STOCKHOLM TRAVEL BLOGGER DIARY: A BEGINNERS GUIDE

Firstly let me apologise for the lack of images! My memory card corrupted and left me with NOTHING – thank god I’d downloaded my outfit pictures already, but the rest of my Stockholm trip including shots of the most amazing hotel we stayed in are lost in the digital heavens. Sorry guys! I’ll be more careful on my next trip I promise.

Yet again I set off on a new adventure. My New Years resolution for 2017 was the travel the world more and to go to a new destination every other month. So far I’m happy to say I’m on track. From my family holiday to Tenerife seeing the New Year in,  (Tenerife Hotel Review, Sprint Bitacora) to surprising my friend with a weekend break to one of my fave city destinations; Amsterdam (Blogger's Travel Guide To Amsterdam) to my first official holiday with the boyf in Stockholm, I’m on track so far to see more of the world this year and I couldn’t be happier.

Back in February when we were deciding on a destination, I knew I wanted to check out more of the Northern countries since my Copenhagen trip back in October (Copenhagen Travel Blogger Diary). I’m such a city kind of traveller, don’t get me wrong I’m in need of a few chilled days by the pool before the end of Summer, but I honestly love visiting new cities, being the city gal I am myself.

Reading popular vlogs and blogs from the like Ropes of Holland and Shot From The Street, I carefully researched everything there was to know and where to go, so with all that knowledge I thought I’d jot it all down incase you guys were ever heading there yourself.

Top tips for travelling to Stockholm

My first point which I never read on any form of website or blog – DON’T JUST TAKE CASH! By 2020 Stockholm wants to be the first cashless country so in many restaurants and shops they’ll only take card. Now nobody told us this so as I do for any trip, I exchanged all our money before we got there meaning we had so much spare cash by the end of the trip we just went shopping and blew it. Most independent bars, restaurants and attractions such as the Fotograsfiska (photography museum) won’t, but if you go to chains like Gnarly Burger and Jurden Burgen they do – so I’d suggest taking a small amount of cash and paying the rest on your card.

Similar to Copenhagen, Sweden has its own currency, which is Krona. The exchange rate was about £10 to 111.09 Krona, but when you’re basing your decision on cost we basically just took off the last Krona 0 to convert on the spot. So if a meal was going to come to £768 Krona, we’d know it was roughly around £76.

Now in Stockholm there are two different airports which I found so confusing because if you check certain hotel websites, you’ll find Bromma is actually closer in KM than Arlanda, but what we didn’t find out until we got there was Arlanda is the main airport and has the Arlanda Express which gets you into Stockholm Central; Norrlam in like 20 minutes and there’s a train every 15 minutes. This cost about 150 Krona each, so like £15 for someone aged 25 or under.

Where To Stay In Stockholm

If you search Stockholm on a map, you’ll see it’s almost split up into different districts separated by sea. The city centre being Norrmalm which is a more built up/modern side of Stockholm bursting with shops, bars and restaurants to indulge in. Now after this you come into the Old Town of Stockholm Gamla Stan then after this Sodermalm which, is like the Northern Quarter/Shoreditch area of Stockholm. Because of this, we decided to stay in Norrmalm which, is where you’ll get off the Arlanda Express from the airport and is almost at the starting point of the locations you’ll probably visit on your trip. We decided to stay here as it felt like the right area as it was so busy and full of things to do, finding The Haymarket Hotel by Scandic on Booking.com, we spent three nights and four days in the bustling town, and I’d definitely recommend this hotel if you’re going to Stockholm.

Things To Do In Stockholm

As it’s easier to explain by district I thought I’d start with Norrmalm as this was pretty much the starting point of our trip. In this area you’ll find lots of lovely high street stores such as Weekday, Monki, Bik Bok etc not to mention a H&M which is pretty much on every shopping street you will find! Home to Norrmalm is also Grandpa, a standalone boutique I was recommend to visit by quite a few different people. Whilst we were there, the square outside the Stockholm Concert Hall also became a market full of cute little buys and the prettiest of flowers, then on the Sunday the market was more of a car boot/flea market with like brick-a-brack. This is where our hotel was situated which was an ideal location, when you had your breakfast you overlooked the square. Here you’ll also find a cinema; Filmstaden Sergel and an indoor market place Hotorsgallen. Unfortunately we saved Hotorsgallen until our final day, to then find out it was closed so do make sure to check the opening times if you’re heading here yourself.

North of Norrmalm is Torsagatan, where you’ll also find an Acne Archive store. Yes that’s right. A discounted Acne store which houses last season’s items at discounted prices. This obviously was massively on my hit list, so we headed north one afternoon, much to my disappointment that there wasn’t actually anything I particularly fancied splurging on but it’s definitely worth the trip just in case.

Next up is Gamla Stan which, is the old town of Stockholm. Known as one of the largest best-preserved medieval city centres in Europe, you honestly feel like you’ve stepped back in time. Here you’ll find the Royal Palace, Nobel Museum and Stockholm Cathedral. There’s also known to be a restaurant Den Gyldene Freden which has been around since 1722 and holds a world record for this.

Walking through Gamla Stan you’ll come to a bridge, which brings you in to the Sodermalm district. We firstly came here to see the Fotografiska Photo Museum which is really easy to find. You basically just follow the sea front around until you come to the museum, passing a McDonald’s on the way which was ideal as it was BOILING and those Iced Lemonades were calling our names. One thing I will suggest is checking out which exhibitions are on to see if it’s worth you going, I did wish there would have been something on with a little more of a fashion photography focused, but I can’t have everything can I!

Now the rest of Sodermalm was full of quirky bars and restaurants and reminded me of Copenhagen. This area definitely had more traditional Swedish vibes as oppose to Norrmalm which was quite ‘inner city’ if you know what I mean. Here we dined at Urban Deli Nytorget, which was incredible. Marcel opted for the steak whilst I went for the Blackened Salmon – dreamy of course.

All in all I loved Stockholm, I even loved it a little more than Copenhagen if I’m completely honest. Both are breath-taking cities, but if you only could make it to one Scandi city in your lifetime, I would suggest Stockholm. I just felt like there was plenty more to do out here. 

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