Please sign in to post.

Sweden Itinerary advice

Posted by (Long Beach, CA, USA) on

We are planning our first trip to Sweden for July/August 2026. We are an active couple who enjoys a mix of some scenic nature with city life with museums, architecture, music, veg food. The plan is to use trains and local transportation rather then rent a car (we drive enough in LA). We were planning on flying into Copenhagen and heading directly to Malmo for a few nights. We'd also ike to do a day trip to the Ikea museum. After Malmo we plan to take the train to Stockholm and spend 4-5 nights, the goal is to be in Stockholm for the majority of the Gay Pride events and the parade on 8/1. After Stockholm we were considering heading to Gothenburg for a couple of nights and flying out of GOT.
Does this seem like a good itinerary for the first time visit to Sweden?
Are there other day trips from Stockholm we should consider?

Thank you for any input

Posted by
29935 posts

I think the university town of Uppsala makes a good day trip from Stockholm. Another top recommendation is for a boat trip out in the Stockholm Archipelago. I saw that area via a ferry to Helsinki, so I have no experience planning it as a separate activity, but I know there are public ferries to various islands; there may also be commercial tours using dedicated transportation.

Stockholm is a beautiful city in a beautiful setting with a good variety of museums, so I'd recommend keeping your options open, if possible. You may not want to tear yourself away from Stockholm once you get there.

Posted by
242 posts

With that amount of time, and being busy with Gay Pride, you should probably stay in the capital while you are there and not day trip. Consider eating at Hermitage in the Old Town and Hermans on Fjällgatan. Otherwise Indian restaurants are a staple for vegetarians and will have at least 10 vegetarian dishes and sometimes vegan nan bread as well, as they are cheap and can be found on almost every street corner. On Folkungagatan try Gandhi. Make sure to not miss the spectacular gelato at Snö on Odengatan, and ice-cream in the best little ice-cream shop in the world (45 flavours), as far as is known; stockholms glasshus on nearby Birkagatan.

Be aware that certain July dates Gothenburg is absolutely swarming with teenagers during the international summer cups, Gothia Cup and Partille Cup, when travelling on the tram lines can, more often than not, be a hellish experience. Hordes of over-tired teenagers, in steaming hot carriages that too often lack air conditioning, that take up every inch of available space, shouting, running around, pulling at each others clothes, falling on top of each other and innocent by-standers, creating traffic hazards, ensure that locals panic at the thought of risking their sanity inside a tram. But be sure to visit Råda Gelato near Linnégatan, and all is well again.

Malmö is wonderful. You can easily day trip to Copenhagen from there. You have chosen a good itinerary, especially the order in which to visit these cities.

Posted by
362 posts

Thank you so much for the thoughtful responses

Add Reply

Please do not reply to violations of our Community Guidelines.