Two Americans in Stockholm

Stockholm is a beautiful city. Its streets are clean and safe, and its people are very friendly. Nearly everyone speaks English and is happy to help a befuddled tourist find a place to spend their money. Don’t try to speak Swedish to a local, though, unless you’re completely fluent. They won’t understand what you’re saying. I promise. That game caused some hilarious moments among our group, as we had Swedes and Americans mixed together. When an American says a word in Swedish, the Swede WILL NOT get it. There are apparently very slight nuances in inflection and tone that, though imperceptible to the American ear, cause a Swede great confusion. Stick to English!

Being a city surrounded by water, definitely see at least part of it by boat. There is a variety of different boat options available, from ferries to tours to dinners. Pick one or two and go. You won't regret it. Take the time to hike all the way to the top of the bell tower at the old city hall too. The view is phenomenal. We even watched a wedding in the yard there. The weather reminds me of the Seattle area, which is home. It was crisp and sunny in September. We’ve also been to Stockholm in February, where it’s COLD and WINDY. If you go in the winter, be prepared to bundle up.

Don’t go to Stockholm expecting to find Swedish food, though. There are very few Swedish restaurants, and they’re hard to find. If you ask a local where to find one, they look at you as if you’re slightly daft and shrug. Swedes definitely like to eat out, but they like to eat food from other cultures, and eating establishments from every corner of the globe can be found here. Stockholm is a great place to get all sorts of great food, just not Swedish food. I’ve had better luck with that at Ikea’s café!

Stockholm is a great place to people watch as well. The urbanites there all seem to be trying to outdo each other fashion wise. It makes for some really wild outfits that have to be seen to be believed!

Quick Tips:

The hotels and tourist information shops have the usual variety of flyers and booklets to give out. To find the best spots though, I highly recommend both the Lonely Planet Stockholm City Guide and the Timeout Stockholm guide. Both provide great insight and help you find some really out-of-the-way places.

The one downside to Stockholm is that it seems like everybody smokes. Nearly every restaurant allows smoking, so as a non-smoker, it was annoying. You can often get seats near open windows and doors though, so if cigarette smoke bothers you, ask for those seats.

Best Way To Get Around:

Public transportation in Stockholm is awesome. If you're going to be there for at least a week, buy a one month transit pass. The expense is well worth it, as you can get just about anywhere via subway and/or bus. The cost with the exchange rate was about , which is far less then taking a cab much of anywhere. Stockholm is also a great place to walk, though beware of the delicious smells wafting out to the street from the numerous bakeries and cafés. You'll end up stopping, making up for any calories you might have burned off walking!

Whatever you do, do NOT rent a car. The streets are narrow and crazy, and there is no parking anywhere. If you decide to head out to the countryside, a car is a great option, but not in the city.

Getting from the airport to downtown can be accomplished via the Arlanda Express Train, cab, or bus. The train is a great option, but can be a pain if you have a lot of stuff to lug with you. We did it once, but since then, we stick with a cab to and from the airport.

As with most hotels in Europe, the prices are high and the accommodations are small. Very small. Luckily, there was room under the bed to put our empty suitcases. The very comfortable queen-sized bed (with down comforter) filled almost the entire room. There was a small desk and chair in one corner, with access to a network connection (which wasn’t needed since they offer wireless high-speed Internet in every room). A closet covered most of one wall, while the TV (a 32" plasma) faced the bed. In the closet was a space for your clothes, a safe, and a mini-fridge (with just enough room for overpriced hotel snacks).

The windows looked out over a courtyard and the back of an apartment building. The bathroom was really the highlight of this room. The marble floors were heated, meaning you never had to stick your feet on cold floors! The only really odd thing was the window in the shower, which looked over the desk. That, combined with the clear shower doors, left a direct view from the toilet to the desk if you forgot to close the blinds before having a seat (on either side!). One of our companions who was staying on a different floor of the hotel realized that his room left a direct view from the shower to the outside window, which he realized once he was in the shower. He's fairly certain there was an entertained old lady across the way!

The hotel sits directly across from a lovely park, in walking distance of a shopping district, and has it's own bar, cafe, and restaurant. It also offers an honor bar on the top floor, which is unstaffed. As the name implies, you serve yourself and report it on the honor system. It sits only about a block from the subway system, giving you quick and easy access to the entire city.

Another highlight is that after 10 nights, they reward you with a set of their awesome Egyptian cotton sheets as a gift. They use a punch card system, so if you're only there for a couple of nights at a time, you still get credit. The staff was very friendly and helpful, giving us directions and recommendations for all sorts of things. They were very attentive, as well, coming to recognize us and open the secured doors for us within a couple days of our stay.

They also have a theater on the lower level which offers movies and live comedy (in Swedish of course), and the comedy shows are often taped for broadcast. It's a fairly hip spot, so you never know whom you might see; at least that’s what the locals say. We witnessed several TV crews there and wandered through a couple of red carpet nights at the front door (it’s the only way in and out). The whole place is owned by Benny Andersson of ABBA fame, who seems to have gone out of his way to make things interesting.

This is the bar at the Rival Hotel. It is vastly overrated and expensive. It's supposed to be very trendy, but it was mostly very empty. The drinks were overpriced at about $10 each for basic ones. We hit this place on the weekend and weeknight and found the same thing– nothing. If you’re just looking for a quiet drink before you head off to bed in the hotel, it’s fine, but the honor bar upstairs is a better choice, since the view is great and you don’t have to tip. The honor bar is for guests only, though, and requires an access key. They did have a particularly good tawny port, but the waiter really had no clue as to what it was.

The food was great, but the service sucked. We stood in the lobby for nearly 15 minutes before we got the attention of a waiter and were seated. They do have a lovely Koi pond in the lobby, which kept us entertained. We were lucky enough to have a seat by the window, which was good since this was a smoking establishment. This place is not worth travelling any distance to get to, but if you're in the area and hungry, it's worth a stop.

They have truly scrumptious food and a very eclectic selection as well. From nachos to stir fry to roasted lamb, they have it all. I had really great paella (a Spanish dish of rice and mixed seafood and meats), while two of my companions had a rack of lamb. The service here, though friendly and helpful, was a little lacking. One of my companions looked balefully at his empty beer mug and said, "this would never have happened at home." They did have good beer from a variety of European locations. Most folks drink a Czech brew; as the locals say, Swedish beer is, well, not very good. We did eventually get a refills on our beers too.

We had a window seat here as well, which was a great way to people-watch. There are definitely interesting people to watch in Stockholm!

The Bar and Bistro at the Rival hotel serves several functions. In the morning, it's where they serve hotel guests their complimentary buffet breakfast. It's also open to the public for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. After hours, it's open as a bar for hotel guests only until about 1am.

It's not cheap, but the food is good and the atmosphere is really nice. During the day, you can look out over Mariatorget park, which is always brimming with people.

They have a nice breakfast buffet selection, including eggs and pancakes made to order, as well as a wide selection of breads and rolls.

Lunch and dinner have a variety of dishes, all of which sound quite good. All of the ones we tried were in fact quite good.

This is the café affiliated with the Rival Hotel. It's relatively cheap and quite yummy. It is definitely worth the stop if you're in the neighborhood. They have fresh-baked goods, great salad, and good coffee, and it is another great place to people-watch. Lunch, including a nice café latte, was less than $10.

This was an interesting evening. We started with our host trying to take us to the Gondolen for dinner, but without reservations, there's not a chance of getting in. So, after a couple of phone calls to his brother, we ended up here.

This place was new enough that it didn't even have its name on the door. I was quite irritated because they made me check my jacket at the door and charged me for it, so we sort of got off to a bad start.

The food was okay, but again overpriced for what it was. I guess you're paying for atmosphere and trendiness when what I really wanted was food-and my jacket.

This is another of those Stockholm establishments determined to be trendy. Apparently trendy is more important than service because we literally had to hunt down our waitress when we wanted anything.

It was definitely not worth the price. They had small portions (though they were yummy) and crummy service. You can do better.

Finally, good service in a restaurant in Stockholm! Our drinks were always full and our food was exactly what you would expect from Friday’s. The amusing thing is that it was just as expensive as all the upscale, trendy places we had been eating. It was a little hard to find, but well worth the hunt, just for some good ol' American food. You can't go wrong with a burger from Friday's!

We boarded the m/s Victoria for the "Shrimp and Luxury Cruise" at 7pm. It was a work event; Jon and Sarah were just aboard for the ride (and the food). Unfortunately, it was nearly dark already when we boarded or we would have had a much better view of the archipelagos. We did get a nice view of the sunset, though. It's a 3-hour cruise that docks about midway through the ride to allow the diners to dance on the pier and the crew to clean up the dinner mess and get ready for desert. There was also an entertaining cover band onboard with us who disembarked to provide music for the dance on the pier.

As for the food on the cruise, there were large bowls of cooked shrimp, complete with heads, on each table, along with nice crusty bread and some cheese. The buffet had lots of traditional Swedish foods, some of which were completely foreign to our Stockholm-based companions. They were mostly good, although some of their sauces were a bit rich for my taste. There was a very good tomato and cheese salad as well as a dish of sweet pickled cucumbers and pearl olives that I really liked. They had various kinds of cheeses, including something that resembled a ceiche. They had lox and baked salmon, as well as some meats and more salads. We tried something called snaps, which is some sort of traditional Swedish liquor that is drunk as shots. There seems to be a ritual song that accompanies it, but the folks at our table weren’t into singing. They didn’t think we would like it, but it was good. We also had large bottles of Czech beer and some wine.

It was a fun excursion, with good company and good food. Especially since someone else was paying!

This isn't really even a restaurant at all, but rather a food stand on the edge of the park. It ended up being one of the better ways I found to spend 25 crowns. I had a vegetable perogi, which was warm, filling, and quite tasty. Not bad at all for a street-side food stand. Most of the menu items looked Russian and Greek in origin. The guy in the booth looked liked he was probably either from Russia or Greece, and though we both spoke English, it wasn't the sort that either could understand very well. He figured out what I wanted though and all was well.

It was great! It was nice to see a menu that included words I understood, even if they were in Spanish. We had a couple of different appetizers: a stuffed red pepper and prawns. We both had a really yummy steak for dinner. It was thick and juicy and very flavorful, though a bit gristly. We both had a caramel espresso flan for desert. The food was really good, and the rum and cigar selection was pretty good too. By the time we were done with dinner and desert, it was pretty crowded around the bar, so we skipped cigars and more drinks here. The food and the atmosphere here were awesome and definitely worth the trip.

This is a dream store for big-busted women. They have beautiful bras from all over Europe, made to fit EVERY body. They are not cheap; however, they are well worth the price and the trek if you fall into the big-bosomed category. Located in Gamla Stan, you won't be able to get to this store without finding several other shops full of goodies you'd like to take home with you.

We started the evening by trying to go here for dinner, but without reservations, that's not happening. We ended up eating elsewhere and having drinks here afterwards.

It has a splendid view of the city. It sits at the top of an old elevator built in 1883. You can see the whole city from here. The bar was packed, the bartenders entertaining, and the drinks reasonably priced. The bar has comfy chairs and sofas too. It was definitely a great place to take a date or to meet one.

This is an entertaining little shop that I visited on a past trip to Stockholm. As one might guess from the name, it's dedicated to all things cat. Things for your cat, things with cats on them. Clothing, artwork, calendars, trinkets, etc. On my last visit, I got a Swedish calendar featuring firefighters with cats. Make that hunky firefighters with cute cats. Didn't matter that I couldn't read a word it said. :)

On this visit, I didn't find anything I wanted to buy, but I'll still visit again if I ever make it back to town.

This funky little clothing shop carries a variety of styles and sizes. From trendy vinyl pants to basic everyday wear, they've got you covered. The highlight, though, is the back room. It's full of swimwear. I happened to hit it on a half-price day (I guess there's not that much demand for swimwear in the winter in Stockholm!) and came away with a really great Fantasie suit. It is definitely worth a stop if you're looking for swimwear.

This place is right next to El Cubanito restaurant and has much the same theme, though a vastly different atmosphere. There was loud Latin American-influenced music, all of which appeared to come from the private collection of a South American-looking bartender. There were three Argentinean-looking guys in there, one of whom made a really good catch of a really drunk Swede who attempted to fall out the door, glass still in hand.

I had sangria and was happy. Jon had a cigar and tried to have a gin martini. The pseudo bartender gave him a glass of martini-brand vermouth on ice. When Jon complained, the guy got confused and had to get the real bartender. She understood what a gin martini was and all was well. This was a great place to have some drinks and do some people-watching. The drinks were reasonably priced (for Stockholm), and the bartenders were a kick.

Just west of Stockholm, this is the palace where the royal family current lives. It is designated as a World Heritage Site.

We went by boat from Stockholm to Drottningholm, which takes about 1 hour. You can also go by bus or car, but going by boat sounded more fun to us. We only had 1 hour once we got there, as that’s when the last boat headed back to the city (we could have taken the bus back, but we paid for the boat darn it!). We paid the palace tour fee and wandered through.

It was beautiful! It’s amazing that they let people just wander through their historical buildings like that. It was very old, far older then anything you see in the United States. Granted that a lot of it was blocked off, but still, it was incredible to see what wasn’t. They offer a self-guided tour of the palace and grounds, or you can accompany a tour guide for no extra charge. Tours are provided in both Swedish and English. We didn't have enough time to explore the grounds. You could easily spend half a day here just looking at things.