gamla Stan, we took the tram back to the hotel so we could pick up our bags before heading to the train station.
There was a tram stop just outside of the Nordiska museet, a museum featuring Swedish history and artifacts, which was only a short walk from the Vasa Museum.
This building was quite beautiful, so I took a bunch of photos as we walked by.
I wish we would have had time to explore this museum as well!
The front of the museum was looking like a castle! Definitely not a bad spot to sit and wait for the tram!
Day 3: Travel to Copenhagen
After picking up our bags at the hotel, we walked over to the Stockholm Centralstation to grab our train from Stockholm to Copenhagen.
This was a magnificent train station, especially all lit up for Christmas!
Definitely was one of the more beautiful train stations I’ve been to!
We boarded the train and luckily there was a bar cart so we got some beers shortly after we departed.
Because we were going to be on the train for several hours including dinnertime, we picked up some sandwiches on our way to the station, so we enjoyed them during the ride with our beers.
I also finally found a the famous Swedish pastry called Kanelbullar, which is a cinnamon roll with sugar on top (it looked like salt but I was glad it was not!), so I had to have one! Eating dinner (and dessert) on board was a nice way to kill time because the sun sets at 4pm and our train was leaving around 5pm, so we didn’t see much but darkness!
Final Thoughts
I really enjoyed spending 2 nights in Stockholm! Planning our arrival in the late afternoon of our first day/night, and then planning our departure in the evening the day after our second night (so the third day) gave us the chance to have almost 2 full days and a bit more to explore Stockholm! There is plenty to see and do in Stockholm, but I think we saw and did a lot with even 2 nights in Stockholm. I would maybe even have added another night so we could have another full day to go to more museums, or in the summer go to the amusement park, but 2 nights/2 days was definitely enough time to hit the highlights of Gamla Stan and the old part of Stockholm.
Also, the pub atmosphere in Stockholm was really cool, and definitely had British pub vibes that I really loved. The food was incredible, especially my Swedish meatballs dish at The Hairy Pig pub. I wish we would have had time to try more Swedish food, but I’m not sure we could have topped the meatballs anyway! The Stockholm Christmas Market was great, but I wish it would have been open into the evening so we could have had some food there as well, and take in the beauty of the Stortorget square all lit up for Christmas at night.
Overall, I really enjoyed our 2 nights in Stockholm and would love to return another time!